MARCOFF, Anthony

English

Nichibunken Open Access (International Research Center for Japanese Studies Repository)

264Book reviewJapan Review 38 (2023)In Zen they say “everything in the world is the cosmic f lowering of emptiness.” Out of the emptiness, the world. Out of the world, the extraordinary haiku of Bashō—now made accessible in this new translation by Andrew Fitzsimons. He presents us with Zen and nature and humanity and poetry, the spirit of the earth and of Japan. In this book Fitzsimons gives us nine hundred and eighty haiku by Bashō, many with headnotes from Bashō’s own writings, and annotated to provide their cultural and historical background. There is also a Bashō chronology, a useful glossary providing interpretations of terms, and various indices.Approaching any new translation, I ask, what will the translator offer that is new, and how will they create, in the words of Borges, their own precursors? I think of previous translations, such as Aitken’s Zen erudition and panache or Reichhold’s informed artistry.1 I have known the Zen-infused versions of Blyth and Stryk.2 And I remember Barnhill’s clarity and scholarship, and the care and enthusiasm of Yuasa and Keene.3Fitzsimons draws on “the authoritative edition” (p. xxxiv) of Bashō Kushū by Kon Eizō.4 Fitzsimons writes, “In this translation I have attempted to create an English true to the movement and manner of saying of Bashō’s poems.” His aim is “to bring us closer to . . . Bashō” (p. xliii). He is the first translator to stay with the on-structure of 5-7-5, and to follow any deviation by Bashō, keeping to the exact on-count of the original. This is the framework on which Fitzsimons hangs his flair. It is a portrait of a life too, Bashō the man, “the see-er” rather than “the seer,” not just the haiku saint and Shinto deity but a real man who weathered the wild. Fitzsimons tries to capture the dialogue between past and present.I tend to see Bashō’s poems as “emanations” (Matisse), or as “realizations” (Cezanne), and I think these terms are helpful too in defining Fitzsimons’s approach. These translations * Anthony Alexei Marcoff is a mainstream poet and writer of minimalist poetry mainly working in tanka and tanka prose. With interests in Zen, mysticism, and philosophy, he has been writing haiku since 1968.1 Aitken 1978; Reichhold 2008.2 Blyth 1952; Blyth 1994; Stryk 1985.3 Barnhill 2004; Barnhill 2005; Yuasa 1966; Keene 1996.4 Kon 1982.Bashō: The Complete Haiku of Matsuo BashōTranslated, Annotated and with an Introduction by Andrew FitzsimonsUniversity of California Press, 2022472 pages.Reviewed by Anthony MARCOFF*265Book reviewshave, by and large, a naturalness to them, and they hint at those dimensions that make Bashō a great poet, even as he wrote about the mundane and the ordinary, and outcasts and misfits. Although not a scholar of classical Japanese, Fitzsimons stays faithful to the spirit of the original, and his versions are accomplished, reliable, stimulating, thoroughgoing, and evocative. They have a freshness to them. They convey the locomotive power of the haiku in quiet, considered essence. Fitzsimons, who is chiefly interested in writing poetry, also tries “to give a sense in English of the puns, word games and sound values of the source poems” (p. xxxv), for example: The turbulent sea             Unfurling over Sado                         the River of Stars araumi ya / Sado ni yokotau / Amanogawa (p. 201)There are some fine renditions of the haiku: Hear the quietness             Entering into the rocks                         cicada refrain (p. 194)Compared to others, Fitzsimons uses gentler, less striking language, adopting “entering” instead of Barnhill’s “penetrating” or Reichhold’s “piercing.” And then he ends with the word “refrain.” Why? Why not “voice,” or even “sound”? I think that Fitzsimons’s use of “refrain” brings to the poem all the cultural layers of resonance and complexity that exist in the Japanese, the “vertical axis” of Shirane.5 So the poem he provides is less strident, and sings quietly with allusion.Another famous poem is expressed: Rainy season rains             leaving undimmed the brightness                         