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Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable.
Review: A book with five autobiographical travels, three of them being his expectant last journey of life, with required farwell party etc., of Basho with haiku injected by the author, his traveling companions, or persons met along the way. It was quite an interesting read on culture and the way of life in Japan during Basho's day. The book was satisfying and interesting as a travel journal and for a taste of BashoÂfs personality and of the cultural mores of Japanese feudal society. A sense of the Japanese appreciation of nature and of symbols in nature was also conveyed. Haiku seems to embody something beyond words, natural symbols that we observe everyday captured; a sometimes great ineffable meaning in the mundane. Some of the poetry was good, as far as the translation communicated, however quite a lot also seemed lost in translation that might have been expounded upon. Yuasa Noboyuki, the translator, and writer of the forward, might have done better by talking about these difficulties and that might have brought some light to many of the haikus. The translating haiku with all of the original sense is almost impossible, so I have been told. I also have been told that Ezra Pound expounded, someplace, on just how impossible translating haiku into English is. Noboyuki might have done better to expound on his difficulties translating Japanese haiku into English and his futile attempts to convey the totality of the haiku, which could have raised the vibrancy of some of them; it was vague effort that he included in talking about this aspect. The poems were charming, as were the autobiographical travel stories of Basho. A good read.
Rating:
Summary: Life as a Journey
Review: I periodically re-read this book as a reminder that all one truly "has" in life is one's experience. In his mastery of haiku Basho pares life down to one's experience and response to the present moment. In his travels it is not the destination that is important but the journey itself, an evocation of the transience of life.
Rating: 
Summary: bad translation
Review: I read the sample review of the book on the web.
The translation of the Haiku is Wrong in the highest degree and completely fails to convey the original spirit, often even reversing the original meaning.
Try Robert Aitken's "A Zen Wave" instead, if you want to get into Basho's spirit.
Rating: 
Summary: Intimate and Comfortable
Review: Poetry translation is a thankless task, and in the final analysis it is rarely successful. Even when it is successful, it is usually for the wrong reasons. Lessing's translations of Shakespeare into German are a case in point; they are something of a minor classic in German literature, but that's because Lessing was a good poet himself. That doesn't mean that his translations are faithful. Oriental poetry in English has a similar fate. We are used to accepting translations of Chinese poetry into blank verse, which is the last thing it resembles structurally in Chinese. However, it is true that the sentiment that we expect in blank verse tends to resemble the sentiments expressed in Chinese poetry, although it would be a mistake to carry that too far. Then there is haiku, of which Basho is probably the greatest master. We all think we know what haiku is supposed to be - seventeen syllables (5-7-5), no rhyme, and a "surprise" at the end. This has become so familiar that the haiku has actually become a genre in English poetry. It doesn't take into account the almost stream-of-consciousness sensibility that haiku normally express in Japanese, and it can't, due to the limitations on what is acceptable sentence structure in English. What I feel Mr. Yuasa achieved in his translation was to bring some of the Japanese sensibility of wabi and sabi into Basho's work, not by his translations of the poems themselves, but in his translation of Basho's commentary. This was a stroke of genius on his part. Anybody who has attempted translations of haiku feels the frustration of not being able to convey the atmosphere inherent in the poems; after all, there's only so much you can do with seventeen syllables! By letting the intimate loveliness of Basho's own commentary shine through, he provides a proper setting for the poems themselves. An excellent bit of work.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful Material, Questionable Translation
