Narrow Road to the (DEEP) North
March 28th 2011 08:59
OKU NO HOSO MICHI
Read that title carefully. It's the romaji rendering of the Japanese title of a famous HAIBUN (essay combining haiku with travel commentary) by BASHO. For some reason this keeps getting translated as the narrow road to the deep north.
In Chinese it would probably be called something like narrow road to north.
OKU is written in the kanji for ao 4 interior inside
HOSO is narrow thin fine slender XI 4
MICHI is TAO
Basho never calls it the DEEP NORTH! None of those words mean deep in English Japanese or Chinese however you read the characters!
The no here is a connective particle but not in the usual sense "OF".
Really a better translation might be Narrow Road (thru) the North or even Narrow Path(s) to the North given Basho's tendency to apparently wander of the main official roads onto side tracks searching for inspiring scenic spots to write about.
There are several translations of this into English.
however the places Basho wrote about have changed greatly since the 17th century.
I'm thinking about this cos one of the places he wrote about was Matsushima.
How many of those places have been changed further by the recent wave and quake in northern Japan?
Folks whether you love haiku or what dont forget the crisis isnt over yet!
Pray a thought and prayer for the brave men trying to cool the reactors and all the rescue and relief workers and don't forget to donate too!
And reread any translation of this work you like!
Read that title carefully. It's the romaji rendering of the Japanese title of a famous HAIBUN (essay combining haiku with travel commentary) by BASHO. For some reason this keeps getting translated as the narrow road to the deep north.
In Chinese it would probably be called something like narrow road to north.
OKU is written in the kanji for ao 4 interior inside
HOSO is narrow thin fine slender XI 4
MICHI is TAO
Basho never calls it the DEEP NORTH! None of those words mean deep in English Japanese or Chinese however you read the characters!
The no here is a connective particle but not in the usual sense "OF".
Really a better translation might be Narrow Road (thru) the North or even Narrow Path(s) to the North given Basho's tendency to apparently wander of the main official roads onto side tracks searching for inspiring scenic spots to write about.
There are several translations of this into English.
however the places Basho wrote about have changed greatly since the 17th century.
I'm thinking about this cos one of the places he wrote about was Matsushima.
How many of those places have been changed further by the recent wave and quake in northern Japan?
Folks whether you love haiku or what dont forget the crisis isnt over yet!
Pray a thought and prayer for the brave men trying to cool the reactors and all the rescue and relief workers and don't forget to donate too!
And reread any translation of this work you like!
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