Basho, M. (2004) "The Narrow Road to the Deep North" Translated by Dr Tim Chilcott. UK: @http://www.tclt.org.uk
2
<出発まで>
月日は百代の過客にして行かふ年も又旅人地。舟の上に生涯をう
かべ、馬の口とらえて老をむかふる物は日々旅にして旅を栖とす
。古人も多く旅に死せるあり。予もいづれの年よりか片雲の風に
さそはれて、漂白の思ひやまず、海濱にさすらへ、去年の秋江上
の破屋に蜘の古巣をはらひてや♪年も暮、春立る霞の空に白川の
関こえんと、そどろ神の物につきて心をくるはせ、道祖神のまね
きにあひて、取もの手につかず。もと引の彼をつり、笠の緒付
かえて、三里に灸すゆるより、松嶋の月先心にかよりて、住る方
は人に譲り、杉風が別に移るに、
草の戸も住替る代ぞひなの家
面八句を庵の柱に懸置。
THE NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH
The days and months are travellers of eternity, just like the years that come and go. For those who pass their lives afloat on boats, or face old age leading horses tight by the bridle, their journeying is life, their journeying is home. And many are the men of old who met their end upon the road.
How long ago, I wonder, did I see a drift of cloud borne away upon the wind, and ceaseless dreams of wandering become aroused? Only last year, I had been wandering along the coasts and bays; and in the autumn, I swept away the cobwebs from my tumbledown hut on the banks of the Sumida and soon afterwards saw the old year out. But when the spring mists rose up into the sky, the gods of desire possessed me, and burned my mind with the longing to go beyond the barrier at Shirakawa. The spirits of the road beckoned me, and I could not concentrate on anything.
So I patched up my trousers, put new cords in my straw hat, and strengthened my knees with moxa. A vision of the moon at Matsushima was already in my mind. I sold my hut and wrote this just before moving to a cottage owned by Samp:
even this grass hut
could for the new owner be
a festive house of dolls!
This was the first of an eight verse sequence, which I left hanging on a post inside the hut.
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