Review: Tension. We all feel it, though for many different reasons. Sometimes it's as if we're caught between two worlds, being pulled in different directions by different aspects of our lives, of our selves. Basho felt it, too, I think, which was one of the reasons he took to the road, leaving hearth and home for weeks, even months at a time, travelling around Japan in search of history, beauty, poetry, and himself. As a travel narrative the book excels, describing, as Basho himself states, all the unique and arresting things he has encountered while omitting a bland historic report of every person and place he saw. The result is a dreamlike narrative, bouncing from rainy nights spent in temples to the solitude of a moonlit beach. He never sacrifices clarity for style, though. In fact, the raw, physical immediacy of his poetry is what struck me most my first time (and so far only) time through. The prose, too, is excellent, conveying his thoughts on art, his musings on Buddhism, and describing scenes with nearly as much flavor as the poetry. My one problem with this text has more to do with the translation. I am not an expert on the Japanese language, but some of the terms employed seem a little loaded to an English reader, making me wonder whether Basho really meant some of the implications of the English words. In addition, as other reviewers have noted, the poems lose a lot in translation, including much of what makes haiku such an interesting form. Granted, these are problems with any translation of poetry, but I still feel unsatisfied with this translation in a way I am not with other translations from Japanese. Perhaps it is a problem with the translation, or perhaps I find Basho so amazing that I just want his text to shine completely unhindered by the problems of my language.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Material, Questionable Translation
Review: Tension. We all feel it, though for many different reasons. Sometimes it's as if we're caught between two worlds, being pulled in different directions by different aspects of our lives, of our selves. Basho felt it, too, I think, which was one of the reasons he took to the road, leaving hearth and home for weeks, even months at a time, travelling around Japan in search of history, beauty, poetry, and himself. As a travel narrative the book excels, describing, as Basho himself states, all the unique and arresting things he has encountered while omitting a bland historic report of every person and place he saw. The result is a dreamlike narrative, bouncing from rainy nights spent in temples to the solitude of a moonlit beach. He never sacrifices clarity for style, though. In fact, the raw, physical immediacy of his poetry is what struck me most my first time (and so far only) time through. The prose, too, is excellent, conveying his thoughts on art, his musings on Buddhism, and describing scenes with nearly as much flavor as the poetry. My one problem with this text has more to do with the translation. I am not an expert on the Japanese language, but some of the terms employed seem a little loaded to an English reader, making me wonder whether Basho really meant some of the implications of the English words. In addition, as other reviewers have noted, the poems lose a lot in translation, including much of what makes haiku such an interesting form. Granted, these are problems with any translation of poetry, but I still feel unsatisfied with this translation in a way I am not with other translations from Japanese. Perhaps it is a problem with the translation, or perhaps I find Basho so amazing that I just want his text to shine completely unhindered by the problems of my language.
Rating:
Summary: Love of Nature and Passion for the Written Word
Review: With the pressures and obligations that are present in today's fast paced world, it is important to enjoy life in all of its simplicity. The master Haiku poet, Basho, lived in Japan during the late 1600's. Born into a noble class, he felt his life was more fulfilled living as a simple peasant. Valued for his inability to distinguish the difference between economic barriers, he was well respected and highly sought after as a teacher. The 1000 Mile Pilgrimage Travel and nature were very much a part of his life. During the spring of his 46th year, Basho set off on a 1,000 mile pilgrimage. Travelling by horse and on foot, he bathed in cool streams and rested in fragrant meadows. His amazing journeys are recorded in several journals and haiku collections called Back Roads to Far Towns and The Narrow Road to the Deep North. His philosophy was simple. Everything he needed to know about life was learned from nature When he came upon a little violet hiding shyly in the grass on a mountain pathway, it whispered it's secret to him. "Modesty, gentleness and simplicity," it said, "these are truly beautiful things." Glistening drops of dew on a flower had words of wisdom for him as well, "Purity is the loveliest thing in life", they said. Basho once wrote, "Real poetry is to lead a beautiful life. To live poetry is better than to write it". Everyone who reads Basho's words will take away something different. Enjoying nature, the ability to look beyond social boundaries and living a simple life make Basho's writing an encouraging and pleasant way to meditate on what life has to offer. "The months and days are wayfarers of a hundred generations, and the years that come and go are also travelers. Those who float all of their lives on a boat, or reach their old age leading a horse by the bit make travel out of each day, and out of each day their life is made." ....Basho
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