of the Hall of Light samidare no / furinokoshite ya / Hikaridō (p. 191)I like this version very much. The word “undimmed” is perfect, and Fitzsimons has wisely kept “Hall of Light” where Keene gives us “Shining hall of Gold,” and Yuasa offers “This Gold Chapel.” Reichhold has both gold and light. Fitzsimons also points out that “furi” can “also refer to the passing of time: more than five hundred years has passed since the completion of the Hikaridō.”Regarding cherry blossoms, Reichhold has:5 Shirane 1998, p. 26.266 many various things come to mind cherry blossoms6But it is Aitken (and also Barnhill) who foreshadows Fitzsimons: How many, many things, They bring to mind – Cherry blossoms!7Fitzsimons offers the same kind of repetition with: So so many things             open in the memory                         the blossoms again (p. 139)It is plain language, workmanlike, unassuming, and it emphasizes the emotion in the poem, which is more stressed than in either Stryk or Reichhold.In the famous “summer grasses” haiku, whereas Reichhold writes: summer grass the only remains of soldiers’ dreams8Fitzsimons does away with “dreams” (which Barnhill and Aitken also favor), and offers “aftermath,” with: The summer grasses             For warriors of the past                         glory’s aftermath (p. 191)The word “aftermath” occurs in Keene too, and may evoke those cultural dimensions suggested earlier in “refrain.”9One version that has touches of brilliance and traces of dreams: A lone butterfly             aflutter over a field                         over its shadow (p. 97)This is real poetry and it chimes with Tanizaki’s “In Praise of Shadows.”6 Reichhold 2008, p. 297.7 Aitken 1978, p. 130.8 Reichhold 2008, p. 137.9 Keene 1996, p. 87.267Book reviewsI was not always so convinced. In Fitzsimons’s A mist-rain in Fall             A no-sign-of-Fuji day                         Glamoured and gladdened (p. 72)I found the second line light-hearted and playful (and it recalls Aitken’s “Fuji can’t see day!”), but the third line for me seems ponderous, awkward, less successful than other versions.But I welcome this new edition of Bashō translations. It is worldly, vital, scholarly, dynamic, and painstaking. Sometimes it is superbly poetic. These translations let in light and space and strike me as authentic, Zen-like, with wonderful echoes. They let the genius of Bashō shine through. They bring to our attention the scrutiny of the moment, in what George Steiner called “poem into poem.” Through them we can recognize how Bashō expressed “the hidden breath of things” (Franz Marc), and wrote the hymn and hallelujah of the world, in the miniatures of infinity, and the reality of dreams.REFERENCESAitken 1978Robert Aitken. A Zen Wave: Bashō’s Haiku and Zen. Weatherhill, 1978.Barnhill 2004David Landis Barnhill. Bashō’s Haiku: Selected Poems of Matsuo Bashō. SUNY Press, 2004.Barnhill 2005David Landis Barnhill. Bashō’s Journey: The Literary Prose of Matsuo Bashō. SUNY Press, 2005.Blyth 1952R. H. Blyth. Haiku: In Four Volumes. Hokuseido, 1952.Blyth 1994R. H. Blyth. The Genius of Haiku: Readings from R. H. Blyth on Poetry, Life, and Zen. British Haiku Society, 1994.Keene 1996Donald Keene. The Narrow Road to Oku. Kodansha, 1996.Kon 1982Kon Eizō 今栄蔵. Bashō Kushū: Shinchō Nihon koten shūsei, vol. 51 芭蕉句集: 新潮日本古典集成 第51回. Shinchōsha, 1982.Reichhold 2008Jane Reichhold. Basho: The Com plete Haiku. Kodansha International, 2008.Shirane 1998Haruo Shirane. Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Bashō. Stanford University Press, 1998.Stryk 1985Lucien Stryk. On Love and Barley: Haiku of Basho. Penguin, 1985.268Yuasa 1966Nobuyuki Yuasa. Bashō: The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches. Penguin, 1966.

<BOOK REVIEW>Bashō : The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Bashō, translated, annotated and with an introduction by Andrew Fitzsimons

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<BOOK REVIEW>Bashō : The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Bashō, translated, annotated and with an introduction by Andrew Fitzsimons

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