SWET Kansai: Humanity in Basho

With Jeff Robbins

Date: October 28, 2017 (Sat.)
Time: 2:00-5:00 p.m. (Dinner afterward at Italian restaurant Pacioccone. Set meal is 3500 yen.)
Place: (near Kyoto Station) Omiya campus of Ryukoku University (Ask at the gate)
Fee: 500 yen for members of SWET and Writers in Kyoto; 1,000 yen for all others
Reservations: SWET Kansai 

Part I  Difficulties and Solutions in Translating Basho
Interpersonal messages, realization of ordinary words, poetry of verbs, coherence, a graceful musical quality.

Part II  Love and Sex in Basho Renku
Romance, sensuality, passion, adolescent love, shame, disappointment, parting, prostitutes, rape, old age, masculinity, vows.

Japanese and romanization for all poems discussed will be provided in handouts.

Jeff Robbins has explored Basho’s works in Japanese for thirty years, and translated and compiled a database that is the only substantial collection in English of Basho’s linked verse, tanka, letters, and spoken word.

More information at:

http://www.writersinkyoto.com/2015/10/jeff-robbins-compiler-of-basho/
[url=https://www.yumpu.com/user/basho4now]https://www.yumpu.com/user/basho4now[/url]

Venue: 12 minutes’ walk from Kyoto JR station, next to Nishi Honganji
Can be accessed from Shichijo street halfway between Shichijo Horikawa and Shichijo Omiya through a large wooden gate. The guardman will then be able to give further directions.

If going by taxi, simply say 'Ryukoku Daigaku, Shichijo Omiya (or Nanajo Omiya).'