WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.470 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.470 --> 00:00:04.860 align:middle line:84% The second piece I'm going to read 00:00:04.860 --> 00:00:07.320 align:middle line:90% is called "The Road North." 00:00:07.320 --> 00:00:09.840 align:middle line:84% It's a word map of Scotland guided 00:00:09.840 --> 00:00:14.850 align:middle line:84% by Basho's "Oku-no-hosomichi," the road to the-- 00:00:14.850 --> 00:00:17.490 align:middle line:84% I'm sorry, "the Narrow Road to the Deep North." 00:00:17.490 --> 00:00:21.360 align:middle line:84% Some of you may also know it as "Back Roads to Far Towns," 00:00:21.360 --> 00:00:24.180 align:middle line:84% which is Cid Corman's translation. 00:00:24.180 --> 00:00:27.450 align:middle line:84% And I'm going to read just a few sections, concentrating 00:00:27.450 --> 00:00:30.900 align:middle line:90% on the Shirakawa section. 00:00:30.900 --> 00:00:37.060 align:middle line:84% And Shirakawa comes about one third in to the Basho journey. 00:00:37.060 --> 00:00:40.090 align:middle line:90% And this is Scotland. 00:00:40.090 --> 00:00:43.515 align:middle line:90% And this is Scotland as Japan. 00:00:43.515 --> 00:00:45.420 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:45.420 --> 00:00:47.970 align:middle line:84% And for the Basho project, he has 00:00:47.970 --> 00:00:52.650 align:middle line:84% 52 different, he calls them stations, short chapters. 00:00:52.650 --> 00:00:55.290 align:middle line:84% And for every one of them we paired it with somewhere 00:00:55.290 --> 00:00:57.030 align:middle line:90% in Scotland. 00:00:57.030 --> 00:01:02.880 align:middle line:84% And essentially, Basho's journey is from Edo, Tokyo, 00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:05.129 align:middle line:84% through the mountains to the West Coast. 00:01:05.129 --> 00:01:07.290 align:middle line:84% And you can do exactly the same thing in Scotland. 00:01:07.290 --> 00:01:09.270 align:middle line:84% You go from Edinburgh, which I now 00:01:09.270 --> 00:01:13.650 align:middle line:84% call Edo, or Edina, as it's known, through the mountains 00:01:13.650 --> 00:01:15.300 align:middle line:90% to the West Coast. 00:01:15.300 --> 00:01:19.260 align:middle line:84% And Shirakawa is where you make the transition. 00:01:19.260 --> 00:01:22.740 align:middle line:84% It's where you leave behind the atmosphere of the city 00:01:22.740 --> 00:01:27.900 align:middle line:84% and its city ways, its luxuries, its smart city poets. 00:01:27.900 --> 00:01:33.360 align:middle line:84% And it's where Basho hears the songs of the women planting 00:01:33.360 --> 00:01:34.590 align:middle line:90% rice. 00:01:34.590 --> 00:01:38.340 align:middle line:84% And it's a very important moment in his journey. 00:01:38.340 --> 00:01:42.060 align:middle line:84% And at that moment he's crossing over into the wilderness, 00:01:42.060 --> 00:01:43.500 align:middle line:90% into the otherness. 00:01:43.500 --> 00:01:48.900 align:middle line:84% And those songs struck me as being very like Gaelic song. 00:01:48.900 --> 00:01:52.020 align:middle line:84% And there's a part of Scotland around Perthshire where 00:01:52.020 --> 00:01:53.760 align:middle line:90% you make the same transition. 00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:57.420 align:middle line:84% You begin to go into the hills, and you 00:01:57.420 --> 00:02:01.590 align:middle line:84% notice that the streams are no longer called burns, 00:02:01.590 --> 00:02:03.210 align:middle line:90% they're called "alts." 00:02:03.210 --> 00:02:06.000 align:middle line:84% Alt is Gaelic for a mountain burn. