Poet: Matsuo Bashô
Winter Solitude by Matsuo Bashō
Kathryn Darnell makes film animations from calligraphy of poetry. In this piece, Winter Solitude, the lines are from a poem by Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694), a major progenitor of what came to be known as haiku.
winter solitude—
in a world without color
the sound of the wind
Dave: Not sure who translated this. The original reads 冬枯れや 世は一色に 風の音 which is better captured by Robert Hass’ translation, rendering the second line “in a world of one color” (yo wa isshoku ni). Fuyugare (冬枯れ) means winter bleakness; kare/gare means dry, withered, dead, etc. But I guess loneliness is also implied.
Marie: Darnell made this film for the 2022 northern hemisphere winter solstice just passed. Even from here in the midsummer of Australia I appreciate the light touch of snow in this film, and the simple beauty of the words.
As adjudicator of the Atticus Review Poetry Film Competition in 2018, I awarded first prize to an earlier film by Kathryn Darnell, Things I Found in the Hedge. This was a collaboration with UK poet Lucy English, who commissioned the piece for her larger poetry film project, The Book of Hours. This film was also part of the Poetry & Video international touring program I curated the following year. Another of Darnell’s films I have shared here at Moving Poems is Write Out: A Scribe’s Haiku #3.
From the ‘about’ page of her website:
Less important than what I do… but here it is in a nutshell. I also answer to Kate, Kath or K.L.Darnell. A native of Michigan and a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Art, I maintained a freelance studio art practice in East Lansing, Michigan for 40 years. I spent most of those years also teaching art; both independently, facilitating workshops, and as an adjunct professor in the art program at Lansing Community College.
Happy New Year to all reading!
from the Travelogue of Weather-Beaten Bones by Matsuo Basho
This is Basho by Babak Gray, starring Yoshi Oida and Dai Tabuchi, with haiga-style illustrations by Graham High (who also, believe it or not, built the animatronics for Aliens). It’s actually one of the first things I ever posted to this site, but the original upload was taken down, so I unpublished the post. Let’s hope the film stays online this time.
The English translation of the travelogue and haiku included in the film is mostly from Sam Hamill. Here’s the description at Vimeo (minus the credits):
The legacy of Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), famous Japanese poet, is his elevation of haiku to the realm of high poetry. This film, an adaptation of Basho’s ‘Travelogue of Weather-Beaten Bones’, reveals a glimpse into an account of one of Basho’s journeys in the company of confidante and disciple, Chiri.
An interview with director, Babak Gray is available here.
My favorite quote from that interview:
It’s the lightness and ease with which [Basho] treated a subject which we would imagine could only be treated by recourse to tragedy, or something altogether darker and heavier than the language of haiku. That’s what I find so striking—and ultimately so brave. It produces an effect which is at once beautiful, noble and serene. At times more than that, the effect seems deliberately, teasingly ironic, or provocative at least, something like a koan.
That’s the effect I wanted to reproduce in this film.
But do read the whole interview. Fascinating stuff.
Nozarashi Kikô, also translated as Record of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton, was published in 1684, the first of four haibun travelogues Basho wrote (the most famous being Oku no Hosomichi — The Narrow Road to the Far North). As the Wikipedia puts it,
Traveling in medieval Japan was immensely dangerous, and at first Bashô expected to simply die in the middle of nowhere or be killed by bandits. As the trip progressed, his mood improved and he became comfortable on the road. He met many friends and grew to enjoy the changing scenery and the seasons. His poems took on a less introspective and more striking tone as he observed the world around him. […] The trip took him from Edo to Mount Fuji, Ueno, and Kyoto.
