Basho

"Then visited the Tamagawa at Noda and the Oki-no-ishi. On Sue-no-Matsuyama temple known as Masshozan. Everywhere between pines graves, bringing home the fact that even vows of "wing and wing, branch and branch, forever merging" must also come to such, sadness increasing, and at Shiogama Beach a bell sounded evening. A samidare sky cleared some, faint early moon, Magaki Island also coming clear. "Fishing boats" pulling together, voices dividing the catch, "the haul's excitement" grasped now, rousing deep response. That night a blind minstrel played biwa and chanted Oku-joruri. Not like Tales of the Heike nor mai, singing country tunes boisterously to our pillows, but not unusual either, traditional in such out-of-the-way places, and good they're kept up."

--Basho

fr. Back Roads to Far Towns

tr. Cid Corman and Kamaike Susumu

[New York: Grossman Publishers, 1968]