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by William F. Jr Buckley
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Random House (1993-09-21)
ISBN: 0679403981
EAN: 9780679403982
Dewy Decimal #: 814.54
Hardcover: 473 pages
Edition: 1st
Release Date: 1993-09-21
SKU: 042308011
Condition: Used: Acceptable
Comments: exlibrary copy with the usual markings and protective cover
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
A new collection of essays from the conservative pundit presents his perspectives on, and insights into, such topics as the Gorbachev years, icons of popular culture, the Gulf War, and other contemporary issues. 25,000 first printing.
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Customer Reviews
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Happy Days Were Here Again: Reflections of a Libertarian Journalist
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-08-31
The book came in expected condition. They shipped quickly and did a great job.
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Buckley's Best
Rating (5)
Date: 2003-04-25
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is Buckley at his acerbic best on subjects as varied as John Lennon, Ted Kennedy and Elizabeth Taylor to academia, Gorbachev and The First Gulf War.It's always illuminating and stimulating to explore the brain of one of America's foremost conservative thinkers and as these essays drift more into history, his insights and deliberations become astounding in their perspicacity and accuracy. These essays cover everything from the fall of communism, the Los Angeles riots, Playboy magazine and lots more. The time spent reading this delightful paperback is time spent in the company of charming brilliance.
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Brilliant author, book uneven in quality
Rating  (4)
Date: 2002-06-05
5 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
William F. Buckley is unquestionably one of the most articulate and knowledgeable American debaters of the second half of the twentieth century. Buckley seems to know a little bit--if not a lot--about everything, and he reflects and gives observations about various topics in this collection of essays from the mid-to-late 80s and early 90s. As an author, Buckley is unfailingly witty and acerbic, and this book is littered with quips and sapient remarks. Buckley is particularly good at analyzing other peoples' positions, and at poking holes in their poor logic. That is where this book succeeds. This book occasionally fails when Buckley attempts to elucidate his own position on an issue. For instance, in one essay Buckley suggests that Beethoven is "a national monument" and should be entitled to governmental protection, so that vacationers can listen to the great composer's symphonies when they are traveling in non-cosmopolitan areas. My suggestion to Buckley would be to rent a car with a tape deck or cd player. It is not necessary for the government to mandate all-Beethoven channels in all cities and towns in order for citizens to listen to Beethoven when they are on vacation. In another essay Buckley spells out the case for allowing women to serve in the military, but then says that he takes the opposite position. His explanation for why he is against women serving in the military is vague. He says that allowing women to join the armed forces is repugnant to "human nature," which leads one to wonder how Buckley would respond to someone who believes that what he calls "human nature" is an artificial construct. Maybe he did not provide a response to that question because of spacial constraints, but I think that if he is going to base a policy position on human nature, he should provide readers with some sort of idea of what his theory of human nature is.
I hope that I have not accentuated the negative too much in this review, because Buckley truly is a wonderful writer and an interesting read. He has opinions about everything, and he is fun to read not only for what he has to say, but also for how he says it. His vocabulary is expansive and his word-choices are colorful. This book should be read by anyone who wants intelligent and fiercely-opinionated commentary on newsworthy events, and the various parties involved, from 1985 to 1992.
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Everything You Could Expect.
Rating (4)
Date: 2002-04-24
7 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is a fine collection of the thoughts and witticisms of William F Buckley. It covers most any area that Mr. Buckley holds an Interest whether it be politics, social affairs, sailing, classical music and spending time with dignitaries and well to do people. It is fantastically written (as can be expected from Buckley) however it seemed to talk just over the head of the common man. With his infatuation with the Ryder Cup and talking about people who are important to him, really have no impact on my life. All in all it is a very well written fast paced collection. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys political and social commentary. And to anyone who just like to read something different than a novel or text of history.
