Overview

Shortlisted for the 2019 Touchstone Distinguished Books Award administered by The Haiku Foundation. Given Honorable Mention place in the Prose category of the 2020 Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards. This collection of essays considers the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō (1644-94) from four different and, in some respects, unconventional perspectives. It begins by likening Bashō and John Keats as travellers, open to all experience and convinced that they must 'annihilate self' to achieve true poetry. The second essay looks at how perceptions of Bashō's famous 'frog' haiku have changed over time, and the contentious issue of how far it can (or should) be read in Zen Buddhist terms. The third essay, written from the viewpoint of a translator struggling to render Bashō's 'cicada' haiku into English, explores authentic issues of language and interpretation; at the same time, however, it is evident that something else is going on in the translator's mind. The final essay revisits the 'frog' haiku, but now as a metaphor for a much larger philosophical question: why are we so intolerant of the unintelligible - of the very notion that the universe, and with it our world, came into being without reason, necessity, or purpose? Implicitly the four essays are linked by Bashō's injunction to 'Go to the pine to learn about the pine', that is, to try and get to the truth of things as they are, unencumbered by our own thoughts and preoccupations.

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9781916062207

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Reviews

Collection as a whole [The] essays are ... provocative and well reasoned out....[The] translations of Basho's poems are succinct and beautiful. Professor Nobuyuki Yuasa, translator of the Penguin Classics Basho, The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches [The] voice in these four essays is at once erudite and illuminating, conversational and engaging. Professor John Elder, author of Imagining the Earth: Poetry and the Vision of Nature Although ... only five of Basho's haiku [are discussed], each is thoroughly considered as an example of egoless, unconditional openness to all experiences. Modern Haiku 50.3 (Autumn 2019) The Narrow Road to the Western Isles -- If Keats had travelled with Basho The essay is a pleasure....something about putting the young man and Basho [together] ... something about that conjunction ... is very poignant. Robert Hass, Distinguished Professor in Poetry & Poetics, University of California, Berkeley, and US Poet Laureate 1995-97 Basho's Frog, the Great Survivor [R]eviews a wide range of interpretations of the famous 'old pond' haiku, noting the difficulty Western readers have had accepting 'the truth of things as they are, unencumbered by our own thoughts and preoccupations'. Modern Haiku 50.3 (Autumn 2019) Found in Translation [A] ... thoughtful and delightful thought poem. Professor Robert E. Carter, Department of Philosophy, Trent University, Ontario The Frog and the Basilisk In addition to its insight and vividness, we were also impressed by how well written it was, not something prevalent in academic writing, especially philosophy. Comparative & Continental Philosophy [comment on accepting the essay, originally published in that journal]

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Author Information

Geoffrey Wilkinson is an independent essayist and translator of Japanese poetry, with no academic or other affiliations. He lives in Wales. His recent journal articles include 'The poet vanishes: haiku by Chiyo, Bashō, and Buson' (Presence 64, 2019) and 'Dream-bridges: three tanka from classical Japanese' (Ribbons 14.2, 2018). He is the author of 'Certainty, that thing of indefinite approximation' (Bright Pen Books, 2012: ISBN 978-0-7552-1479-2).

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