The Life and Work of Matsuo Basho

The Life and Work of Matsuo Basho The life of the great poet Matsuo Basho was one filled with modesty and adventure. His journeys throughout nature and his encounters with new ideas influenced him to create many poems and journals. These works became treasured by his friends and followers due to their unique style and poetic beauty. To this day, his life and works continue to be studied and loved by Japanese and non-Japanese people alike. By observing his life, extensive travels throughout Japan, and highly acclaimed works, one can learn why Matsuo Basho was and is considered to be the greatest and most influential haiku poet of all time. In 1644, near the Japanese village of Ueno, a samurai warrior and his wife gave birth to a son who they named Matsuo Kinsaku. The boy would be known by this name during his childhood and adolescent years, but would later on change it to Matsuo Basho. At that time, Basho’s father was likely to only have been a low ranking samurai, but the boy was still given the right to join the league of great warriors if he wanted to do so. Matsuo took no interest in this profession, because he had fallen in love with poetry. However, despite all this, he would spend quite a while wondering if he had made the right decision by dedicating his life to poetry. The reason for him taking interest in a career so polar opposite to that of a samurai is probably due to Basho’s childhood friend, Todo Yoshitada. Since he was a low ranking samurai, Basho’s father was likely serving under a local aristocratic family; so when Basho’s father died in 1656, Matsuo Basho too came to serve this family. The Todo family had a son named Yoshitada, a boy who was Basho’s elder by two years. Yoshitada had already long taken a fascination to poetry, and now Basho joined in the enthusiasm. With counselling from their poetry master, the two boys quickly took up the art of haikai no renga, an early form of haiku, together. Soon after, in 1662, Matsuo Basho composes his earliest known haiku, and a few years later, in 1664, Basho’s first collection of poems was released. Unfortunately, everything changed when Todo Yoshitada unexpectedly died in 1666 at only twenty-five years old. The loss of such a close friend left Basho so traumatized and deeply shocked that he resigned from serving the Todo family, and embarked on a long journey by himself. For the next few years he travelled to various cities, with no specific records of all of his whereabouts. He was likely hesitant about his decision to become a full time poet and was struggling over the many career options he was passing off because he wrote, â€Å"The alternatives battled in my mind and made my life restless† (Biography web). He did, however, continue to write many poems during this time. Basho’s first major step into bustling society was when he arrived in Edo, the modern day city of Tokyo. He had chosen to come to this busy city to study and craft his poetry skills. During his first year there in 1672, he started working at a waterworks company, began making a good reputation for himself, and in the years following, quickly became embraced by the literary community. Pretty soon Basho started up a poetry school, and nurtured the minds of many great young poets. It was during this time that he adopted the pseudonym Tosei, but he did not keep this name for long. Basho taught his students with a fatherly love and his students came to love and respect him. Through Basho’s teachings, the students were brought success when their works were eventually compiled and published under the title of The Best Poems of Tosei’s Twenty Disciples. Around the year 1680, Basho moved away from the lively city of Edo, and into the more relaxed area of Fukagawa. It was here that Basho’s disciples proved their love for him by building him a home. They also planted a banana tree by the hut that grew so well that Matsuo Tosei changed his name once more to the commonly known Matsuo Basho, meaning banana tree. Matsuo Basho lived in this hut for a few years, but he was not necessarily happy. By this point he was surrounded by success, but still felt incredibly lonely. The cure, he thought, would be to become a practitioner of Zen meditation. Everything turned for the worse when, in 1682, his house burned down, followed by his mother’s death in 1683. With no home at this point, he went to stay with a friend while his students rebuilt his home. His unhappiness remained with him, though, so he decided to do what he did before and set off on another trip throughout the land of Japan. Matsuo had four major journeys around the country. These trips lead him through many famous mountains and towns. Because Matsuo Basho was approaching middle age at this point, many worried for him. Travelling alone was a hazard at this time, and some thought that he would not survive the long treks between cities or, in a worst case scenario, be murdered by some bandits. Basho was aware of this and had even prepared a will in case such a situation ensued. Luckily, this never happened. The most famous of his trips was recorded in a journal titled Narrow Road to the Deep North, in which Basho travels on foot for over five months. He stopped at numerous locations such as hot spring resorts, temples, lakes, and natural wonders. During the entire extent of his travels, Basho recorded what he saw in forms of poetry. His poems left the internal theme they had exhibited before that point and instead focused on the natural beauty of the world. He wrote his most famous poems at this time: a haiku about a frog leaping into a pond. Essentially, his goal