Thanks For Your Time:
T
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An Entertaining and Valuable Read
Rating (5)
Date: 2000-06-23
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
As I read this book, I laughed, I cheered, and, most amazingly, I remembered. WFB's resume gives him a wide range of ideas from which to draw, all of which do seem to find their way into his work, and serve to make the most mundane of topics worthwhile. As a conservative commentator, he is without peer, so you who would buy this book will gain insight. But what I found most valuable was that Mr. Buckley's writings don't just remind me of the past, they create memories of the moods, the voices; the hysteria when Reagan said "evil empire", the absolute shock when the Wall fell, the absurdity of Senator Weicker, and so on. I was at West Point in the late Eighties, and so got most of my news, as Mr. Whiting will attest, from the New York Times, and this helps me remember that there are more than just my former service mates and left-wing journalists in the world. And finally, those of you who just can't stand WFB's mannerisms and delivery, it's not an audio book, and you can put whatever soundtrack you want to it, and have full control of the dosage.
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by Dinesh D'Souza
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Basic Books (2002-10)
ISBN: 0465017339
EAN: 9780465017331
Dewy Decimal #: 320.520973
Hardcover: 224 pages
Release Date: 2002-10-01
SKU: 050108056
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...No Underlining or Highlighting...
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Among the topics Dinesh D'Souza covers in Letters to a Young Conservative:--Fighting Political Correctness--Authentic vs. Bogus Multiculturalism--Why Government Is the Problem--When the Rich Get Richer--How Affirmative Action Hurts Blacks--The Feminist Mistake--All the News That Fits--How to Harpoon a Liberal--The Self-Esteem Hoax--A Republican Realignment?--Why Conservatives Should Be Cheerful
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Customer Reviews
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The Conservative Manifesto
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-07-08
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Dinesh D'Souza is an Indian immigrant who served as an author of the Dartmouth Review during his days at the college, and subsequently became a policy analyst for President Ronald Reagan. He is one of the leaders of modern intellectual conservatism, much to the ire of old Dartmouth alumni.
When I picked up "Letters to a Young Conservative", I described myself as a "skeptical conservative". I supported private industry, but also liked minimum wage; I supported tax cuts, but also wanted more welfare spending; I opposed affirmative action, but only because it was being mismanaged. In short, I liked both liberal ideals and conservative ideals, and wanted to take both sides.
D'Souza destroyed my addiction to fence-hopping. He's an excellent, witty writer; even the sections of the book which themes I took no interest in prior, such as feminism, held my attention the whole time. I agreed with every sentence, and only put the book down to get a drink.
Let me give you an example. Before, I was skeptical about President Abraham Lincoln. I admired that he freed the slaves, but did not fancy the fact that he was racist himself; or that his war efforts were so destructive; or that he imprisoned so many people during wartime. In but maybe 20 pages, D'Souza turned me into an adamant fan of Lincoln.
Many conservatives are afraid to make the jump to the right-wing, because they still have doubts in the back of their mind that maybe welfare is better for society; that maybe affirmative action is necessary to end racial disparity; that maybe gun control protects our freedoms. If you are one of those, I strongly recommend you read this book to cross the chasm.
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A good introduction to conservatism
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-06-20
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
The format of this book is a series of letter to a young college Republican student, Chris. Mired in campus politics and having just graduated from 13 years of public school, this young student is probably somewhat ambivalent about politics--he probably feels a tug to conservatism from his family and religion, but is being dragged in the opposite direction by, well... everything else--or at least that's how I felt.
Dinesh D'souza gives a strong and entertaining expose to Conservatism in this book. He covers issues ranging from self-esteem and Old Abe to Post-modernism. And at the end of the book, he gives a short reading-list, for people like to me to further pursue their interests in Conservative thought.
He was persuasive and as William F Buckley Jr says on the back, it is "Perfect for every undergraduate. And for every graduate who has forgotten, or never, knew, the amplitude of arguments for American conservatism."
Highly recommended.
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"Chris"? Why not Adam, Bob, Lisa, Beth?
Rating  (2)
Date: 2008-06-15
0 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
This book transformed me into a "former admirer" of D'Souza. D'Souza could have addressed his letters to Bob, Gregg, Lisa, Beth, Adam or any of the hundreds of names that are less divisive and more helpful to the cause that he is attempting to advance in this book. His choice to address the letters to "Chris," make a stronger point than the letters themselved do. This undermines the book, the author and the cause itself and has certainly turned me off. I am sympathetic to the cause he is promoting, but much less so after this book.
