Poetry: Unboxing - "Basho's Haiku" - Toshiharu Oseko

[@minooluna23]

But Rumi is great. Do you cover your books with protective cover ? Looks nice

[@Jgrande113]

Where can one find this volume 🥹🤝🏽😅

[@hakonsoreide]

I'm not sure what kind of edition size this was printed in, but there don't seem to be many of these around. I think I was just very lucky that one was available on eBay just as I was looking for it. If you want to get hold of one, I'd check out Abe Books and eBay regularly to look out for it. On eBay you certainly can receive notifications for things you are looking for. I don't know if Abe Books has something similar as I've only shopped through it a few times. Good luck finding one.

[@buckduck8936]

Hey man, Im looking for Info about Mr. Oseko. I read a translation many years ago. My question is, is there a piece about his time in america and return to Japan?

[@hakonsoreide]

Information about the author tends to be sparse in any academic book, and there is very little to be gleaned from this one. The only clue might be in people he credit in his acknowledgements section: There is a mention of Prof. and Mrs. Eugine E. Rebstock, San Fancisco State University who "gave kind advice and assistance". He also credits Mr. David Helliwell, librarian at Oxford University Library, for reading the manuscript and giving Mr. Oseko "valuable suggestions". And that's it, really. I did find this article, however, that you may find useful if you haven't seen it already: www.independent.co.uk/news/world/out-of-japan-poetic-justice-for-a-life-blighted-by-sickness-and-war-1507442.html

[@buckduck8936]

Thanks A lot! I read A tranalation of Basho many years ago. and there was a little bit about the translator. How he was in the west. and returned back home for a visit. It was such a lovely writing that Ive been looking for it again and cant find it. Are yoi still studying Basho or any other forms of poetry?

[@hakonsoreide]

I'm not studying poetry in the academic institutional sense, and indeed I haven't since I studied comparative literature and English 25 years ago, but I like reading and writing poetry, and I do buy poetry books from time to time, whenever I come across a poet whose work I really like in anthologies, or when I find something I enjoy when browsing in a bookshop. I also try to read at least some poetry every week; my favourite poets to read at the moment are Dorothy Parker and Emily Brontë. I am also currently reading Derek Lin's literal translation of Lao-Tzu's Tao-Te-Ching. Just like with Bashō, literal translations with annotations are the best for literary works of a different culture to your own. Many others are often not so much a translation as a single person's interpretation (or sometimes misinterpretation), often even based on the interpretations of others rather than the original. An annotated literal translation empowers the readers fully to make up their own minds about what a poem means to them.

[@deanstevenson1]

Hello and thank you for your video. I’ve just come from Japan where I saw and partly read this book. I took a picture of the cover but am finding it difficult to locate the book to purchase. Where did you find it? I’m very keen to get it at home. Many thanks. Dean.

[@hakonsoreide]

Thanks for your comment. Being interested in poetry in general, and Japanese language and culture as well, it just occurred to me one day to check if there was a dual language version of Bashō's haiku. Since Haiku are so short a translator would need even more poetic licence to translate them than for most poems, basically completely changing them in the process. That is when I found a reference to this particular book, which was self-published by Oseko himself, and probably printed in a very small run. I proceeded to check on eBay and found one copy available at a price I thought fair concidering the apparent rarity of the book (£200), and so I bought it. I guess I was quite lucky that one was for sale just at the same time I found out about it. Apparently, as I discovered later, this book isn't the complete haiku but the 330 best known ones, and then 6 years later Oseko published a follow-up volume with the remainder, though it doesn't go as much in-depth into each. I think that might be even harder to find. Both volumes are available as pdf's, at least from the Haiku Foundation digital library. Vol 1: www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/items/show/208 Vol 2: www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/items/show/209 I guess you just have to keep looking regularly to find it.

[@deanstevenson1]

Thank you so much for such a lovely reply so soon. I will keep looking. Oseko’s writing made such sense to me. I wonder if it will be as clear once I leave Japan. Thanks for the link. All the best.

[@alliouxbrigitte1541]

起きよ起きよ我が友にせん寝る胡蝶 Debout ! Debout ! Je ferai de toi mon ami Papillon endormi english translation by Oseko p. 89 VOL 2 Wake up, wake up ! I'll make you a friend of mine, Dear sleeping butterfly !

[@hakonsoreide]

Sounds great in French.