was to observe and record the elegance of the earth. In the same way, his path through the country itself was like a poem. His route was so lovely and exotic that tours of Japan are prepared following Basho’s own course. One might think that living such a nomadic life was tiring and lonesome, but Basho would disagree. To begin with, Basho was not always alone. During the trip of Narrow Road to the Deep North, Basho was accompanied by Kawai Sora, his old neighbour and student. Together they visited the sites that they had heard about through older poems, and due to Basho’s then religious state of mind, also visited many shrines and temples. By the end of the journey, Basho had completed the journal that would one day be known as his most famous piece of work. This was all because Basho did not view his roaming lifestyle as a burden, but instead thought that â€Å"Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home† (Matsuo web). Matsuo Basho’s worldview was very mature for his era. He believed that everyone was equal in that, in the end, the journey of life would always end in death. It is believed that his decision to live as a wanderer is based off of this worldview, and that he was physically living out the journey of life until death. A common theme in his writings called mujo, or impermanence, suggests the quickness of human life and nature. He tied this theme together with another similar idea often found in his writing, an idea of soft yet elegant changes in nature, such as the gradual changes of a stream over the years. Basho gradually ended his journeys as he approached his late forties. Though still immersed in his love of poetry, Basho decided to settle down in a new Basho hut built by his supporters. Unfortunately, he had become plagued by an illness, and a few years later, his beloved nephew, Toin, died. He became closed off from most social interactions because of this, and his illness only got worse. In 1694, Basho attempted to plan another journey to western Japan, but the illness overcame him and he passed. He was only fifty years old. From the very beginning, Basho was a boy who harbored a talented mind, and in the end, became a wise man with a unique worldview. His elegant outlook on life provided him with the ability to create works that have left scholars with countless topics for discussion. These works will likely continue to be observed for their thoughtfulness, and remembered for their important insights into the history of Japan. From birth to death, Matsuo Basho lived the life of a friend, a teacher, and a poet. Additionally, when it comes to his works, teachings, and travels, Matsuo Basho succeeded in engraving his name into the list of the world’s greatest poets. Works Cited Barnhill, David Landis. BashÃ…Â Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Haiku. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004. Print. BashÃ…Â , Matsuo. The Lightning Flashes! U.S.A.: A Beka Book, Inc., 2013. Print. Biography of Matsuo Basho.Poem Hunter. 2 Jan 2012. Web. 25 February 2014. . Chamberlain, B.H. Prof. Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East. New York: Parke, Austin, and Lipscomb, Inc., 1917. Print. Chopra, Swati. â€Å"BashÃ…Â .† Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2012 ed. 2012. Web. Harris, Michelle. Matsuo Basho. National Geographic Magazine. 17 June 2008. Web. 3 February 2014. . Kohl, Stephen. Matsuo Basho. JZR Aardvark. 9 April 2000. Web. 5 January 2014. . Matsuo, Basho. Matsuo Basho Quotes. Brainy Quote. 2 April 2012. Web. 25 February 2014. < http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/matsuo_basho.html>. Norman, Howard. On the Poet’s Trail. National Geographic Magazine. February 2008. Web. 3 February 2014. . Matsuo Basho Early life Birth and family Finding his path Life in Edo Settling in Edo His school and students Travels throughout Japan Works created during his travels Worldview and death

Report on the Film “Black Cat, White Cat” by Emir Custurica Essay

have chosen to watch and report on the film â€Å"Black Cat, White Cat† by Emir Custurica for several reasons. Firstly, Custurica is a globally famous filmmaker, known in the US for his â€Å"Arizona Dream†. Secondly, Custurica does pay much attention to matters of culture in his films, so his works are very informative. Thirdly the characters of â€Å"Black Cat, White Cat† belong to different peoples and cultures, including Serbians, Gypsies and Bulgarians. So the film tells enough about cultural and cross-cultural communications. Produced in 1998, the film is a kind of romantic comedy telling a story of several young people in search of their love in the world of gangsters and smugglers. One of those smugglers named Matko Destanov owes money to a gangster named Dadan. Dadan is eager to find a husband for Afrodita – his midget sister and he proposes to settle the debt by marriage of Matko’s son Zare with his sister. However, Zare is in love with another girl named Ida, and Afrodita dreams o another man. After numerous funny and dangerous adventures all of the young people find their happiness, and Dadan finds himself in manure both in metaphorical and ordinary sense. The film is very ironic and easy to watch as a family comedy. As I have already noticed, the film tells much about cultural communications. Firstly these are family and friendship. The characters seem to be very family-oriented and â€Å"beautiful friendship† is one of the core motifs of the story. Young people dream of a family and stable relationships, older people desire to make their children happy as Zare’s grandfather and even such a savage man as Dadan wishes