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A pleasant introduction to the conservative worldview
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-04-04
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
In 30 short chapters (the book is 220 pages) D'Souza takes us on a whirlwind tour of the worldview of the conservative. Because of the brief treatment each subject receives, he cannot approach a thorough defense of any of them. Nevertheless, by the end a coherent picture emerges and he concludes by offering a reading list that should more fully satisfy the appetite he was only able to whet.
In an historical overview we learn that both conservatism and modern liberalism have their roots in classical liberalism with its emphasis on freedom for the individual. But with the changes brought about in the 1930's under FDR and in the 1960's "liberation" movement, the two have diverged to the point that they really stand opposed to one another. They have a fundamental difference in their understanding of human nature.
Liberals, following Rousseau, believe we are basically good, that human nature is malleable if only we apply the right social engineering. Conflicts in the world are not seen in terms of good versus evil, but as misunderstandings. Society at large, and not individuals themselves, are to blame for bad situations such as crime and poverty. Absolute autonomy and personal subjective relativism are the twin dogmas of modern liberalism.
Conservatives, on the other hand, believe in an external, objective moral order. Terms such as good and evil refer to this moral order and thus are not inventions of the human mind. A less sunny diagnosis of human nature leads to a greater emphasis on individual responsibility since conservatives are more realistic about what we are capable of and therefore cannot deflect the blame like liberals do. It also allows for a recognition that some regimes in the world are actually evil, so force, not dialogue, may be necessary in dealing with them. While personal autonomy is important to some degree for the conservative, he finds he must balance this autonomy with duty and virtue which he recognizes from the objective moral order.
D'Souza's discussion of multiculturalism was a particularly interesting example of the clash of worldviews. He distinguishes between authentic and "bogus" multiculturalism, the former referring to a proper recognition of living in a multiracial society, but the latter referring to a leftist political ideology. A case can be made for attempting to balance university curricula to include more great books from the non-Western world. However, "it is impossible to understand multiculturalism in America without realizing that it arises from the powerful conviction that bigotry and oppression define Western civilization in general and American in particular." Consequently representative literary works from other cultures are rejected because they reflect the same bigotry and discrimination that the West is accused of. Instead marginal works are selected, ones which do not reflect their culture but do speak of victimization and oppression. So it is called bogus multiculturalism because "it views non-Western cultures through the ideological lens of Western leftist politics." True multiculturalism, in contrast, would teach the greatest works of Western and non-Western cultures. Its goal would be to study, in the words of Matthew Arnold, "the best that has been thought and said."
Liberal judicial activism also comes under fire for undermining the democratic process by imposing the left wing ideology of the judiciary on the American people. Conservatives, on the other hand, insist that in a democratic society, the people make the laws and the judges apply them. Liberals generally feel that "judges should have the power to make a ruling that specifically contravenes the Constitution and also goes against the wishes of the American people." One egregious example of liberal judicial activism is the so-called "right to privacy" that the Supreme Court found in the Constitution on which to base the legalization of abortion: this right was not found but fabricated.
Conservatives are generally pro-life while liberals are almost certainly pro-choice. In fact, being pro-choice is a litmus test for liberals hoping to have any success in politics, because it is here that personal autonomy, one of the two dogmas of liberalism, is most put to the test. Conservatives are pro-life because their less radical insistence on personal autonomy can be tempered by the overriding concern for another human being's right to life. Initially I disagreed with D'Souza's pro-life strategy. He calls hard line pro-lifers "fools" because their insistence on preventing all abortions will, in his opinion, have the result of preventing none. The reason is that the prolife movement does not enjoy the support of the American people that it would need to achieve this. Instead, he says we should focus on reducing the number of abortions as a step toward the ultimate goal of ending it. He reminds us of the strategy employed by Abraham Lincoln with the slavery issue. Although antislavery, Lincoln was not an abolitionist but instead worked toward curtailing the spread of slavery to the territories. During the Civil War, the outcome of the war was very much in question and Lincoln did not want the border states, which did have slaves, to also secede from the Union. So he carefully framed his case against the Confederacy not as one of slavery but as one of saving the Union. In this way his coalition was maintained, "a coalition whose victory was essential to the cause of antislavery." I find D'Souza's reasoning intriquing, and wonder if the pro-life movement might have more success by thinking along those lines.
