Matsuo Bashô: Oku no Hosomichi

Komatsu

 

 

A poem composed on the road:

Red, red is the sun,
Heartlessly indifferent to time,
The wind knows, however,
The promise of early chill.

At the place called Dwarf Pine:

Dwarfed pine is indeed
A gentle name, and gently
The wind brushes through
Bush-clovers and pampas.

I went to the Tada Shrine located in the vicinity, where I saw Lord Sanemori's helmet and a piece of brocaded cloth that he had worn under his armor. According to the legends, these were given him by Lord Yoshitomo while he was still in the service of the Minamotos.* The helmet was certainly an extraordinary one, with an arabesque of gold crysanthemums covering the visor and the ear plate, a fiery dragon resting proudly on the crest, and two curved horns pointing to the sky. The chronicle of the shrine gave a vivid account of how, upon the heroic death of Lord Sanemori,* Kiso no Yoshinaka had sent his important retainer Higuchi no Jiro to the shrine to dedicate the helmet with a letter of prayer.

I am awe-struck
To hear a cricket singing
Underneath the dark cavity
Of an old helmet.*

 




Kanazawa

Oku no Hosomichi, cuaderno de viaje, del gran Poeta de Haiku, Matshuo Bashô.

Natadera

INDEX

  1. Prologue
  2. Departure
  3. Soka
  4. Muronoyashima
  5. Nikko
  6. Nasu
  7. Kurobane
  8. Unganji
  9. Sesshoseki
  10. Shirakawa
  11. Sukagawa
  12. Asaka
  13. Shinobu
  14. Sato Shoji
  15. Iizaka
  16. Kasajima
  17. Takekuma
  18. Sendai
  19. Tsubo no Ishibumi
  20. Shiogama
  21. Matsushima
  22. Ishinomaki
  23. Hiraizumi
  24. Dewagoe
  25. Obanazawa
  26. Ryushakuji
  27. Oishida
  28. Mogamigawa
  29. Hagurosan
  30. Gassan
  31. Sakata
  32. Kisigata
  33. Echigo
  34. Ichiburi
  35. Kanazawa
  36. Komatsu
  37. Natadera
  38. Daishoji
  39. Maruoka
  40. Fukui
  41. Tsuruga
  42. Ironohama
  43. Ogaki
  44. Postscript

Bosque de Bambú, Camino del Haiku.Camino del Haiku