to do the will of his parents even though through violence. Personal relations are basic forces driving the characters in life, business and even crime. They rely upon help of their pals and relatives in virtually every action they take, thusly playing a tricky party game – each for own purposes but considering the will of the others. This can be illustrated by relations of Zare with his grandfather. Zare loves his grandfather and helps him to escape from hospital to return to his bacchanalian lifestyle, and the thankful grandfather gives all his money to Zare. Such approach to personal relations is full of traditionalism and is pretty different from the present situation in this country. Another cultural aspect, which might seem rather evil in this country is attitude of characters towards law. Throughout the film it may seem that there is no law and legal formalities at all. Customers are easily bribed, medical personnel is unable to control the patients, gangsters behave as actual rulers and an official solemnizing a marriages passively does everything what he is ordered to do, even knowing that marriage between Zare and Afrodita is forcible. However, the characters actually do not feel any discomfort from absence of formalities. Law is replaced by aforementioned personal relations, and perhaps they would feel unhappy from presence of legal obligations rather from absence of such obligations. There are many interesting minor cultural details in the film such as marriage customs, costumes, language features and other which, being combined together, create a fascinating impression of involvement in other culture. Films like â€Å"Black Cat, White Cat† cause spectators to become interested in strange lifestyles and habits forming an idea of global cultural diversity.

“The interrogation” by Edwin Muir

The poem â€Å"The interrogation† by Edwin Muir is about the different ways that people deal with and react in different situations. I think this poem is about a few emigrants who are illegally crossing the border to enter a country they are not lawfully permitted to. The interrogation that the poem talks about is the questioning that these people are put through by the law enforcement troops that these emigrants encounter at the border. We know that the poem is about this illegal emigration because at the beginning of the poem states, â€Å"and then came the patrol;† This confirms that there is a governmental group of people involved. I think the central opposition of the poem is about courage and fear. The way these people choose to handle the ‘interrogation' determines whether or not they will be able to cross the border. If they answer with courage and confidence then they will be much more likely to be allowed through as opposed to if they answer with fear. We know that they reacted unwisely in this scenario because the poem says they â€Å"hesitated† in their approach to crossing the border. This is what led them to be interrogated by the â€Å"patrol†. This has a direct relation to real life; you are more likely to succeed in things that you handle with courage then those that you handle with fear, as fear leads to suspicion. These people are doing an illegal act and we know that they handle the situation with the wrong approach. We are further confirmed that what these people are doing is illegal when the poem says â€Å"Must come out now, who, what we are,† It conveys a sense of deception to the readers. I also think that according to the poem some people, that were confident and came as families were let through to cross the border with ease. This is supported because the poem says, â€Å"The careless lovers in pairs go by,† Near the end of the poem, the poet talks about the response and state of mind of these emigrants. The poem tells us that these people are getting more nervous as they are being questioned more and more. This is a build-up in the poem and it demonstrates how the people are increasingly getting more nervous as this interrogation progresses. We know so from the following lines, â€Å"And the thoughtless field is near. We are on the very edge, Endurance almost done, And still the interrogation is going on.† There is a contrast between the different groups of people shown in this poem because the people that are going in â€Å"pairs† tend not to â€Å"hesitate† when they cross the border, whereas these other people do. This is a contrast between the different ways that people handle situations. We can assume, from the evidence that I have given that it is an interrogation that questions the actions of these emigrants and why they are trying to cross the border. These would be regular routine questions. The fact that the poem is written using â€Å"we† shows that there is more than one and perhaps it's a gang or group of people. However, the impression that is given to the readers is that these emigrants are innocent people just looking for a new home, rather than a group of criminals. The poem is written in clear language and has a lasting effect on the readers. It demonstrates how actions can determine where different people will end up in the long run. It gives the readers a chance to think of how and why some of the people were held back and interrogated while others weren't and crossed this road without difficulty. The effect of the courage and fear aspects is significant and seems like it was the main intention of the reader to highlight those features in the poem. They happen to be very effective techniques in catching the reader's attention. However, the poem is not so predictable and changes its style in which the points are pointed out to the reader often.