Of all the chapters in the book, the one I am wary of is the one dealing with the environment. The title of the chapter, "Who cares about the snail darter?" raised a red flag from the start. His cavalier playing down of global warming concerns me. I am also not convinced by his dismissal of organic farming as inefficient, in favour of high-yield farming, assisted by bio-engineering and pesticides. He does claim that conservatives are concerned with the environment, admitting that "the stewardship of nature is now a human responsibility." He would, however, distinguish this reasonable concern with the liberal environmentalists, who "tend to operate in perpetual alarmist mode." He believes that they are opposing the solutions that have the greatest chance to work, solutions arising from growth, affluence, and technology.
D'Souza has given us an easy to read, informative overview of the terrain on which the conservative/liberal ideological battles are fought. Even a conservative doesn't have to agree with all his points to gain much from this valuable contribution.
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Wonderful book, wonderful author!
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-01-18
I read this book. It is very interesting and very educational, no matter what side of the political isle your views lie on. Mr. D'Souza has the credentials to back up his claims, and he does so in a non-threatning, intelligent, engaging way.
And the best part? I actually sent him an email asking for a clarification on one of the chapters of the book (regarding same-sex marriage), and though I will leave you in suspense by not telling you what he told me (it would take too long here), I will tell you that he and I actually had a bit of an email conversation ... something I never would have expected from a best-selling author and former White House staffer like himself. Who knew he would actually take time out of his busy day to answer random emails from a nobody like myself?
Totally impressed.
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by Matsuo Basho (Translator: Sam Hamill)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Shambhala (2000-09-26)
ISBN: 1570627169
EAN: 9781570627163
Dewy Decimal #: 895.6132
Paperback: 224 pages
Release Date: 2000-09-26
SKU: 102808026
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: ...no markings or highlighting...minor edge wear on cover
More Product Infomation
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Here is the most complete single-volume collection of the writings of one of the great luminaries of Asian literature. Basho (16441694)—who elevated the haiku to an art form of utter simplicity and intense spiritual beauty—is best known in the West as the author of Narrow Road to the Interior, a travel diary of linked prose and haiku that recounts his journey through the far northern provinces of Japan. This volume includes a masterful translation of this celebrated work along with three other less well-known but important works by Basho: Travelogue of Weather-Beaten Bones, The Knapsack Notebook, and Sarashina Travelogue. There is also a selection of over two hundred fifty of Basho's finest haiku. In addition, the translator has provided an introduction detailing Basho's life and work and an essay on the art of haiku.
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Customer Reviews
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A trip to the past
Rating (4)
Date: 2006-11-05
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
I am not a scholar or a critic, I am just a person who really enjoys haiku and as such am familiar with Basho's poetry. I bought this book because it was cited in so many other books that I have read that I just had to read it for myself. I am very glad I did.
A good portion, but not all, of the haiku contained in this book you have read countless times before, though they are translated slightly differently here. To me the real value of this book is that the poems are put in context of Basho's larger world by the prose that surrounds them. Basho's haibun tells of his various journeys around Japan, the people he meets, the sites he sees and how this all affects him.
I love history as much as haiku, and this book is a real window on the past through the eyes of a man who could relate his world in a way that is both clear and yet filled with beautiful imagery, so that 17th century Japan comes alive for you.
If you like haiku and are interested in what goes into a great poet's creative process, I feel you will enjoy this book, I know I did.
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*The Great Matsuo Basho Leads Us INWARD*
Rating (4)
Date: 2006-09-11
5 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
Matsuo Basho's "Narrow Road to the Interior" is translated by Sam Hamill, an accomplished poet who also translated the haiku of ISSA in "The Spring of my Life" (isbn # 1570621446) As B. Watson, professor at Columbia University has said, "Hamill achieves a kind of luminosity of language that I find unparalleled in other translations of the work."
