Travel Writings

Description

'The literary significance of these six texts is enormous, and a single, affordable volume containing all of them, in clear and accessible translations, with thorough annotations, [will] be a great boon to teachers of Japanese literature. The strengths of this translation are clear...The annotations are extremely valuable: they show a solid grasp of Basho's life, work, and times, and provide rich and detailed background, with plentiful information about allusions to Chinese and Japanese texts and connections with other works by Basho. I don't think I have encountered an English translation of Basho, or indeed of any Japanese poet, with such comprehensive annotation. . . . The thoroughness with which [these translations are] annotated will make this book a significant scholarly resource; it will also help general readers appreciate the density and delicacy of Basho's writing. In short, I think this translation of Basho's travel diaries will be an important and welcome addition to the English-language literature on one of the most important poets of the Japanese tradition.' - David Lurie, Columbia University

Steven D. Carter is Yamato Ichihashi Chair in Japanese History and Civilization, emeritus, Stanford University. His most recent books are How to Read a Japanese Poem (Columbia University Press, 2019) and The Columbia Anthology of Japanese Essays (Columbia University Press, 2014).

"Destined to delight readers with its vibrant, spot-on translations, this definitive collection of haiku grandmaster Basho's travel writings, in prose as well as poetry, conveys the exquisite pleasures and heartbreaks of the road as a metaphor for life itself." Adam L. Kern, University of Wisconsin--Madison "Steven Carter is an outstanding scholar and translator, and his work here is superb. The six poetic travel diaries that he includes range from Basho's most beloved works to several lesser-known gems. With its copious and insightful annotations, introductions, maps, and appendices, all of which are informed by the best and latest Japanese scholarship, Travel Writings will long be the go-to source in English for Basho's lyrical travel ruminations. The work is sure to appeal to poets, students, and scholars alike, many of whom may be inspired to set out, with book in hand, to retrace the steps of the great seventeenth-century haikai master through the hinterlands of Japan." R. Keller Kimbrough, University of Colorado Boulder