What Is the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Today, civil rights organizations such as the NAACP, Black Lives Matter and the National Action Network are among the most recognized in the United States. But, Southern Christian Leadership Conference  (SCLC), which grew from the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, lives on to this day. The advocacy group’s mission is to fulfill the promise of â€Å"‘one nation, under God, indivisible’ together with the commitment to activate the ‘strength to love’ within the community of humankind,† according to its website. While it no longer wields the influence it did during the 1950s and ’60s, the SCLC remains an important part of the historical record due to its affiliation with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a co-founder. With this overview of the group, learn more about the SCLC’s origins, the challenges it has faced, its triumphs and leadership today. The Link Between the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the SCLC The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted from Dec. 5, 1955, to Dec. 21, 1956, and began when Rosa Parks famously refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man. Jim Crow, the system of racial segregation in the American South, dictated that African Americans not only had to sit in the back of the bus but also stand when all seats filled up. For defying this rule, Parks was arrested. In response, the African American community in Montgomery fought to end Jim Crow on city buses by refusing to patronize them until the policy changed. A year later, it did. Montgomery buses were desegregated. The organizers, part of a group called the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), declared victory. The boycott leaders, including a young Martin Luther King, who served as MIA’s president, went on to form the SCLC. The bus boycott triggered similar protests across the South, so King and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, who served as MIA’s program director, met with civil rights activists from all over the region from January 10-11, 1957, at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. They joined forces to launch a regional activist group and plan demonstrations in several Southern states to build on the momentum from Montgomery’s success. African Americans, many of whom had previously believed that segregation could only be eradicated through the judicial system, had witnessed firsthand that public protest could lead to social change, and civil rights leaders had many more barriers to strike down in the Jim Crow South. Their activism wasn’t without consequences, however. Abernathy’s home and church were firebombed and the group received countless written and verbal threats, but that didn’t stop them from founding the Southern Negro  Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration. They were on a mission. According to the SCLC website, when the group was founded, the leaders â€Å"issued a document declaring that civil rights are essential to democracy, that segregation must end, and that all black people should reject segregation absolutely and nonviolently.† The Atlanta meeting was only the beginning. On Valentine’s Day 1957, civil rights activists assembled once more in New Orleans. There, they elected executive officers, naming King president, Abernathy treasurer, the Rev. C. K. Steele vice president, the Rev. T. J. Jemison secretary, and I. M. Augustine general counsel. By August of 1957, the leaders cut their group’s rather cumbersome name to its current one — the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. They decided they could best execute their platform of strategic mass nonviolence by partnering with local community groups throughout the Southern states. At the convention, the group also decided that its members would include individuals of all racial and religious backgrounds, even though most participants were African American and Christian. Achievements and Nonviolent Philosophy True to its mission, the SCLC participated in a number of civil rights campaigns, including citizenship schools, which served to teach African Americans to read so they could pass voter registration literacy tests; various protests to end racial divides in Birmingham, Ala.; and the March on Washington to end segregation nationwide. It also played a role in 1963’s Selma Voting Rights Campaign, 1965’s March to Montgomery and 1967’s Poor Peoples Campaign, which reflected King’s increasing interest in addressing issues of economic inequality. In essence, the many achievements for which King is remembered are direct outgrowths of his involvement in the SCLC. During the 1960s, the group was in its heyday and considered to be one of the â€Å"Big Five† civil rights organizations. In addition to the SCLC, the Big Five consisted of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Urban League, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress on Racial Equality. Given Martin Luther King’s philosophy of nonviolence, it was no surprise that the group he presided over also adopted the pacifist platform inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. But by the late 1960s and early 1970s, many young black people, including those in SNCC, believed that nonviolence wasn’t the answer to the widespread racism in the