The Stillness: Basho’s Poetics

松尾芭蕉『奥の細道』俳句「閑かさや岩にしみ入る蝉の声」英語訳

Matsuo Basho, a haiku master in the 17th century, is famous for his travel journal, Oku no Hosomichi (The Back-country Trails). He is arguably the greatest master of all haiku literature. What makes him stand out is his focus on the creation of a unity of perception and expression, though he sometimes revised his poems over and over again. To be genuine you need to share in the life of an object.One of the most popular haiku is one he wrote when visiting a rustic temple at the top of the rugged mountain and finding himself in its serene and ethereal atmosphere.

閑かさや shizukasaya
岩にしみ入る iwa ni shimiiru
蝉の声 semi no koe

The stillness
Permeating the rocks
cicadas’ trill

The ideal of Basho’s poetics is to achieve “不易流行(Hueki Ryuko)”: standing the test of time while moving with the times. Seemingly contradicting but ideally integrated, his poetics has survived for ages. At the age of 37, he decided to retreat from snobbish salon society and to search for a way to incorporate poetry into everyday life, then he went on a journey to lend himself to soul-searching. After the journey he gradually added to his austere poetry some humor and a more down-to-earth, laid-back tone. Basho, as a spiritual seeker at the expense of urban, social, efficient life style, knew very well that life is compared to a journey and he lived out his principle.

17世紀の俳人松尾芭蕉は、その紀行俳文『奥の細道』であまりにも有名です。彼こそ最高の俳人であると言っていいでしょう。彼の素晴らしさは認識と表現の統一にあります。ときに多くの推敲を重ねた彼ですが、「誠」に達するためには、主題の本質と直接結びつく必要があるのです。最も有名な句の一つは、岩の峰に立つ古寺を訪れた時の、「佳景寂寞」として心が澄み渡るような雰囲気を詠んだものです。

芭蕉の理想は、時流に乗りながらも、時代を超えていくという「不易流行」。一見矛盾しているが、統合を果たしている、そんな彼の俳諧精神は時代を超えてきたのです。37歳のとき、俗物的俳諧世界を離れ、俳諧と生活との統合を目指したのです。そして、旅に出て求道者となったのです。『奥の細道』の旅のあと、寂寥とした彼の句に、滑稽味や人々の生活に寄り添った「軽み」が加わります。都会での人付き合いや効率的な暮らしを犠牲にした求道者としての芭蕉は、人生を旅路になぞらえることを体現し、その道に生きたのです。

 

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