Narrow Road to the Interior

<b>A masterful translation of one of the most-loved classics of Japanese literature—part travelogue, part haiku collection, part account of spiritual awakening</b><br><br> Bashō (1644–1694)—a great luminary of Asian literature who elevated the haiku to an art form of utter simplicity and intense spiritual beauty—is renowned in the West as the author of <i>Narrow Road to the Interior</i>, a travel diary of linked prose and haiku recounting his journey through the far northern provinces of Japan.<br><br> This edition features a masterful translation of this celebrated work. It also includes an insightful introduction by translator Sam Hamill detailing Bashō’s life and the art of haiku, three other important works by Bashō—<i>Travelogue of Weather</i>-<i>Beaten Bones</i>, <i>The Knapsack Notebook</i>, and <i>Sarashina Travelogue</i>—and two hundred and fifty of his finest haiku, making this the most complete single-volume collection of Bashō’s writings.