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Narrow Road to the Interior, Hōjōki

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What to expect

Japanese poetry is well-known for its clarity and concision, and Narrow Road to the Interior and Hōjōki are two of the best-loved, and most intensely Japanese, works of their kind; famous for their beautiful, delicate verse and subtle insight into the human condition. It has been said of Narrow Road that ‘it was as if the very soul of Japan had itself written it’. It takes the form of a travel diary, and traces the poet’s journey from Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to the northern interior. Hōjōki, a much earlier work written by Chōmei, a Buddhist hermit, is essentially a meditation on the transience of the world. Read by the famous classical Japanese actor Togo Igawa, the full beauty of its ancient cadences and rhythms is drawn out. Also includes detailed notes on Narrow Road to the Interior, on CD-ROM.

Critics Review

Aficionados of Japanese literature (not me alas) will know all about these two seminal 13th and 17th-century philosophical texts about giving up material possessions. Why I included them in my holiday reading package I’m not sure – two weeks on a Scottish island isn’t exactly renouncing the world. I’m glad I did. Hōjōki, like Virgil’s Eclogues, is a poetical hymn to pastoralism. Bashō’s prose – he was a famous haiku master – is equally passionate. If you get bogged down by the historical and cultural allusions, download the fifty-page crib that comes with CD 2 and voilà. It takes a while to tune in to the Japanese readers but you’ll end up wanting to compose your own haikus. Here’s my favourite: Writing a poem / with 17 syllables / can be quite difficult.

Sue Arnold, The Guardian
Author Matsuo Bashō, Kamo no Chōmei
Narrator Togo Igawa, Takashi Sudo
Duration 2 hours and 5 minutes
ISBN 9789629547851
Format Audiobook
Publisher Naxos AudioBooks
Genre Poetry
Availability AU, GB, IE, US

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