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17 Feb: "No one travels..." by Matsuo Basho

No one travels
Along this way but I,
This autumn evening.
- Matsuo Bashō

3 comments:

  1. Reminds me of "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost.

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  2. Definitely similar to Frost! The thing I like about this poem is that it is in the present tense where The Road Not Taken is in the past tense. I think the Basho allows the road to feel closer, inward versus viewing the road as a fork- outwardly.

    Is it ironic that both poems were set in autumn? "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood"....and "autumn evening" or do they choose the autumn as the season of ChANGE on purpose? The transformative season....but then, so is spring....hmmm....

    BUT of course, I love both poems terrifically!

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  3. This poem is a lot more egotistical. No one else and only I. I can relate. There is something significant to having feelings of being the only or the first to something. I have wondered if I was the only human to ever watch the stars or eat a meal from the location I was. And the idea/odds that I might have been greatly enhanced my experience. Even though, now in hindsight, I probably wasn't. Why do we want to create these narratives of is being so unique and special?

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