:
Taneda Santôka (Dec 3, 1882 - Oct 11, 1940).
Santoka's life may seem tragic. Son of a womanizing father who lost the family property through an unwise business venture; a mother who committed suicide by throwing herself into a well when he was eight; himself a university dropout; failed jobs; alcoholism; a failed marriage; a series of nervous breakdowns; a suicide attempt which failed*. How could such a man have become one of Japan's best-loved poets?
"What I forever aspire to," he wrote later in his diary, "is a mind calm and free from pressure, a realm of roundness, wholeness... I have to walk, walk, walk** until I get there."
The open road was to become his home and his monastery.
( haikas un piezīmes )
Taneda Santôka (Dec 3, 1882 - Oct 11, 1940).
Santoka's life may seem tragic. Son of a womanizing father who lost the family property through an unwise business venture; a mother who committed suicide by throwing herself into a well when he was eight; himself a university dropout; failed jobs; alcoholism; a failed marriage; a series of nervous breakdowns; a suicide attempt which failed*. How could such a man have become one of Japan's best-loved poets?
"What I forever aspire to," he wrote later in his diary, "is a mind calm and free from pressure, a realm of roundness, wholeness... I have to walk, walk, walk** until I get there."
The open road was to become his home and his monastery.
( haikas un piezīmes )