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basho (haiku/senryu)
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basho (haiku/senryu) |
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wordancer Senior Member
since 2000-07-30
Posts 809VA 
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i lake cayuga wind basho safe under my head the warm sun ii a rock the trees and far roads basho wanders iii in the dark a candle by basho's words illumination IHOPoets, your Poetic Home [This message has been edited by wordancer (07-16-2002 10:41 AM).] |
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| © Copyright 2002 Beverly A. Tift - All Rights Reserved | |||
Joyce Johnson
since 2001-03-10
Posts 9912Washington State |
Very good Wordancer. But what is Basho? Joyce |
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wordancer Senior Member
since 2000-07-30
Posts 809VA |
oh dear, sorry friend...in my desire to share I forgot that this was a general forum and not like my haiku forum at ihopoets.com where it is mostly known that Basho was one of the major forces behind the formation of early haiku and is still deeply admired and respected to this day. A bit of background for those who would like to know. BASHO Basho (bah-shoh), pseudonym of Matsuo Munefusa (1644-94), Japanese poet, considered the finest writer of Japanese haiku during the formative years of the genre. Born into a samurai family prominent among nobility, Basho rejected that world and became a wanderer, studying Zen, history, and classical Chinese poetry, living in apparently blissful poverty under a modest patronage and from donations by his many students. From 1667 he lived in Edo (now Tokyo), where he began to compose haiku. The structure of his haiku reflects the simplicity of his meditative life. When he felt the need for solitude, he withdrew to his basho-an, a hut made of plantain leaves (basho)-hence his pseudonym. Basho infused a mystical quality into much of his verse and attempted to express universal themes through simple natural images, from the harvest moon to the fleas in his cottage. Basho brought to haiku "the Way of Elegance" (fuga-no-michi), deepened its Zen influence, and approached poetry itself as a way of life (kado, the way of poetry) in the belief that poetry could be a source of enlightenment. "Achieve enlightenment, then return to this world of ordinary humanity," he advised. And, "Do not follow in the footsteps of the old masters, but seek what they sought." His "way of elegance" did not include the mere trappings associated with elegance; he sought the authentic vision of "the ancients." His attention to the natural world transformed this verse form from a frivolous social pastime into a major genre of Japanese poetry. In the last ten years of his life Basho made several journeys, drawing from them more images to inspire his contemplative poetry. He also collaborated with local poets on the linked-verse forms known as renga. In addition to being the supreme artist of haiku and renga, Basho wrote haibun, brief prose-and-poetry travelogues such as Oku-no-hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Far North; 1689; Eng. trans., 1974), that are absolutely nonpareil in the literature of the world. IHOPoets, your Poetic Home [This message has been edited by wordancer (07-16-2002 12:20 PM).] |
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pegasus111 Member Elite
since 2000-07-27
Posts 2219ocala, fl, usa |
this is yummy and thanks for the background on the master.  the woods are lovely, dark, and deep, but I have promises to keep, and many miles to go before I sleep...Frost |
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wordancer Senior Member
since 2000-07-30
Posts 809VA |
ooohhh peg, you bit my words...and now i'm reeling you in....  LOLOLI took, Basho and his Interpreters, Selected Hokku with Commentary, by Makoto Ueda, Stanford University Press, 1992; with me on my camping trip this past weekend and it inspired the above. I love this book, it always puts me into a deeper reflective haiku mode. IHOPoets, your Poetic Home [This message has been edited by wordancer (07-16-2002 07:28 PM).] |
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