Basho lived from 1644-1694 and achieved acclaim as the greatest writer of haiku and.this book of his last travels is a classic in Asian literature. His stature must have made the task of translating more difficult, even intimidating. The title is of course a metaphor for traversing life to find one's spiritual center or soul.
Amateur western writers who become enamored of writing haiku soon realize there are depths to which their studies may never take them. The sounds, the Zen way of thinking --bring much more to the equation than mere playfulness (as in senryu), or a built-in sense of syllables, and fondness for epigrams.
Basho set off on his long journey & early in his travels was loaned a horse because "it is easy to get lost." The horse carried the poet, then stopped, and returned home without the rider but carrying Basho's gift tied to the saddle. The route of Basho's travels is printed inside the covers -- he describes "pines shaped by salty winds, trained into sea-wind bonsai." In other centuries men walked hundreds of miles, giving & receiving haiku as gifts - many about history, and some memorials. His lodgings were often noted, probably because they were more often miserable than not. His writings often included geographical 'markers' -- these speak of much more than PLACE to Japanese readers. One who had been a companion on the road wrote:
"All night long
listening to the autumn winds
wandering in the mountain"
Basho himself wrote for another companion as he turned back:
"Written on my summer fan
torn in half
in autumn"
And so he gave his thanks to those who shared his journeys and the quest for answers each of us asks on our own "narrow road."
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nice of Hamill to try
Rating  (3)
Date: 2004-11-30
67 out of 71 customers found this reveiw helpful
There is only one other book where you can find these four of Basho's "travel diaries" in one volume and that is Nobuyuki Yuasa's. This compilation also includes a generous selection of Basho's hokku. These are the book's pluses. Unfortunately though, Hamill is much too intent on presenting you with Basho as a sort of haiku-zen master, an identity that Basho himself created as a voice through which to narrate. Mr Hamill would have us believe that Basho wrote poetry for the sake of zen, but the truth is that Basho studied zen for the sake of poetry. Also, Hamill's insistence upon translating in the 5-7-5 form ruins quite a few poems: you get sort of overexplanatory, prosaic verses much of the time. It is almost as if he were translating the explanations you will find in Japanese collections of Basho's verse. For example:
Hamill translates "fuyu no hi ya bajou ni kooru kageboushi" as
Crossing long fields,
frozen in its saddle,
my shadow creeps by
though it should probably (more accurately) be rendered:
winter sun...
on horse's back
a frozen shadow
Hamill dropped the phrase "fuyu no hi ya" entirely and replaced it with "Crossing long fields." I don't know why Hamill rids Basho of suggestion and nuance. Maybe he doesn't think the western reader can find poetry in hokku/haiku as they truly are.
The verse quoted by another reviewer
Your song caresses
the depths of loneliness,
high mountain bird.
might as well not be considered a translation at all. There is almost nothing of the original poem remaining except for the notion of loneliness and the kankodori, which is translated as "high mountain bird." "uki ware o sabishi-garase yo kankodori" would be translated literally as
make this sorrowful self feel lonely, cuckoo!
sabishi-garase is the imperative form of the verb that means "to cause to feel lonely." As a translator one of the worst things you can do is to try to improve upon a poem, though, personally, I don't think Hamill's versions actually do. If you don't trust the poet you're translating, then why are you doing it at all?
At the moment I am in the middle of translating Basho's "Oi no Kobumi" ("Backpack Notes") into English, and when I get stuck on an obscure phrase it helps to consult other translations to see how that translator interpreted it, but oftentimes Hamill (Yuasa is guilty of this too) just glosses over a phrase, which in the end robs the text of any of the interesting quirks in Basho's prose. I wonder if Hamill hit the same tough spots as I and just decided to gloss rather than really try to understand it.
I do not mean to be overly critical of Hamill. It is obvious that he is a good writer and some of his translations are successful but I wonder how much he really considered his renderings. In the end we are reading Hamill, not Basho.
