Moon Woke Me Up Nine Times by Matsuo Basho

Moon Woke Me Up Nine Times by Matsuo Basho

Vivid new translations of Basho's popular haiku, in a selected format ideal for newcomers as well as fans long familiar with the Japanese master.

Basho, the famously bohemian traveler through seventeenth-century Japan, is a poet attuned to the natural world as well as humble human doings; "Piles of quilts/ snow on distant mountains/ I watch both," he writes. His work captures both the profound loneliness of one observing mind and the broad-ranging joy he finds in our connections to the larger community. David Young, acclaimed translator and Knopf poet, writes in his introduction to this selection, "This poet's consciousness affiliates itself with crickets, islands, monkeys, snowfalls, moonscapes, flowers, trees, and ceremonies...Waking and sleeping, alone and in company, he moves through the world, delighting in its details." Young's translations are bright, alert, musically perfect, and rich in tenderness toward their maker.

Basho (1644-1694), Japan's most famous poet, is most known in the West for his travel diary Narrow Road to the Interior, which chronicles his journey through northern Japan. Basho raised the haiku to a form of profound spiritual beauty and utmost simplicity. His linked prose and haiku trip diaries spawned a new kind of writing that influenced generations of Japanese poets.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780307962003
ISBN 10	0307962008
Title	Moon Woke Me Up Nine Times
Author	Matsuo Basho
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Random House USA Inc
Year published	2013-04-02
Number of pages	128
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.