The Infinite Voyage

I.
Impromptu at Fukagawa

the pathos
of a street hawker’s geese
Ebisu Festival Bashō [1]

drizzle at the eaves
falling… letting up… Yaba

the carpenter’s saw
stops
at a small knot Ko’oku

on the half-bald mountain
he views the moon Rigyū

he keeps a stash
of his favorite rice cakes…
the winds of autumn Yaba

a province with cheap firewood—
dew and frost Bashō

the net-fisher
calls out
to a friend’s boat Rigyū

can’t see a single star:
twenty-eighth night Ko’oku

hunger, more than anything,
is the big thing
in war Bashō

in the light snowfall
not even small talk Yaba

the cage lantern
shining white:
he blows it out Ko’oku

at the bathhouse
he rubs a salve on his shoulder Rigyū

even while chopping
the dried herbs
she’s day-dreaming Yaba

a day off for the packhorse boy:
flirting with the servant girl Bashō

the spool-collector
comes calling late,
close to dusk Rigyū

a low-ranking samurai,
but a tall fence, a big gate Ko’oku

this island’s
ruffians pray as well…
moon and blossoms Bashō

sunshine warms the sands
the green grasses Yaba

manure sinks
into the snow
on the new field Ko’oku

sedge-hat blown off
chasing after it Rigyū

river-crosser:
the water up to his waist
worries him Yaba [2]

a flatland temple,
its brush fence Bashō

the drying clothes
swayed over
into the sunshine Rigyū

before soaking the salted duck
she unties the wrapping Ko’oku

their frugal ways
dictate their lives
those Kyoto dwellers Bashō

another girl is born,
but no one is told Yaba

in the confusion
of the New Year’s Eve
merrymaking Ko’oku

the illiterate man’s requested
letter is all backwards Rigyū

on friendly terms,
the colleagues
help each other out Yaba

a knock from next-door:
“You’re asleep? Tonight’s the full moon!” Bashō

the wind dies down:
an autumn gull
makes its descent Rigyū

at the carp pond
a man waits with his bird-clapper Ko’oku

they come back
in ts and threes
to the rice-loading dock Bashō

Meguro pilgrimage –
the companion dawdles behind Yaba [3]

everything, everywhere
blossoming—middle
of the third month Ko’oku

a spring wind sweeps away
the charcoal dust Rigyū [4]


II
Ichinaka wa – Downtown

Downtown the smells of things… summer moon Bonchō [1]

“It’s hot! It’s hot!”– voices gate to gate Bashō

Second weeding not even finished and the rice is in ear Kyorai [2]

He taps the ashes off a dried herring Bonchō

Along this route silver’s unknown– what a bother! Bashō

Simply too long for him that short sword Kyorai

Scared by a frog in a tussock… evening twilight Bonchō

Out hunting butterburs, her lantern shakes out Bashō

I realized the Way when the blossoms were in bud Kyorai

At Nanao in Noto harsh winter living Bonchō [3]

Here I am sucking the bones of a fish, pondering old age Bashō

The sidegate key that let in the awaited one Kyorai [4]

Servant girls lean too close, toppling the folding screen Bonchō

Bamboo duckboards a very spartan bath Bashō

An evening storm blows down the fennel’s seeds Kyorai

The priest, getting colder, returns to the temple, I see Bonchō

A monkey trainer travels life with a monkey autumn moon Bashō

Annually taxed one bushel of rice Kyorai [5]

Five or six logs freshly cut soak in a puddle Bonchō

He soils his tabi on the black-dirt path Bashō [6]

Sending off his master’s swift horse sword bearer Kyorai

The apprentice spills his water jug Bonchō

Doors and shōji covered with straw mats mansion for sale Bashō [7]

Nobody’s looking pepper pods turn red Kyorai

Quietly weaving straw sandals in the moonlight Bonchō

Up to shake out the fleas she wakes to autumn Bashō

The box-trap has fallen but no mouse Kyorai

The lid is warped and doesn’t fit the chest Bonchō

A little while in a grass hut then he knocks it down Bashō

Glad to be alive: news of an anthology Kyorai [8]

Many ways there are and many kinds there are to love Bonchō

This floating life’s end: we’re all Komachi Bashō [9]

Why is it? even sipping porridge the tears come Kyorai

The master is away how wide these floors seem! Bonchō

He lets a louse crawl in his palm blossom shade Bashō

Motionless, the spring haze noontime sleepiness Kyorai


III
Umi Kurete no Maki - The Sea Grows Dark



The sea grows dark: a duck’s voice faintly white Bashō

skewered whale on the grill… and a drink Tōyō

For 200 years on this mountain I took up the axe Tōtō

Acorn-sowing autumn he swept it away Gōzan[2]

Under a sinking moon red crossbills traverse the sky Tōyō

He carries the dewdrops of a remote province Bashō[3]

“This rain is it the tears of my aging mother?” Gōzan

One flower blooming: a peony at the window Tōtō

His go strategy comes to him two days later Bashō

Back in Zhou the cry of a fox Tōyō[4]

Digging mushrooms in a dry riverbed, darkness approaching Tōtō[5]

Peeled pine timbers: the shrine gateway Gōzan

Rain-hat laid out he mends the rips in his robe Tōyō

Autumn birds dine at the burial ground Bashō[6]

A typhoon on this beach two days ago bright moon Gōzan

In mist droplets a dragon is drawn Tōtō

Blossom clouds, the stone door is pushed open Tōyō

Heat shimmers venerate the beauty’s form Gōzan

Silent butterflies and an Ezo bridegroom bemoaning himself Bashō[7]

Dried sea slugs even: tears wet his sleeves Tōtō

Through the trees to the west a temple’s white walls Gōzan

A viny hut in a grove ten-by-ten feet Bashō

The lone old man forms little by little an earthenware pot Tōtō

Infamous in Kyoto the curse of the bumps Tōyō

“Fuji’s peak!” he shouts, in rain-hat on horseback Bashō[8]

One crane flies off somewhere to sleep? Gōzan

Awaiting nightfall at her mirror in light makeup Tōyō

The page, hid in her robe, pushes on the bush clover’s gate Tōtō

Thin moon… a clock tolls the hour: two in the morning Gōzan

A hurried casket in the fast-dying dew Bashō

Broken armor sent back to his homeland Tōtō

The kingdom of Koguryo: plowing the fields Tōyō[9]

Chinese paper dyed lilac scented with blossoms Bashō

A companion for long days at the small shrine Gōzan

In the spring shower a new convert approaches carrying rice cakes Tōyō

Her travel-cloak is wisteria with a young grass pattern Tōtō[10]



Translated by Sean Pierce
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