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Way of Silence, The Prose and Poetry of Basho
First Printing, 1970, a very good slightly oversized hardcover with slight aging appearance, with a price-clipped, quite rubbed and color-flecked dust jacket at the spine ends and outer cornr4s, also other shelf wear and sunning to the spine, from The Dial Press. Richard Lewis/photographs by Helen Buttfield. No ISBN.
- GenresPoetry
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1970
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 11, 2010
Great book of haiku by the master (or perhaps the originator) of the form, Basho.
In lieu of a review, here are some of my favorites:
-The first winter rain,
And my name shall be called
"Traveller." (47)
-Winter desolation;
In a world of one color
The sound of the wind. (57)
-The Way of Haiku arises from concentration and lack of distraction.
Look well within yourself. (70)
-I do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old;
I seek the things they sought. (82)
Also, love the photos by Helen Buttfield, though that's a most unfortunate name for a photographer (or anyone, really).
In lieu of a review, here are some of my favorites:
-The first winter rain,
And my name shall be called
"Traveller." (47)
-Winter desolation;
In a world of one color
The sound of the wind. (57)
-The Way of Haiku arises from concentration and lack of distraction.
Look well within yourself. (70)
-I do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old;
I seek the things they sought. (82)
Also, love the photos by Helen Buttfield, though that's a most unfortunate name for a photographer (or anyone, really).
August 1, 2021
There's really nothing like Haiku. It's so foreign when compared to Western poetry. And not just because it comes from Japan. The poems are short, ambiguous, and almost exclusively nature themed. Ok, that last one isn't so different.
The poems are very often ambigrams, where the final line can be taken in two ways. A goodly number of them followed a pattern where the 1st and 3rd line can make a complete thought but so can the 2nd and 3rd. Sometimes the 2nd line furthers the 1st line's thought, sometimes it begins the 3rd line's thought. For example:
In the midst of the plain
Sings the skylark,
Free of all things.
Who is free the man poet standing in the plain or the skylark singing in the plain?
The peaks of clouds
Have crumbled into fragments-
The moonlit mountain.
Are the peaks part of the clouds or of mountain?
The winter storm
hid itself in the bamboos,
And grew still.
Did the winter storm grow silent in the bamboos or does "grew still" mean it was "still growing"?
That last pome is an example of an additional trend: silence, hence the title. It depicts the silent peaceful aspect of nature. Here's another example:
Clouds now and then
Giving men relief
from moon viewing.
And perhaps his most famous haiku (at least one that I'd heard before):
The old pond;
A frog jumps in -
The sound of water.
Not really fitting either trend above but I wanted to point it out because it's very profound: it takes something other than water to produce the sound of water. The frog jumping in creates the splash which creates the sound of water. Think of waves lapping the shore, it's the water hitting the shore to make the sound of water.
A harder read for our fast-paced world but perhaps a more worthwhile (once in a while) read because of it.
The poems are very often ambigrams, where the final line can be taken in two ways. A goodly number of them followed a pattern where the 1st and 3rd line can make a complete thought but so can the 2nd and 3rd. Sometimes the 2nd line furthers the 1st line's thought, sometimes it begins the 3rd line's thought. For example:
In the midst of the plain
Sings the skylark,
Free of all things.
Who is free the man poet standing in the plain or the skylark singing in the plain?
The peaks of clouds
Have crumbled into fragments-
The moonlit mountain.
Are the peaks part of the clouds or of mountain?
The winter storm
hid itself in the bamboos,
And grew still.
Did the winter storm grow silent in the bamboos or does "grew still" mean it was "still growing"?
That last pome is an example of an additional trend: silence, hence the title. It depicts the silent peaceful aspect of nature. Here's another example:
Clouds now and then
Giving men relief
from moon viewing.
And perhaps his most famous haiku (at least one that I'd heard before):
The old pond;
A frog jumps in -
The sound of water.
Not really fitting either trend above but I wanted to point it out because it's very profound: it takes something other than water to produce the sound of water. The frog jumping in creates the splash which creates the sound of water. Think of waves lapping the shore, it's the water hitting the shore to make the sound of water.
A harder read for our fast-paced world but perhaps a more worthwhile (once in a while) read because of it.
January 22, 2019
Stunning photos to go with Matsuo Bashō's soulful poetry.
March 31, 2019
My guess is that the photographer was a child who came from money, but the poetry is unmatched. It's been lingering on my bedside so as to not rush its infinite softness.
March 3, 2021
Lovely!
March 24, 2021
A way for your inner emotions to connect with nature
April 29, 2025
Beautiful a book to sit and think about
August 25, 2008
I read some of Basho's work in a collection of Japanese poetry recently (the title is escaping me--surprise) and I was hooked. There are glimpses here of the writing that enchanted me, but I'm afraid this is an inferior translation. The editing also left me cold (the poetry seemed to be chosen to go with the not-so-great photographs rather than the other way around). It looks and feels like what it is, an edition from 1970. However, there are good moments, and enough to make me want to read more Basho:
In the midst of the plain
Sings the skylark,
Free of all things.
The shell of a cicada;
It sang itself
Utterly away.
In the midst of the plain
Sings the skylark,
Free of all things.
The shell of a cicada;
It sang itself
Utterly away.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews