Basho and His Interpreters: Selected Hokku with Commentary ebook

by Bashō Matsuo,Makoto Ueda

Bashō Matsuo Makoto Ueda History and Criticism English

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Basho and His Interpreters book. This book has a dual purpose .

This book has a dual purpose

A must for anyone interested in Basho. com User, February 4, 2007.

Matsuo Basho(1644-1694) made about 1000 haiku poems in his lifetime. Among them, I would like to introduce the famous examples of his works. Matsuo Basho's famous haiku poems. The Narrow Road to Deep North. Other Basho’s famous haiku poems. You might be interested in this too. Portrait of Matsuo Basho from Hokusai Manga, by Katsushika Hokusai. Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) made about 1000 haiku poems through the lifetime, traveling around Japan. His writing The Narrow Road to the Deep North is the most famous haiku collection in Japan.

This book has a dual purpose.

Makoto Ueda (上田真, Ueda Makoto, born 1931) is a professor emeritus of. .Modern Japanese Tanka (1996)

Makoto Ueda (上田真, Ueda Makoto, born 1931) is a professor emeritus of Japanese literature at Stanford University. Education and career. in comparative literature in 1961 The Old Pine Tree (1962). Literary and Art Theories in Japan (1967). Matsuo Bashō: The Master Haiku Poet (1970). Modern Japanese Haiku, an Anthology (1976). Modern Japanese Tanka (1996). Modern Japanese Writers and the Nature of Literature (1996).

The first is to present in a new English translation 255 representative hokku (or haiku) poems of Matsuo Basho (1644-94), the Japanese poet who is generally considered the most influential figure in the history of the genre.

New York: Twayne, 1970. Reprinted Tokyo: Kodansha International

University Press, 1991. New York: Twayne, 1970. Reprinted Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1982. Literary and Art Theories in Japan. Cleveland, Press of Western Reserve University

This book has a dual purpose. The first is to present in a new English translation 255 representative hokku (or haiku) poems of Matsuo Basho (1644-94), the Japanese poet who is generally considered the most influential figure in the history of the genre. The second is to make available in English a wide spectrum of Japanese critical commentary on the poems over the last three hundred years.

Dynen

This book has a certain magic. Each poem is focused on with multiple commentaries as well as two translations, one literary, one literal word by word. Also the Japanese words are provided. The result is haiku "haikued", as the initial focus of the haiku is multiplied by several layers of perspective. You can go deep with this book

The period commentaries are refreshingly not postmodern! They breathe the sensibilities of another era.

Jediathain

Not sure why I have to describe the "plot" of a nonfiction collection of haiku in translation in order to write a review, so that's a bit silly.

In any case, this is a fantastic collection of Basho translations and the commentary helps a lot if you're looking to understand the seemingly simple form of haiku, which is far more complex than the crappy 5-7-5 garbage we were all taught in elementary and high school. If you want to be a serious student of haiku, this is the book you need.

Boraston

The haiku in this collection are absolutely beautiful, and the best I have ever read.
Printed next to each haiku, are the literal translations of each word. These literal translations are fascinating and provide insight into both the poet and the translator for the non japanese speaking reader. In addition, below each haiku are several brief reactions/comments written by scholars and poets...there are very, very interesting. The forward is also fascinating. An enjoyable, beautiful, rich and thoughtful book.

Llanonte

Writing about the great haiku poet Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), in both Japanese and English, is widespread, and translations of his poems and prose works are myriad. In "Basho and His Interpreters," Basho authority Makoto Ueda gives us something new: an anthology of commentary.

The book features 255 of Basho's poems, arranged in chronological order and spanning his entire life. After each poem are selections from several Japanese commentators--sometimes just two or three, sometimes five or more for especially important or well-known poems. Commentators range from contemporaries of Basho to modern-day thinkers and writers.

Basho has traditionally been revered, and if the book has a weakness it is that the comments on a given poem sometimes blur together as too many cite the same source poem and lavish the same praise. (The pattern is sometimes broken up--for example, by Masaoka Shiki who, writing at the end of the 19th century, felt Basho had been too much loved and sought explicitly to take him down a peg.) More to the point, the best selections of comments reveal the more subtle disputes between interpreters. In regard to one poem ("how solemn!", p. 231), one writer says "The poet's virtuosity here is almost intimidating"; but another states flatly, "This is not a good poem." In another poem (p. 249), commentators debate whether one cicada or several is present.

In addition to the commentaries proper, Ueda adds concise surveys of each year of Basho's life, with emphasis on his artistic development and poetic activities. Ueda's writing is lucid, which is reflected in the poems and commentaries: the translations of the haiku, if not daring, are accurate and perfectly useful in the context; the commentaries are also translated into highly readable prose.

Taken together, these materials should appeal to a range of readers: those interested in Basho on an academic level will find new points of view (and without the work of sifting through the voluminous body of criticism history has left us), while those new to the poet can learn to appreciate the beauty and scope of both his work and his life.

~

Der Bat

This is a wonderful book for anyone interested in Basho, haiku, or Japanese literature. Ueda combines Basho's own verse with interpretations by well-known haikai commentators (including Akutagawa, Rohan, Hagiwara, and Abe Jiro etc) and entries from Basho's own travel diaries, in which he describes many of the situations that inspired many of his poems. This is a good introduction for beginners and afficionados alike, for it provides a great deal of background information and a wide scale of interpretations that add depth and connotation to the readers understanding of each verse. The book also includes a glossary of terms as well as a section of short biographies for the commentators.

Wild Python

this book is great as a collection of representative verses by basho, the greatest master in the haikai tradition.

i'll just add to the other reviewer's remarks that this book can also be read from cover to cover so you can get a feel for basho's development as a poet. overall, a nice book.

ARE

Great.