I think that this was my least favorite reading so far. It was rather bland and emotionless in my opinion. Other authors have written about nature and made it beautiful and vibrant on the page. But Basho's writing fell flat. I understand that it was meant to be a journal, but it was admitted to have been refined and embellished (617). Making it a work of fiction.
I felt that the writings of their travels (Basho and Sora) were at times more poetic than their haikai. I have great respect for the style, but I feel they did weren't good. Perhaps, in their own language they would have been better.
- The theme seemed to be change and time. Aging and growth seemed to echo throughout, mostly because either one theme or the other is mentioned in almost every paragraph.
- I am in love with the opening sonnet or poem on page 617, and if the whole tale was written like that I wound have been happy.
- "... I put my brush down here." (619) this was the first time brush was said and following he writes about hair on the mountain and hair on the head. This made me think of a hair brush and not his paint brush. but I later made that connection.
- I enjoyed the history of the different locations and temples they saw. It was like a travel guide.
- "My body and spirit were tired from the pain of the long journey; my heart overwhelmed by the landscape. The thoughts of the distant past tore through me, and I couldn't think straight." (620). I loved this passage, it was moving and meaningful. It stirred questions bu also a feeling of comradery, as everyone has had feelings like this.
- "Opening my knapsack, I made those poems my friends for the night." (622) I like this because it showed that his work and the work of others really was a comfort to him.
- "Forbidden to speak - wetting my sleeves at Bathhouse Mountain!" (625) I would like to know what they got into at the Bathhouse...
- He did not write about people in detail often or the interactions between them, till we meet two women of the night (627) we get a good portion on them and even some dialog
Basho, Matsuo " The Narrow Road to the Deep North" The Norton Anthology World Literature, Third ed., D, W. W. Norton & Company, 2012, pp. 616-628.
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