by Dr Tim Chilcott
TRANSLATIONS OF MATSUO BASHO: OKU NO HOSOMICHI (THE NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH)
Part II
<日光>
卯月朔日、御山に詣拝す。往昔、此御山を「二荒山」と書しを空海大師開基の時「日光」と改給ふ。千歳未来をさとり給ふにや。今此御光一天にかゞやきて恩沢八荒にあふれ、四民安堵の栖穏なり。猶憚多くて筆をさし置ぬ。
あらたうと青葉若葉の日の光
黒髪山は霞かゝりて、雪いまだ白し。
剃捨て黒髪山に衣更 曾良
曾良は河合氏にして、惣五郎と云へり芭蕉の下葉に軒をならべて予が薪水の労をたすく。このたび松しま象潟の眺共にせん事を悦び、且は羈旅の難をいたはらんと旅立暁髪を剃て墨染にさまをかえ惣五を改て宗悟とす。仍て黒髪山の句有。「衣更」の二字力ありてきこゆ。
廿餘丁山を登つて瀧有。岩洞の頂より飛流して百尺千岩の碧潭に落たり。岩窟に身をひそめて入て]滝の裏よりみれば、うらみの瀧と申傳え侍る也。
暫時は瀧に篭るや夏の初
On the first day of the fourth month [20 May], we went to worship at the mountain shrine. In ancient times, the name of the mountain was written Ni-kō [the Mountain of Two Storms]; but when the great teacher Kūkai built a temple here, he changed the name to Nik-ko [Sunlight]. He must have had the power to see a thousand years beyond, for the radiance of the shrine now shines throughout the heavens. Its blessingsflow over the land to the farthest corners, and all the people live in security and peace. I was awestruck, barely able to tell it in words:
how holy a place …
green leaves, young leaves, and through them
the sunlight now bursts
MountKurokami[Mount Raven Hair], though veiled in mist, was still white with snow. Sora composed a poem:
I shaved off my hair
and now at Kurokami
I change to new clothes
Sora is his pen name. His real name is Kawai Sōgorō. He built a house beside the lower leaves of my bashō tree, and used to help me with the chores of chopping firewood and drawing water. He was delighted at the thought of seeing Matsushima and Kisagata, and came to keep me company and share the hardships of the road. The morning we left, he shaved his head, changed into a priest’s black robes, and took the name of Sōgo [the Enlightened One]. That is why he wrote the Mount Kurokami poem. The words ‘I change to new clothes’ I find particularly effective.
A mile or soup the mountain was a waterfall. The water leaps forth from a hollow in the ridge and tumbles down a hundred feet into a dark green pool strewn with a thousand stones. You can squeeze between the rocks and the cascade, and see the waterfall from behind. Hence its name Urami-no-taki [Rear View Falls].
alone behind the
waterfall a little while –
now summer retreat
<那須>
那須の黒はねと云所に知人あれば是より野越にかゝりて直道をゆかんとす。遥に一村を見かけて行に、雨降日暮る。農夫の家に一夜をかりて、明れば又野中を行。そこに野飼の馬あり。草刈おのこになげきよれば、野夫といへどもさすがに情しらぬには非ず「いかゝすべきや、されども此野は縦横にわかれてうゐ／＼敷旅人の道ふみたがえん、あやしう侍れば、此馬のとゞまる所にて馬を返し給へ」とかし侍ぬ。ちいさき者ふたり馬の跡したひてはしる。独は小姫にて名を「かさね」と云。聞なれぬ名のやさしかりければ、
かさねとは八重撫子の名成べし 曾良
頓て人里に至れば、あたひを鞍つぼに結付て馬を返しぬ。
I had an acquaintance who lived in Kurobane in Nasu, so we decided to take the shortest route, straight across the plain. We took a bearing from a village in the distance, but as we walked, the rain began to fall and the darkness closed in. We took lodgings for the night at a farmhouse, and next morning started off again across the plain.
We came upon a horse grazing and a farmer cutting grass. We asked him the way. Although a simple, rustic man, he was full of sympathy. He pondered a while, then said, ‘What would be the best thing to do? The trails here criss-cross all over the place, and strangers like you could easily get lost. That worries me. I’ll let you have the horse. When he won’t go any further, just send him back.’ And with that, he leant us his horse.
Two small children followed us, running behind the horse. One of them, a little girl, was called Kasane [Double]. It was such an unusual and charming name that Sora wrote about it:
Kasane must be
the name given the wild pink
with double petals
Before long, we reached a village and turned the horse back home, with some money tied to the saddle.
