The essential Bashō
By: Matsuo Basho ; translated from the Japanese by Sam Hamill.
Contributors: Hamill, Sam.
Edition: 1st. ed.
Publisher: Shambhala
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 184
Subjects: Matsuo, Bashō, 1644-1694 -- Translations into English.
Description: The Essential Basho is the most complete single-volume collection of the writings of one of the great luminaries of Asian literature. Basho (1644-1694) - who elevated the haiku to an art form of utter simplicity and intense spiritual beauty - is best known in the West as the author of Narrow Road to the Interior, a travel diary of linked prose and haiku that recounts his journey through the far northern provinces of Japan.

Included here is a masterful translation of this celebrated work, along with three other less well-known but important works by Basho: Travelogue of Weather-Beaten Bones, The Knapsack Notebook, and Sarashina Travelogue. There is also a selection of over 250 of Basho's finest haiku. In addition, the translator has provided an introduction detailing Basho's life and work and an essay on the art of haiku.
Notes: Translations of "Oku no hosomichi," three other works and some haiku.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [183]-184).
Table of contents: title: Narrow road to the interior; title: Travelogue of weather-beaten bones; title: The knapsack notebook; title: Sarashina travelogue; title: Selected haiku.