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Reichhold’s Bashō: The World as Given
A couple of days ago I completed an odyssey that began for me around this time last year: I finished reading Bashō: The Complete Haiku. Translator Jane Reichhold has done a wonderful job with the 1012 haiku collected here, as well as with her introduction describing the nature and impact of Bashō’s work, her more biographical introductions to the seven “chapters” of Bashō’s life and practice, and her illuminating notes, which offer commentary, literal translations, Romanized versions, and the original Japanese texts.Read More
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The Road to The Narrow Road
By now it’s no secret to this blog’s readers that I’ve been absorbed in Matsuo Bashō’s travel sketches as translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa. I am working my way toward his masterpiece in this genre of haibun, “The Narrow Road to the Deep North.” The road to The Narrow Road is beautiful, because Bashō tried out various approaches before figuring out how to integrate prose and poetry in a mutually illuminating way, and it’s a pleasure to watch him working it all out. More than a pleasure, though.Read More
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Unity and Disunity
Speaking of Bashō’s famous frog poem, Nobuyuki Yuasa writes: “On the surface the poem describes an action of the frog and its after-effects — a perfect example of objectivity. But if you meditate long enough upon the poem, you will discover that the action thus described is not merely an external one, that it also exists internally, that the pond is, indeed, a mirror held up to reflect the author’s mind.Read More
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 20 collections of poems and edited or co-edited three poetry anthologies. He currently directs two master’s-level programs for University College at the University of Denver: Professional Creative Writing and Arts & Culture Management. Joe lives with his wife, Melody Madonna, in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. 