Unfortunately, there are not many alternative translations of Basho's other haibun, but there are plenty of his "Oku no Hosomichi." Hiroaki Sato's is probably the best, since it is very faithful and it gives the most background info (including linked-verse sequences written during the journey), but Cid Corman's is nice too because he does a pretty good job at reproducing Basho's prose style. Also, if you're looking for a good collection of Basho's hokku, check out Makoto Ueda's work. For a good critical study of Basho look at Haruo Shirane's Traces of Dreams. A good internet analysis of Oku no Hosomichi: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~kohl/basho/
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The Definitive Source
Rating (5)
Date: 2003-12-02
Perhaps the most brilliant offering of Basho's beloved poetry. Excellent in composition, translation, as well as the breadth of Basho's work presented.
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Clouds of Cherry Blossoms
Rating (5)
Date: 2002-07-31
53 out of 59 customers found this reveiw helpful
Narrow Road to the Interior and other writings
by Matsuo Basho
translated by Sam HamillThis is the most complete collection of Basho's writings translated into English available in a single volume. Aficionados of Japanese culture keen on exploring the haiku literature would be hard-pressed to find a better book to start with. Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) lived during the Genroku period in Japan. The Tokugawa shogunate had unified the country and it was a time of relative peace, which allowed those so inclined a freedom of travel not usual in many periods of Japanese history. Basho was so inclined. At the age of forty his restless feet led him on several walking tours of Japan, and he left behind collected impressions of these journeys in both prose and haiku. Thoroughly versed in the Chinese and Japanese poetic traditions prevalent among the literati of his time, Basho was also an ardent disciple of Zen. He devoted his life to refining, clarifying, and simplifying his poetry. In the brief haiku form he found the perfect vehicle through which to realize his poetic ideals, and the poems he wrote have inspired and captivated readers and poets throughout the world with their elegance, insight, and simple brilliance. This volume collects together four travelogues (Narrow Road to the Interior, Travelogue of Weather-Beaten Bones, The Knapsack Notebook, and Sarashina Travelogue) and over 250 of Basho's haiku. The translator has provided an introductory essay and an afterward revealing many aspects of Basho's life, work, and the haiku form itself. Also included are a chronology of Basho's life, a map detailing his journeys, and a bibliography. Sam Hamill's translation is marvelously clear and uncluttered, and allows the glow of Basho's awareness to somehow peek through the words in his poems. The book itself is a Shambala edition, and so quite beautiful: printed on high-quality paper in a gorgeous typeface with lovely endpapers. This book is a gem. Your song caresses
the depths of loneliness,
high mountain bird.
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by Matsuo Basho (Translator: Sam Hamill)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Shambhala (2000-09-26)
ISBN: 1570627169
EAN: 9781570627163
Dewy Decimal #: 895.6132
Paperback: 224 pages
Release Date: 2000-09-26
SKU: 102808026
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: ...no markings or highlighting...minor edge wear on cover
More Product Infomation
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Here is the most complete single-volume collection of the writings of one of the great luminaries of Asian literature. Basho (16441694)—who elevated the haiku to an art form of utter simplicity and intense spiritual beauty—is best known in the West as the author of Narrow Road to the Interior, a travel diary of linked prose and haiku that recounts his journey through the far northern provinces of Japan. This volume includes a masterful translation of this celebrated work along with three other less well-known but important works by Basho: Travelogue of Weather-Beaten Bones, The Knapsack Notebook, and Sarashina Travelogue. There is also a selection of over two hundred fifty of Basho's finest haiku. In addition, the translator has provided an introduction detailing Basho's life and work and an essay on the art of haiku.
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Customer Reviews
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A trip to the past
Rating (4)
Date: 2006-11-05
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
I am not a scholar or a critic, I am just a person who really enjoys haiku and as such am familiar with Basho's poetry. I bought this book because it was cited in so many other books that I have read that I just had to read it for myself. I am very glad I did.
