“The Narrow Road to the Deep North” is a novel that falls into the category of travel literature written by Matsuo Basho, a Japanese poet and author who lived during the 17th century. The novel follows Basho as he travels from Edo, modern-day Tokyo, to the northern provinces of Japan. In the diary the author documents his daily life and the people he interacts with, creates in-depth descriptions of the world around him and, of course, writes poetry. During his pilgrimage Basho composed the poem Haiku, “a form of poetry composed of 17 syllables divided into three sections of five-seven-five”. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Haiku poems are usually very descriptive and have a strong focus on nature. In fact, nature is a theme that emerges several times in the book; In fact, Basho uses elements found in nature as well as nature itself as a motif to help the reader understand how he sees the world and the role nature has in it. Basho through the use of natural elements as motifs emphasizes the differences between humans and nature; Human beings are mortal and impermanent creatures that contradict the permanent and immortal essence of nature. Basho explores this through the use of pine trees, rivers and rocks as motifs. The immortality of nature and the mortality of humans are shown by comparing humans and their creations with immortal nature; for example on page 118 the author visits the village of Hiraizumi, where the Fujiwara family estate resided, he writes the following “It is here that the glory of the Fujiwara family died out like the fragment of an empty dream. . . when a country is defeated, nothing remains but mountains and rivers, and on a ruined castle only grasses thrive.” In this passage there is a direct comparison between the fleeting, impermanent human lives and their creations that eventually crumble, no matter how great they were, and the permanent, ever-flourishing nature. The simile “like an empty dream fragment” further emphasizes the fragility and irrelevance of humanity by comparing it to a meaningless dream fragment. On the other hand, the brute force and timelessness of nature are highlighted not only by the fact that it prevails among the ruins; in fact on page 118 the quote “Only Mount Kinkei has retained its original shape” using the mountain, again as a motif, basho implies that nature is not only immortal and simply completely superior to humans but that it can also literally erase any footprint of humanity. Other notable examples that function similarly in “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” are as follows. On page 104 Basho mentions the hermitage of the priest Buccho “The temple was located on the side of a mountain completely covered with dark cedars and pines. . . Even the woodpeckers left it intact, this tiny house in a summer furrow.” This extract has similar connotations to that of page 118, according to which the priest is dead but nature, that is, the mountain and the trees, elements that are repeated in the novel and therefore used as motifs, continues to live; the only difference here is that a man-made creation, the cabin, still exists. A more direct expression of the permanence of nature is shown through the use of pines, rocks and mountains when Basho writes on page 122 “The whole mountain was made of huge rocks pushed together and covered with pines and ancient oaks. The stone itself bore the color of eternity." Here the author essentially states directly that nature is eternal and massive with the use of the phrase “the color of eternity; in the sense that nature is “coloured”, “covered” and “soaked” with.