Basho

Considering Matsuo Basho composed some of his most touching haiku playing pilgrim in the footsteps of the ancient masters, a montage of still images in motion, evocative of difficult journeys and the fleeting tableaux of the traveler, forms a suitable backdrop to a selection of his finer poems. The juxtaposition of images and poetic counterparts offers readers easy entrance to the magic of his words.

The videographer seems to have selected his images and couplings with precisely this purpose in mind: to ease the uninitiated into a deep appreciation of the loveliness and shock of haiku.

Also notable is the melancholy instrument, solitary in the background of image and poem, its plaintive airs possibly suggesting the forlornness and weariness of the traveler. It isn't easy to say whether such a melancholy ambience is appropriate to the spirit of the poet. Likely a Westerner's bias against arduous whimsical pilgrimage on foot played a role in the videographer's selection. If Basho's haiku are best experienced shot through with the melancholy strains of an eerie string instrument---nothing in the excerpt from the Deep North suggests it. Basho's presence on the page has the spirit of absence; the poet divorced, ghostlike, from the poem. (How creativity became such an ego-driven sport in the West is a mystery.)