e99 Online Shopping Mall
Help | |
Home - Authors - Basho (Books) |
  | Back | 21-40 of 100 | Next 20 |
click price to see details click image to enlarge click link to go to the store
21. Basho and His Interpreters: Selected Hokku with Commentary by Makoto Ueda | |
Paperback: 468
Pages
(1995-05-01)
list price: US$38.95 -- used & new: US$30.74 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0804725268 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Customer Reviews (4)
A Unique Perspective
A must for anyone interested in Basho
basho's verse in depth
A Good Overview of a Master |
22. THE FOUR SEASONS: Japanese Haiku Second Series by Basho, Buson, Issa, Shiki, et al. | |
Hardcover: 61
Pages
(1958)
-- used & new: US$5.99 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: B000GRM27G Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description |
23. Monkey's Raincoat: Linked Poetry of the Basho School with Haiku Selections by Mayhew | |
Hardcover: 151
Pages
(1989-12-15)
list price: US$9.95 Isbn: 0804815003 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
24. 1020 Haiku in Translation: The Heart of Basho, Buson and Issa by William R. Nelson | |
Paperback: 340
Pages
(2006-04-21)
list price: US$23.99 -- used & new: US$20.50 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 1419627651 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (6)
Fabulous!
The Art of Haiku
Great
Wonderful Collection
Sheer Joy |
25. Classic Haiku: An Anthology of Poems by Basho and His Followers by Basho | |
Paperback: 416
Pages
(2002-09-18)
list price: US$12.95 Isbn: 0486422216 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description |
26. Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Basho by Haruo Shirane | |
Paperback: 400
Pages
(1998-01-01)
list price: US$27.95 -- used & new: US$27.95 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0804730997 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (1)
Basho in His Time You can find out about all this from other books. However, inProfessor Shirane's book, you will find out more: Basho was not the onlyperson doing these things during his lifetime. And although nobody islikely to say that Basho was not the most important poet of his day, he wasdefinitely influenced in all his work by the trends of the time. When funnyverses were the vogue, early in his career, he wrote funny verses. WhenChinese poetry became a major influence on the poetry scene, his writingsreflected his own rich knowledge of that Chinese heritage. When other poetsstarted advocating a "lighter" style, more directly concernedwith the things of daily life, Basho took up "lightness" as animportant element of his art. Basho's uniqueness does not lie in hisunique type of poetry, but in his great ability to ride the wave of fashionin a common type of poetry and make something rich and lasting from it. Byplacing Basho and his work--with many fine translations--in the context ofhis own day and his own culture, Prof. Shirane gives us a deeper, richerBasho than we knew before. And, he helps us grasp some basics of Japaneseculture, and of haiku, that we probably missed in other books on thesubject. ... Read more |
27. One Hundred Frogs: From Matsuo Basho to Allen Ginsberg (Inklings) by Hiroaki Sato | |
Paperback: 127
Pages
(1995-05)
list price: US$7.95 -- used & new: US$94.80 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0834803356 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Customer Reviews (3)
Misplaced Emphasis
Perfect little book - the same poem never grows stale. Bring on the "Another Hundred Frogs" sequel - I can't get enough of these!
The sound of silence In this small book, Hiroaki Sato has put together more than 100 translations of the most famous haiku by the Japanese poet Matsuo Basho (1644-94). He has added a ten-page introduction to the work of Matsuo Basho and his most famous poem "Old Pond" which, in one of the most literal translations, reads as follows: Fu-ru (old) i-ke (pond) ya, ka-wa-zu (frog) to-bi-ko-mu (jumping into) mi-zu (water) no o-to (sound) [transl. Fumiko Saisho] "One Hundred Frogs" illustrates how many riches can be mined from a single poem, and how much fun it can be to try to capture the essence of a poem in another language. It also teaches a lesson in humility: It is just as impossible to translate poetry unchanged from one language to another as it is impossible to translate anything unchanged from "reality" into language. Ironically, a haiku tries just that. The art of writing haikus is strongly influenced by Zen Buddhism. The mind of a Zen master, it is said, is like a mirror: it reflects reality "as it is" and remains unmoved. A haiku, ideally, reflects reality like a mirror. This is an impossible task, of course. The haiku does not reflect reality, it reflects the poet's interpretation of reality. In this sense, the translations in this book are interpretations of interpretations of reality. The translators approach the poem "Old Pond" with quite different attitudes. Some take a serious approach and, for example, try to retain the 5-7-5-syllables structure of the haiku: "The old pond, yes, and / A frog is jumping into / The water, and splash." [G.S. Fraser], or "The silent old pond / a mirror of ancient calm, / a frog-leaps-in splash" [Dion O'Donnol]. The latter translation also tries to highlight the tension between silence/calm and sound/movement that is built into the poem. In this context, it is interesting to know that Zen Buddhism does not interpret silence and sound as opposites but as extreme expressions of a unique, indivisible reality - like the north pole and south pole of a magnetized stick: