Matsuo Bashō

(View this video to understand this week's post.)

In the introduction, readers are informed that Matsuo Bashō’s goal “was [to] always [be] on the move in search for new poetic themes, new language, and new objects. In his travel diaries he accomplished nothing less than influencing how people saw some of the most defining sites of Japanese identity” (325).  Through this video, the creator includes Bashō’s ability to intertwine simplicity with deepness and mood with the season.

The creator of this video depicts various scenes of Japan, from a woman brushing her hair to the cherry blossoms in spring. There seems to be no lack of images for Bashō’s poetry. More significant, many of the images depict the mood, if not the same season Bashō mentions in his poetry. For instance, there is a poem from this week’s reading very similar to one found in the video. From the anthology:

                                                Loneliness---

                                                an autumn beach judged

                                                superior to Suma’s* (336)

*The footnote describes this as “a coastal town well-known for people who spent their time in exile” (336).

Bashō uses autumn to deepen the level of loneliness being felt, something he describes prior to the poem: “We drank tea, warmed up sake, and were overwhelmed by the loneliness of the evening” (336). This poem arranges autumn next to a city well-known for people being exiled away from everything they knew to. Another poem within the video also uses autumn as a depiction of loneliness:

                                                this autumn-

                                                old age I feel,

                                                in the birds, the clouds

While the first poem was referring to something larger, a town, this poem is focusing on birds and clouds. However, both poems have sad tones and contain a reference to autumn. Previous to this poem in the video, viewers are shown a very depressing photo of a stream of water. Although there is no solid indication of autumn, the mood of both poems in captured. The only bright color is that of the stream. Otherwise, the trees and background are earth tones of brown, tan, and black. There is no action or figures of people. Viewers are left with only a feeling of loneliness.

In the course of this video, it is obvious that the creator was not simply influenced by the poetry, but sought to prove how proficient of a poet Bashō was by aligning his poetry with images of Japan. The ability of art and literature to depict a view and/or experience is shown in this video.

Works Cited

“Matsuo Bashō.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner. Vol. II. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2013. 324-5. Print.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner. Vol. II. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2013. 325-336. Print.

Classic of Poetry

As discussed in the introduction of “Classic Poetry,” many of the poems in Chinese literary history (1000-6000 B.C.E.) were not simply used for aesthetics. Many of the poems from this era have a “moral or political purpose” (756). One specific focus is the moral expectation of a woman’s virtue through the metaphor of fruit.

“Peach Tree Soft and Tender” is a poem that juxtapositions the pureness of the blossoming peach tree and a bride. One stanza reads:

Peach tree soft and tender,

its leaves spread thick and full.

The bride is going to her home,

she well befits these folk. (760)

In this stanza, the reader is first introduced to the idea of an untainted fruit, in its prime (thick and full) by the unknown narrator. Then, a bride going to her husband’s home, a home for which she is indicated to be appropriate (befits). The stanza beginning with the introduction of pure fruit is no coincidence.

            “Plums Are Falling” is another poem placing a bride and fruit together. The last stanza reads:

Plums are falling,

catch them in a basket;

many men want me,

let me be bride of one. (760)

Unlike the previous poem, this is a poem from a known female’s perspective. Again, the stanza begins with the idea of unsullied fruit and marriage of the bride.

            Lastly, “Quince” is poem that is not as obvious about the purity of a woman and her chance of becoming a bride. However, this love poem describes the exchange of three types of fruit: quince, peach, and plum. While the narrator receives these fruit, he sends back a ruby for the female. Yet, the male claims he is the winner of this deal because “by this love will last” (762). The female’s exchange of her fruit for love is extremely suggestive.

            Although none of these three poems are extremely forthcoming about the moral expectation of a woman’s virtue in order for love, or more importantly, marriage, the suggestive undertones and continuously juxtaposition of fruit and a woman does indicate this. Fruit, in its simple, lushness, has often been paired with the theme of woman, as well as sexuality. The most commonly known is western culture is the forbidden fruit Eve ate from the tree in the Garden of Eden. Also, there is an implication of fruitful fertility.

                             Work Cited 

“Classic of Poetry.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 756-766. Print.

Somadeva

In Somadeva’s ‘The Red Lotus of Chastity,” readers are shown two sides of the same coin: good and evil of disguise. While our heroine, Devasmita, uses disguise to keep honor and foil her enemies, another female, Yogakarandika, a wandering nun, gleefully partakes in evil disguises.

Yogakarandika claims to have the ability of sight in order to gain Devasmita’s trust; a trust she wants to gain only in order to betray Devasmita by steering her to be untrue to her husband. Yogakarandika devised a plan to demonstrate her sight abilities by claiming she knew Devasmita’s dog from a previous life; a life where she voluntarily, frequently cheated on her wealthy, Brahmin husband. The woman who did not cheat on her husband is being punished in this life. Yogakarandika says to Devasmita, “Our highest duty, you know, it to yield to the demands of sense and element. That is why I in this present life have the privilege of remembering past existences. But she in her ignorance guarded her chastity, and so she has been reborn a bitch, though she does remember her other life” (Somadeva 1277). To seal this disguise, Yogakarandika had already secretly fed the Devasmita’s dog “a piece of meat covered with sneezing powder” in order to make sure she could claim this dog (or woman she knew from the past life) was crying (1277). Yogakarandika, believing this has gained Devasmita’s trust, sends all four brother merchants on four separate nights to Devasmita’s home disguised as her pupil (1277).

In order to not only keep her honor, but also to foil her enemies’ plots, Devasmita must use disguise as well. She keeps her honor by instructing one of her maids to dress up as her, Devasmita, in order to drug each merchant, give them proper punishment, and leave them with a dog’s paw mark on their forehead (1277-8). However, Devasmita’s most important disguise is as a man. She must travel to find her husband before the four merchant brothers can find him. However, in order to travel, she must disguise herself along with her maids as merchants (men) (1279).

Much like Shakepeare’s Twelfth Night, where the heroine, Viola, must disguise herself as a man for her own safety and ease of travel, the women in this story are left to their own tools of disguise to live their lives unreservedly. However, Devasmita is congratulated for her disguises; she even wins praise from her mother-in-law, a highly sought after approval in Indian culture (1278). The last line reads, “Honored by all upright people, Devasmita, with the ransom she had received and the husband she had rejoinded, returned to their city Tamralipti and never again was she separated from the husband she loved” (1279). However, Yogakarandika and her equally as evil pupil both receive a traditional punishment, “the chaste wife cut off their noses and ears and tossed them outside in a sewage pit” (1278).

Somadeva. "The Red Lotus of Chastity.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. 1274-1279. Print.