Threepenny Review MAR 2021
IN THIS ISSUE
The Great Poet Basho Begins His Journey
—ADAM ZAGAJEWSKI
(TRANSLATED FROM THE POLISH BY CLARE CAVANAGH)
After lengthy preparations
the great poet Basho begins his journey.
The very first day he happens
to walk past a sobbing child
abandoned by his parents.
He leaves him there, by the roadside,
because, he says, such is Heaven’s Will.
He walks on, northwards, toward the snow
and things unseen, unknown.
Slowly the imperfect cities’ sounds grow still,
only streams hold forth chaotically
while white clouds play at nothingness.
He hears an oriole’s song, delicate,
uncertain, like a prayer, like weeping. ■