【Update 2023-12-07: This is an outdated version of this article. For a more up to date version, please see: https://laspina.org/i-am-poor-bashos-pursuit-of-poetic-purity/ 】

There is a headnote for this hokku which reads "rich people eat meat and ambitious young men eat roots. But I am poor."

He is referring to the Chinese Sung philosopher Wang Yang-ming (Kōjisei in Japanese) who wrote "One who can get by on vegetable roots can accomplish anything". Bashō, on the other hand, doesn't aspire to such grand things; he is content to be poor, to wander, and to write haiku.

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org.