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:09.789 align:middle line:84% So you know although there's no Gaelic spoken in that area, 00:02:09.789 --> 00:02:13.980 align:middle line:84% you've crossed over into a different ecology, bio-region, 00:02:13.980 --> 00:02:14.880 align:middle line:90% mindset. 00:02:14.880 --> 00:02:17.220 align:middle line:84% I can't reach up, but it's where there's 00:02:17.220 --> 00:02:19.660 align:middle line:84% a bunch of names right in the middle. 00:02:19.660 --> 00:02:20.970 align:middle line:90% That's Perthshire. 00:02:20.970 --> 00:02:23.580 align:middle line:90% And that's Shirakawa. 00:02:23.580 --> 00:02:25.500 align:middle line:84% So I give you some of the beginning, 00:02:25.500 --> 00:02:26.920 align:middle line:90% but mainly I focus on that. 00:02:26.920 --> 00:02:31.200 align:middle line:84% And then I'm going to take you from Shirakawa to Argyll, north 00:02:31.200 --> 00:02:33.870 align:middle line:84% to Arisaig, North Uist, and then we'll 00:02:33.870 --> 00:02:38.850 align:middle line:84% end in a wilderness glen above Applecross in Inverianvie. 00:02:38.850 --> 00:02:42.180 align:middle line:84% I share those names because I enjoy your names so much. 00:02:42.180 --> 00:02:45.630 align:middle line:84% And I just want you to feel the time of my names. 00:02:45.630 --> 00:02:47.850 align:middle line:84% You don't have to know what they mean, 00:02:47.850 --> 00:02:52.110 align:middle line:84% you just have to enjoy that sense of-- the names 00:02:52.110 --> 00:02:55.050 align:middle line:84% are very important in this piece. 00:02:55.050 --> 00:02:57.180 align:middle line:84% It's about the same length so don't worry. 00:02:57.180 --> 00:03:00.540 align:middle line:84% I'm not going to keep you too long. 00:03:00.540 --> 00:03:02.820 align:middle line:90% So we begin with the prologue. 00:03:02.820 --> 00:03:09.420 align:middle line:84% "So when was it I first had that dream of roving the glens up 00:03:09.420 --> 00:03:13.890 align:middle line:90% and down, guided by Basho? 00:03:13.890 --> 00:03:18.630 align:middle line:84% Some morning, awake on pillow hill with a matinal willow 00:03:18.630 --> 00:03:23.880 align:middle line:84% warbling at the window, books on the bed, my heart in a fankle 00:03:23.880 --> 00:03:27.630 align:middle line:84% to see clouds and mountains in the faraway, 00:03:27.630 --> 00:03:33.300 align:middle line:84% to be on the road, north, where paths of moss and crottle 00:03:33.300 --> 00:03:35.970 align:middle line:90% follow peaty waters. 00:03:35.970 --> 00:03:39.360 align:middle line:84% Some morning I will cross over to the kingdom 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:45.000 align:middle line:84% shrouded in mist, tracking back to the origin of things. 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:48.540 align:middle line:84% Sipping tea from a shell, I will learn 00:03:48.540 --> 00:03:53.970 align:middle line:84% to tell burns that run lochan to lochan from the wide river that 00:03:53.970 --> 00:04:00.000 align:middle line:84% flows free to the sea, to turn down some other glen east west 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:01.830 align:middle line:90% into low sun. 00:04:01.830 --> 00:04:06.960 align:middle line:84% Swap one view for another, familiar streets Pilrig, 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:13.260 align:middle line:84% Rosslyn, Bonnington, exchanged for hills, Lomond, 00:04:13.260 --> 00:04:15.165 align:middle line:90% the Buachaille, Roshvan. 00:04:15.165 --> 00:04:17.860 align:middle line:90% 00:04:17.860 --> 00:04:23.982 align:middle line:84% Come summer we'll name our band 'