In the tree branches
I'm reading a book by a 17th century Japanese pilgrim-poet, Basho, Narrow Road to a Far Province, which is his diary of a five month journey by foot that he undertook through the wild northeastern provences of Japan. He wanted to see the places mentioned in famous poems of wandering Japanese poets.
Basho is considered the master of haiku, the poet who gave vibrant life and form to "poetry in microcosm", a world of ideas in three brief lines of verse. The three lines consist of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, spare and unpretentious, a refined observation of nature.
His diary is a combination of prose and haiku, and is one of the classics of Japanese literature, so I'm inspired to try my hand at it. I found the book through a National Geographic article, Basho's Trail.
No comments:
Post a Comment