opposites, yet parts of one object. There is no sound without silence. There is no silence without sound. My favorite "serious" translation is the version by Cid Corman, a contemporary American poet: "old pond / frog leaping / splash". After thinking so much about how to translate the poem, this is a refreshingly simple solution. In my opinion, it comes closest to the Zen spirit of the poem. And "splash" appears to be the most reasonable way to solve the question of what is "the water's sound"? Other translators take a more light-hearted look. Bernard Lionel Einbond translates: "Antic pond - / frantic frog jumps in - / gigantic sound." Antic-frantic-gigantic is a quite amusing caricature of the seriousness of other translations. Then there is a sonnet version and a limerick version. The limerick goes: "There once was a curious frog / who sat by a pond on a log / And to see what resulted, / In the pond catapulted / With a water-noise heard around the bog." And others again are even more playful. One George M. Young, Jr., contributed what he claimed was a yellowed newspaper clipping from his file: "MAFIA HIT MAN POET: NOTE FOUND PINNED TO LAPEL OF DROWNED VICTIM'S DOUBLE-BREASTED SUIT!!!'Dere wasa dis frogg / Gone jumpa offa da logg / Now he inna bogg.' - Anonymous." It is one of my favorites because of its irreverence for the importance of Zen. An attitude, by the way, that is very much in the spirit of Zen. The most playful translation of the poem, however, is the one that the reader can compose himself by flipping the pages of the book with his thumb: what emerges is the visual image of an ink-painted frog jumping into a pool. Without a sound. Ironic. Funny. Apt. ... Read more |
28. A Zen Wave: Basho's Haiku & Zen by Robert Aitken | |
Paperback: 191
Pages
(1979-04)
list price: US$16.95 -- used & new: US$8.50 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 083480137X Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Customer Reviews (3)
Zen, poetry, and (worthwhile) literary criticism It is terrible that this book is out of print.
Self-effacement as the path to authenticity. All of us, perhaps, need a bit of help when starting to read haiku. As the shortest of all verse forms, with its mere seventeen syllables,it doesn't look like much of a poem at all to the uninitiated, andthey may wonder what the fuss is all about. In 'A Zen Wave,' Robert Aitken, who is a noted American Zenist and competent in Japanese, has had the extremely useful idea of compilinga small anthology of haiku by Basho (1644-1694), and providing eachhaiku with its own full commentary.After finishing the book, readers will have acquired a background in both haiku and Zen, and will be able to further explore haiku by themselves in an informed way. In his brief 5-page Introduction Aitken writes: "... the heart of Basho's haiku is the very foundation of human perception of things - mind itself.Operating superficially, the mind is random in its activity and stale in its insights and images. With practice and experience, however, it is recognized as the empty infinity of the universe and of the self" (pages 18-19). This statement may gain in meaning if we set it alongside anobservation made the great Zen Master Dogen (1200-1253), who wrote: "Conveying the self to the myriad things to authenticate them is delusion; the myriad things advancing to authenticate the self is enlightenment" (Tr., F. H. Cook, 'Sounds of Valley Streams,' page 66). The haiku poet is a person who has 'emptied' himself or herself, who has created a space, an "empty infinity" or 'openness,' in whichthe myriad things can come forward and declare themselves.Haiku capture those moments, and the greatest haiku present us with "the vital experience of the thing itself" (Aitken, page 21).Haiku, therefore, are not so much words about things; they aim rather to present us witha true perception of the thing itself. 'A Zen Wave' presents us with a total of twenty-six of Basho's haiku.For each of them we are given Aitken's translation, the romanized Japanese of the original, and its literal word-by-word translation. Then follow a few words on THE FORM, which in turn are followed by Aitken's very full COMMENTARY.These commentaries are enriched by the inclusion of many other poems, both Japanese and Chinese.The book, which is illustrated with eight photographs, is rounded out with a Glossary of Selected Terms, a table of Japanese Equivalents of Chinese Names, and a short section of Notes giving details of sources. Here, with my slash marks to indicate line breaks, is how Aitken has handled the first haiku, one of Basho's most famous: "The old pond; / A frog jumps in - / The sound of the water. Furu ike ya / kawazu tobikomu / mizu no oto Old pond! / frog jumps in / water of sound" (page 25). Simple though it may seem, we should note that Basho hadto work very hard to attain the state of 'openness' that we find in this poem.Itwas written when he was forty-two years old after many years of effort, and it marks his coming of age as a mature poet.Aitken comments:"Basho presents his own mind as this timeless, endless pond, serene andpotent" (page 26). Ideally haiku should be like a gentle explosion in the mind.Better still, they are the frog which plops into the pond of our mind, and sets up an ever-widening series of ripples, concentric circles which as they spread outwards to embrace more and more, end up by bringing the whole cosmos into view. What is the "old pond"?Basho's mind and your mind certainly.But what else?Could it be the Unborn Buddha Mind which we all share?And what about the frog?Is it 'just a frog'?Or is it something infinitely