Dr. Norman Prinsky

Humn. 2002: World Humanities II

Notes and Questions on Matsuo Basho’s The Narrow Road of the Interior (McCullogh & Carter trans.)

Translations (alphabetically by translator)

Barnhill, David, ed. and trans. The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Oku No Hosomichi) in Basho’s Journey: The Literary Prose of Matsuo Basho. Trans. and ed. David Barnhill. State University of New York Press, 2005. 49-77. [76 paragraphs; 159 footnotes]

Britton, Dorothy, ed. and trans. A Haiku Journey : Basho's The Narrow Road to the Far North and Selected Haiku. Tokyo ; New York : Kodansha International ; New York : distributor, Harper & Row, ; ISBN: 0870112392 (New York) : 9780870112393 (New York)

Corman, Cid, and Kamaike Susumu, trans. Back Roads to Far Towns: Basho’s Oku-no-hosomichi. 1980; rpt. Ecco Press, 1996.

Hamill, Sam, ed. and trans. Narrow Road to the Interior. In Narrow Road to the Interior and Other Writings. Ed. and Trans. Sam Hamill. Boston and London: Shambhala, 2000. [Previous edition titled The Essential Basho.] 3-36. [80 paragraphs; 39 footnotes]

Keene, Donald, ed. and trans. The Narrow Road to Oku. Tokyo ; New York : Kodansha International, 1996. ISBN: 4770020287 (pbk.) 9784770020284 (pbk.)

McCullough, Helen Craig, and Steven Carter, trans. The Narrow Road of the Interior. In Classical Japanese Prose: An Anthology. Ed. Helen Craig McCullough. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1990. 522-51. [the version used by NAWME; 112 paragraphs; 66 haikus or short poems] [59 footnotes]

Miner, Earl, trans. The Narrow Road Through the Provinces. In Japanese Poetic Diaries. Ed. Earl Miner. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: U of California P, 1969. 157-97. [82 paragraphs; 66 haikus or short poems.] [109 footnotes]

Sato, Hiroaki, ed. and trans. Narrow Road to the Interior. In Basho’s Narrow Road -- Spring and Autumn Passages (“Narrow Road to the Interior” and the Renga Sequence “A Farewell Gift to Sora”). Ed. and Trans. Hiroaki Sato. Berkeley, CA: Stonebridge Press, 1996. 38-155. [93 paragraphs; 342 facing-page footnotes; 26 lengthy endnotes]

Yuasa, Noboyuki, trans. The Narrow Road to the Deep North. In [Basho:] The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin Books, 1966. 97-143. [78 paragraphs; 65 haikus or short poems; H-22 by Tu Fu left in prose, in par. 37.] [114 footnotes]

Notes (see the numbering of paragraphs and haikus given above for the McCullough and Carter translation, the translation used in NAWME)

– the given, actual name of this writer was Matsuo Munefusa, son of Matsuo Yozaemon; he took the pen name Basho from the banana tree planted in front of the cottage given to him by friends and disciples; thus his pen name became Matsuo Basho

– different translations translate the title of this travelogue differently, as indicated in the section on translations, above

– four other travelogues or travel sketches given in the Yuasa translation are (a) The Records of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton (1687) [title in the McCullough anthology, The Journey of 1684 or Exposure in the Fields; title in the Barnhill collection, Journey of Bleached Bones in a Field; title in the Hamill collection, Travelogue of Weather-beaten Bones]; (b) A Visit to the Kashima Shrine (1687) [title in Barnhill collection, Kashima Journal;]; (c) The Records of a Travel-Worn Satchel (c. 1690) [in the McCullough anthology: Backpack Notes; in Barnhill, Knapsack Notebook; in Hamill, The Knapsack Notebook]; and (d) A Visit to Sarashina Village (c. 1689) [in the Barnhill anthology, Sarashina Journal; title in the Hamill collection, Sarashina Travelogue]

General Questions

1. (a) Basho’s trip takes place from the 27th day of the third month (par. 3) to the 16th day of the eighth month (par. 110); how long a time, all together? (b) How is Basho’s wanderlust conveyed by par. 112? (c) How is Basho’s wanderlust connected to eternal cycles in nature, in par. 112?

2. Related to the subject of this work is the issue of why people travel or take trips, what they get from the activity. What ideas about this subject and issue are conveyed in this travelogue?

3. Where and how do the following imagistic motifs or symbols occur in the work: (a) moon; (b) mountains; (c) rocks (particularly rock monuments); (d) plants (particularly plant monuments); (e) birds; (f) heat or cold; (g) tears (especially Basho’s)?

4. (a) How are the arts – literature, music, and the visual arts (e.g., painting or calligraphy) – repeatedly manifested in the work? What ideas are conveyed about them? (b) How, as suggested in par. 7, is part of the function of the trip partly literary, to make literature or poetry or prose interact with travel and the land? (c) Not only in the content of the various haikus, but also in where they are posted or in what they are materially made out of (the “media” of the haikus) what is conveyed about the subject of the relationship of art and nature?

5. (a) How does the subject of history repeatedly occur in this work? (b) How does the subject of religion repeatedly occur in this work?

6. (a) What ideas are suggested about humanity or human nature through the various persons Basho encounters on his journey? (b) What ideas about Nature or the natural world are suggested in the work? (c) What ideas about the relationship between humanity and Nature (or the natural world) are suggested in the work?