Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
and partly because his celibacy, his style of life, his withdrawal from the material encum-
brances of the world, and his attachment to Zen Buddhism, all gave him a priestly outlook
on life. He tells us in one of his diaries of a series of farewell parties that were given to
him as he set off on one of his journeys. His pupils entertained him, and one poet, a former
castle-lord who had gone into retirement in order to spend his days in artistic pursuits, gra-
ciously sent him a poem; others took him on boating excursions, while some gave him
warm socks or money to buy sandals.
(69) Bashō, on a journey with a companion.
Heneededtocarryonlytheminimumofluggage,forhereliedmainlyonthehospitality
of former pupils and fellow poets. In return for such hospitality he would criticize poems,
take part in composition sessions, and leave poems in visitors' topics. As he went on
his way, usually on foot but occasionally on horseback—a plodding packhorse, no swift
steed—he would observe nature around him and write poems on what he saw. At the end,
when he died, it was on such a journey, in Nagoya. He left, as all poets had to, a farewell
poem,
Tabi ni yande yume wa areno o kakemeguru—
“Sick on a journey, my dreams race
over the empty moors”—in which his whole life is epitomized.