A good portion, but not all, of the haiku contained in this book you have read countless times before, though they are translated slightly differently here. To me the real value of this book is that the poems are put in context of Basho's larger world by the prose that surrounds them. Basho's haibun tells of his various journeys around Japan, the people he meets, the sites he sees and how this all affects him.
I love history as much as haiku, and this book is a real window on the past through the eyes of a man who could relate his world in a way that is both clear and yet filled with beautiful imagery, so that 17th century Japan comes alive for you.
If you like haiku and are interested in what goes into a great poet's creative process, I feel you will enjoy this book, I know I did.
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*The Great Matsuo Basho Leads Us INWARD*
Rating (4)
Date: 2006-09-11
5 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
Matsuo Basho's "Narrow Road to the Interior" is translated by Sam Hamill, an accomplished poet who also translated the haiku of ISSA in "The Spring of my Life" (isbn # 1570621446) As B. Watson, professor at Columbia University has said, "Hamill achieves a kind of luminosity of language that I find unparalleled in other translations of the work."
Basho lived from 1644-1694 and achieved acclaim as the greatest writer of haiku and.this book of his last travels is a classic in Asian literature. His stature must have made the task of translating more difficult, even intimidating. The title is of course a metaphor for traversing life to find one's spiritual center or soul.
Amateur western writers who become enamored of writing haiku soon realize there are depths to which their studies may never take them. The sounds, the Zen way of thinking --bring much more to the equation than mere playfulness (as in senryu), or a built-in sense of syllables, and fondness for epigrams.
Basho set off on his long journey & early in his travels was loaned a horse because "it is easy to get lost." The horse carried the poet, then stopped, and returned home without the rider but carrying Basho's gift tied to the saddle. The route of Basho's travels is printed inside the covers -- he describes "pines shaped by salty winds, trained into sea-wind bonsai." In other centuries men walked hundreds of miles, giving & receiving haiku as gifts - many about history, and some memorials. His lodgings were often noted, probably because they were more often miserable than not. His writings often included geographical 'markers' -- these speak of much more than PLACE to Japanese readers. One who had been a companion on the road wrote:
"All night long
listening to the autumn winds
wandering in the mountain"
Basho himself wrote for another companion as he turned back:
"Written on my summer fan
torn in half
in autumn"
And so he gave his thanks to those who shared his journeys and the quest for answers each of us asks on our own "narrow road."
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nice of Hamill to try
Rating (3)
Date: 2004-11-30
67 out of 71 customers found this reveiw helpful
There is only one other book where you can find these four of Basho's "travel diaries" in one volume and that is Nobuyuki Yuasa's. This compilation also includes a generous selection of Basho's hokku. These are the book's pluses. Unfortunately though, Hamill is much too intent on presenting you with Basho as a sort of haiku-zen master, an identity that Basho himself created as a voice through which to narrate. Mr Hamill would have us believe that Basho wrote poetry for the sake of zen, but the truth is that Basho studied zen for the sake of poetry. Also, Hamill's insistence upon translating in the 5-7-5 form ruins quite a few poems: you get sort of overexplanatory, prosaic verses much of the time. It is almost as if he were translating the explanations you will find in Japanese collections of Basho's verse. For example:
Hamill translates "fuyu no hi ya bajou ni kooru kageboushi" as
Crossing long fields,
frozen in its saddle,
my shadow creeps by
though it should probably (more accurately) be rendered:
winter sun...
on horse's back
a frozen shadow
Hamill dropped the phrase "fuyu no hi ya" entirely and replaced it with "Crossing long fields." I don't know why Hamill rids Basho of suggestion and nuance. Maybe he doesn't think the western reader can find poetry in hokku/haiku as they truly are.
The verse quoted by another reviewer
Your song caresses
the depths of loneliness,
high mountain bird.
might as well not be considered a translation at all. There is almost nothing of the original poem remaining except for the notion of loneliness and the kankodori, which is translated as "high mountain bird." "uki ware o sabishi-garase yo kankodori" would be translated literally as
make this sorrowful self feel lonely, cuckoo!
sabishi-garase is the imperative form of the verb that means "to cause to feel lonely." As a translator one of the worst things you can do is to try to improve upon a poem, though, personally, I don't think Hamill's versions actually do. If you don't trust the poet you're translating, then why are you doing it at all?