United States. Supporters of the black power movement, in particular, believed self-defense and, thus, violence was necessary for blacks in the United States and worldwide to win equality. In fact, they had seen many blacks in African countries under European rule achieve independence through violent means and wondered whether black Americans should do the same. This shift in thinking after King’s assassination in 1968 may be why the SCLC wielded less influence as time went on. After King’s death, the SCLC discontinued the national campaigns for which it was known, instead focusing on small campaigns throughout the South. When King protà ©gà © the Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr. left the group, it suffered a blow since Jackson ran the economic arm of the group, known as Operation Breadbasket. And by the 1980s, both the civil rights and black power movements had effectively ended. One major achievement of the SCLC following King’s demise was its work to get a national holiday in his honor. After facing years of resistance in Congress, the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on Nov. 2, 1983. The SCLC Today The SCLC may have originated in the South, but today the group has chapters in all regions of the United States. It has also expanded its mission from domestic civil rights issues to global human rights concerns. Although several Protestant pastors played roles in its founding, the group describes itself as an â€Å"interfaith† organization. The SCLC has had several presidents. Ralph Abernathy succeeded Martin Luther King after his assassination. Abernathy died in 1990. The group’s longest serving president was the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, who held the office from 1977 to 1997. Lowery is now in his 90s. Other SCLC presidents include King’s son Martin L. King III, who served from 1997 to 2004. His tenure was marked by controversy in 2001, after the board suspended him for not taking an active enough role in the organization. King was reinstated after just a week, though, and his performance reportedly improved following his brief ouster. In October 2009, the Rev. Bernice A. King — another King child — made history by becoming the first woman ever elected as president of the SCLC. In January 2011, however, King announced that she would not serve as president because she believed that the board wanted her to be a figurehead leader rather than play a real role in running the group. Bernice King’s refusal to serve as president isn’t the only blow the group has suffered in recent years. Different factions of the group’s executive board have gone to court to establish control over the SCLC. In September 2010, a Fulton County Superior Court judge settled the matter by deciding against two board members who were under investigation for mismanaging almost $600,000 of SCLC funds. Bernice King’s election as president was widely hoped to breathe new life into the SCLC, but her decision to turn down the role as well as the group’s leadership troubles, has led to talk of the SCLC unraveling. Civil Rights scholar Ralph Luker told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Bernice King’s rejection of the presidency â€Å"brings up again the question of whether there is a future for SCLC. There are a lot of people who think that SCLC’s time has passed.† As of 2017, the group continues to exist. In fact, it held its 59th convention, featuring the Children’s Defense Fund’s Marian Wright Edelman as keynote speaker, July 20-22, 2017. The SCLC’s website states that its organizational focus â€Å"is to promote spiritual principles within our membership and local communities;  to educate youth and adults in the areas of personal responsibility, leadership potential, and community service; to ensure economic justice and civil rights  in the areas of discrimination and affirmative action; and to eradicate environmental classism and racism wherever it exists.† Today Charles Steele Jr., a former Tuscaloosa, Ala., city councilman and Alabama state senator, serves as CEO. DeMark Liggins serves as chief financial officer. As the United States experiences a rise in racial turmoil following the 2016 election of Donald J. Trump as president, the SCLC has become engaged in the effort to remove Confederate monuments throughout the South. In 2015, a young white supremacist, fond of Confederate symbols, gunned down black worshippers  at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C. In 2017 in Charlottesville, Va., a white supremacist used his vehicle to fatally mow down a woman protesting a gathering of white nationalists outraged by the removal of Confederate statues. Accordingly, in August 2017, the Virginia chapter of the SCLC advocated to have a statue of a Confederate monument removed from Newport News and replaced with an African American history-maker such as Frederick Douglass. â€Å"These individuals are civil rights leaders,† SCLC Virginia President Andrew Shannon told news station WTKR 3. â€Å"They fought for freedom, justice and equality for all. This Confederate monument does not represent freedom justice and equality for all. It represents racial hatred, division and bigotry.†   As the nation resists a surge in white supremacist activity and regressive policies, the SCLC may find that its mission is as needed in the 21st century as it was in the 1950s and 60s.