Sebastian’s Quiver

“Months and days are the wayfarers of a hundred generations, the years too, going and coming, are wanderers.”

So begins Oku no hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North) by Matsuo Bashō. This is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, piece of prose poetry of all times (your opinion might vary). It is also what I finished reading to Sebastian this evening. I’ve been reading bits and pieces of it to him for the past month, usually one page at a time or so, but tonight he had an extra long active alert phase and I was able to get the rest of it in. Many of Bashō’s famous haikus came from this work. One of my favorites is:

stillness –
penetrating the rocks,
cicada’s cry

I know I talk about reading to Sebastian a lot; I’m not sure why. Maybe because there really isn’t that much other interesting interactions from day to day. Change his diaper? Check! Rock him to sleep? Check! I’m not sure how often you want to hear about the daily repetitive stuff. But with reading, there is some sort of connection. And there is the hope that somehow, something that I read him while he’s this young will make some sort of impact. Maybe a neuron somewhere will click on that will, some time in the far future, help him appreciate Bashō or Byron or Tennyson or Eliot just a little bit easier that he would otherwise. They say that it doesn’t matter what you read just as long as you read. The newspaper, the grocery list, the TV Guide. I refuse to believe that I read him the TV Guide it would have the same affect on him as if I read him Tennyson poetry.