“The months and days are the travellers of eternity. The years that come and go are also voyagers.”

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Matsuo Bashô

Oku no Hosomichi

1689

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“Matsuo Bashô Oku no Hosomichi – sometimes rendered in English as ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’ – is a work in prose and verse that tells the story of a poet’s journey to a cold, inhospitable and even dangerous region of early Edo period Japan. Bashô takes on the role of wandering traveller and priest, exploring both the land and its spiritual history. His book expresses a personal freedom that was almost unknown in the strictly regimented society of its time.

Oku no Hosomichi is one of the most popular works of classical Japanese literature. It is a beloved that when the book’s three-hundredth anniversary was celebrated in 1989, millions of fans re-created Bashô’s journey.

Much of the appeal of the work lies in its synthesis of travelogue and spiritual quest, and its metaphorical reflections on life (1001 Quotations to Inspire your Life). Bashô says that we move through the days and months of our lives in the same #way as travellers move through the lands they visit; stopping only briefly, meeting people, making friendships that cannot last forever, and leaving a fleeting remnant of our existence.

Our lives are but a transitory exploration of a small corner of Earth.”(MT in 1001 quotations; Life and Death, 30 📄)

#1transcribedtext #1001beforeyoudiecollections

Source photography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oku_no_Hosomichi