At the moment I am in the middle of translating Basho's "Oi no Kobumi" ("Backpack Notes") into English, and when I get stuck on an obscure phrase it helps to consult other translations to see how that translator interpreted it, but oftentimes Hamill (Yuasa is guilty of this too) just glosses over a phrase, which in the end robs the text of any of the interesting quirks in Basho's prose. I wonder if Hamill hit the same tough spots as I and just decided to gloss rather than really try to understand it.
I do not mean to be overly critical of Hamill. It is obvious that he is a good writer and some of his translations are successful but I wonder how much he really considered his renderings. In the end we are reading Hamill, not Basho.
Unfortunately, there are not many alternative translations of Basho's other haibun, but there are plenty of his "Oku no Hosomichi." Hiroaki Sato's is probably the best, since it is very faithful and it gives the most background info (including linked-verse sequences written during the journey), but Cid Corman's is nice too because he does a pretty good job at reproducing Basho's prose style. Also, if you're looking for a good collection of Basho's hokku, check out Makoto Ueda's work. For a good critical study of Basho look at Haruo Shirane's Traces of Dreams. A good internet analysis of Oku no Hosomichi: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~kohl/basho/
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The Definitive Source
Rating (5)
Date: 2003-12-02
Perhaps the most brilliant offering of Basho's beloved poetry. Excellent in composition, translation, as well as the breadth of Basho's work presented.
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Clouds of Cherry Blossoms
Rating (5)
Date: 2002-07-31
53 out of 59 customers found this reveiw helpful
Narrow Road to the Interior and other writings
by Matsuo Basho
translated by Sam HamillThis is the most complete collection of Basho's writings translated into English available in a single volume. Aficionados of Japanese culture keen on exploring the haiku literature would be hard-pressed to find a better book to start with. Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) lived during the Genroku period in Japan. The Tokugawa shogunate had unified the country and it was a time of relative peace, which allowed those so inclined a freedom of travel not usual in many periods of Japanese history. Basho was so inclined. At the age of forty his restless feet led him on several walking tours of Japan, and he left behind collected impressions of these journeys in both prose and haiku. Thoroughly versed in the Chinese and Japanese poetic traditions prevalent among the literati of his time, Basho was also an ardent disciple of Zen. He devoted his life to refining, clarifying, and simplifying his poetry. In the brief haiku form he found the perfect vehicle through which to realize his poetic ideals, and the poems he wrote have inspired and captivated readers and poets throughout the world with their elegance, insight, and simple brilliance. This volume collects together four travelogues (Narrow Road to the Interior, Travelogue of Weather-Beaten Bones, The Knapsack Notebook, and Sarashina Travelogue) and over 250 of Basho's haiku. The translator has provided an introductory essay and an afterward revealing many aspects of Basho's life, work, and the haiku form itself. Also included are a chronology of Basho's life, a map detailing his journeys, and a bibliography. Sam Hamill's translation is marvelously clear and uncluttered, and allows the glow of Basho's awareness to somehow peek through the words in his poems. The book itself is a Shambala edition, and so quite beautiful: printed on high-quality paper in a gorgeous typeface with lovely endpapers. This book is a gem. Your song caresses
the depths of loneliness,
high mountain bird.
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by Allen M. Steele
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Wilder Publications (2003-05-15)
ISBN: 1587153491
EAN: 9781587153495
Dewy Decimal #: 808
Hardcover: 256 pages
SKU: 041208036
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...No Underlining or Highlighting...edge wear on dustjacket
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Product Description
Assembled for the first time are all of two-time Hugo Award-winner Allen M. Steele's articles, essays, and travelogs. Drawn from such diverse sources as Absolute Magnitude, Artemis, and even his testimony on space travel before the United States Congress, Steele has put together a collection of work which spans his entire career as a writer. From insightful looks into the future of space travel, the nature of science fiction, the global village, and much more, here is a book certain to appeal to Steele's legion of fans, as well as readers of popular non-fiction and science fiction.
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