<黒羽>
黒羽の館代浄坊寺何がしの方に音信る。思ひがけぬあるじの悦び、日夜語つゞけて、其弟桃翠など云が朝夕勤とぶらひ、自の家にも伴ひて、親属の方にもまねかれ日をふるまゝに、ひとひ郊外に逍遥して、犬追物の跡を一見し、那須の篠原わけて玉藻の前の古墳をとふ。それより八幡宮に詣。与一扇の的を射し時、「別しては我国氏神正八まん」とちかひしも此神社にて侍と聞ば、感應殊しきりに覚えらる。暮れば、桃翠宅に帰る。
修験光明寺と云有。そこにまねかれて行者堂を拝す。
夏山に足駄を拝む首途哉
We called on Jōbōji, the senior pro-governorof Kurobane. He was delighted to see us so unexpectedly, and kept us chattingaway days and nights together. His younger brother, Tōsui, seized every chance to talk with us, and invited us to his own home, as well as introducing us to his relatives and friends. And so the time passed by.
One day, we took a stroll to the outskirts of the town, and saw the remains of the old dog-shooting grounds. We pressed further out on to the plains to pay our respects at the tomb of Lady Tamamo, and then at the shrine of Hachiman. We were especially moved when we heard that it was to this god that Yoichi had cried, as he aimed his arrow at the fan. As darkness fell, we returned to Tōsui’s house.
Nearby, there was a mountain-cult temple called Kōmyōji. We were invited there, and worshipped in the Hall of the Ascetic:
in summer mountains
we say prayers before the shoes …
journey now begins
<雲岸寺>
当国雲岸寺のおくに佛頂和尚山居跡あり。
竪横の五尺にたらぬ草の庵
むすぶもくやし雨なかりせば
と松の炭して岩に書付侍りと、いつぞや聞え給ふ。其跡みんと雲岸寺に杖を曳ば、人々すゝんで共にいざなひ、若き人おほく道のほど打さはぎて、おぼえず彼梺に到る。山はおくあるけしきにて谷道遥に、松杉黒く苔したゞりて、卯月の天今猶寒し。十景尽る所、橋をわたつて山門に入。
さてかの跡はいづくのほどにやと後の山によぢのぼれば、石上の小庵岩窟にむすびかけたり。妙禅師の死関、法雲法師の石室をみるがごとし。
木啄も庵はやぶらず夏木立
と、とりあへぬ一句を柱に残侍し。
Behind Unganji temple in this province, up in the mountains, was a hermitage where the priest Butchō used to live. Butchō once told me that he had inscribed the following poem on a rock, in charcoal made from pine:
Oh how much I loathe
building a shelter at all,
even a grass-thatched
hut not five feet long or wide –
if only it never rained …
I wanted to see what remained of the hut, and so, walking-staff in hand, I set out. A group of young people accompanied me on the way, chattering away happily, and before I knew it we had reached the foot of the mountain. It seemed so deep. A valley path stretched far into the distance, lined by darkly clustering pines and cedars. Dew dripped from the moss, and even though it was the Fourth Month [early summer], the air still felt cold. When we had passed all the Ten Sights, we crossed a bridge and the temple gate.
Eager to discover the site of the hermitage, I scrambled up the hill behind the temple to a tiny hut built upon a rock, leaning against a cave. It was like coming upon the Death Gate of the monk Miao, or the stone chamber of the monk Fayun. I left an impromptu verse on a post in the hut:
even woodpeckers
leave the hermitage untouched
in the summer trees
<殺生岩・蘆野>
是より殺生石に行。館代より馬にて送らる。此口付のおのこ、短冊得させよと乞。やさしき事を望侍るものかなと、
野を横に馬牽むけよほとゝぎす
殺生石は温泉の出る山陰にあり。石の毒気いまだほろびず。蜂蝶のたぐひ真砂の色の見えぬほどかさなり死す。
又、清水ながるゝの柳は蘆野の里にありて田の畔に残る。此所の郡守戸部某の此柳みせばやなど、折々にの給ひ聞え給ふを、いづくのほどにやと思ひしを、今日此柳のかげにこそ立より侍つれ。
田一枚植て立去る柳かな
From Kurobane, I headed towards the Killing Stoneon a horse lent to us by Jōbōji. The man leading the horse asked if I would write a poem for him. Pleasantly surprised that he had such artistic interests, I gave him this:
turn the horse’s head
towards the plain; pullthere now!
a cuckoo’s calling …
The Killing Stone stands in dark mountain shadownear a hot spring. The gases emanating from the rock were full of poison still. So many bees and butterflies and other insects lay dead in heaps around it, you couldn’t tell the colour of the sand.
At Ashino, the weeping willow thatSaigyō celebrated, ‘where pure and crystal water flows’, stands on the bank between two rice-fields. A local official there, a man called Kohō, had often said how much he would like to show me the tree, and I’d often wondered exactly where it stood. Now, I rested in its shade:
one whole field of rice
had all been sown – before I
left the willow-tree
Reprinted from Tim Chilcott LITERARY TRANSLATIONS (www.tclt.org.uk).
Until his retirement, Tim Chilcott was Dean of Arts and Humanities at the University of Chichester, England. He has maintained a lifelong interest in English Romantic literature, particularly the work of John Clare, about whom he has written extensively. His other major research interest is literary translation, and his website devoted to translation can be accessed at www.tclt.org.uk. This currently comprises some forty major works of world literature, by over twenty different writers.