precious?As for the "sound" - this too should be allowed to work on one's sensibility, forit will suggest different things to different readers. There is much excellent commentary in this book, andmany other fine haiku.A particular favorite of mine deals with a tiny plant, thenazuna or Sheperd's Purse, which reads: "When I look carefully - / Nazuna is blooming / Beneath the hedge (page 74). Five pages of Aitken's interesting comment follow the poem, which include a quotation from the famous Zen scholar, D. T. Suzuki, who wrote of the nazuna, a plant which many would dismiss as 'just a weed' : "We are blatantly given up to the demonstration of self-conceit, self-delusion, and unashamed arrogance.We do not seem now to cherish any such feelings as inspired Basho to notice the flowering nazunaplant. . . . (page 75). Aitken feels that "Basho is teaching us religion with his nazuna haiku," and how the denial of the nazuna is, as Suzuki points out, "self-delusion" (page 75), and I quite agree.One of the more important things we have to learn from haiku is the importance of the ordinary - because, in fact, nothing is ordinary, and we shouldlearn to distrust the word 'just.' For readers of Aitken's book whose appetite has been whetted, there aremany other books of haiku.One particular work I can strongly recommend (if you can find it), and which Aitken himself regarded highly, is the 4-volume 'Haiku' by R. H. Blyth, volumes which like Aitken's are also bilingual, rich in commentary, and illustrated.I can't resist ending with one of my favorites by another famous haiku poet, Buson (1715-1783), from Blyth Volume 4 'Autumn - Winter' (page 224): "The drizzling winter rain / Quietly soaks / The roots of the camphor tree." Allow these words to quietly penetrate your sensibility, just as therain quietly soaks the roots of the camphor tree. Are we wise to dismiss such events as being beneath our notice because merely 'ordinary'?Or should we rather, like the haiku poets, get self out of the way and allow the myriad things to come forward and disclose themselves, and in authenticating themselves authenticate us?
The best translation of Basho's haiku |
29. Back Roads to Far Towns: Basho's Oku-No-Hosomichi by Cid and Kamaike Susumu, Translators] Basho [Corman | |
Hardcover:
Pages
(1968)
-- used & new: US$26.96 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: B000NZ6Q2S Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
30. Cherry Blossoms. Japanese Haiku Series III. Translations Of Basho, Buson, Issa, Shiki & Others by Issa, Shiki & Others Basho Buson | |
Hardcover: 148
Pages
(1960)
-- used & new: US$70.20 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 290731243X Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
31. Classic Haiku: The Greatest Japanese Poetry from Basho, Buson, Issa, Shiki, and Their Followers (Eternal Moments) | |
Hardcover: 176
Pages
(2007-11-01)
list price: US$12.95 -- used & new: US$7.62 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 1844834867 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (2)
Peaceful essence of haiku
Lovely |
32. Little Enough: 49 Haiku by Basho, Sodo, Ransetsu, Buson, Ryokan, Issa, Shiki by Cid Corman | |
Paperback: 50
Pages
(1991-01-01)
list price: US$10.00 Isbn: 0917788486 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description |
33. Rediscovering Basho by Edited by Stephen Henry Gill and C. Andrew Gerstle, Stephen Henry Gill, Andrew Gerstle | |
Hardcover: 168
Pages
(1999-06)
list price: US$64.00 -- used & new: US$14.50 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 190190315X Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (1)
"Flowers of shepherd's purse at the foot of the hedge." |
34. Basho to Kikaku (Japanese Edition) by Kozai | |
Tankobon Hardcover: 186
Pages
Isbn: 4625460417 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
35. Frogments from the Frag Pool: Haiku After Basho by Gary Barwin, Derek Beaulieu | |
Paperback: 111
Pages
(2005-10)
list price: US$14.95 -- used & new: US$13.39 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 1551281120 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (1)
Tour de Force Of Visuals & Haiku Based on A Famous Poem |
36. Sei toporoji: Chirei no henyo (Ishiki to basho) (Japanese Edition) by Toji Kamata | |
Tankobon Hardcover: 265
Pages
(1990)
Isbn: 4309230148 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
37. The Basho Name in History by Ancestry.com | |
Paperback: 88
Pages
(2007-06-29)
list price: US$19.95 -- used & new: US$19.95 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: B000WRIMNS Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description |
38. Born of a Dream: Fifty Haiku by Basho, Buson, Taigi, Issa, Shiki by Cid Corman | |
Paperback:
Pages
(1989-01)
list price: US$10.00 -- used & new: US$10.00 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0917788370 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description |
39. One Man's Moon: 50 Haiku by Basho, Buson, Issa, Hakuin, Shiki, Santoka by Cid Corman | |
Paperback: 50
Pages
(1984-01-01)
list price: US$10.00 -- used & new: US$10.00 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0917788265 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description |
40. BASHO AND THE MASTERY OF POETIC SPACE IN OKU NO HOSOMICHI.(Critical Essay): An article from: The Journal of the American Oriental Society by Steven D. Carter | |
Digital: 27
Pages
(2000-04-01)
list price: US$5.95 -- used & new: US$5.95 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: B0008J8PNC Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description |
  | Back | 21-40 of 100 | Next 20 |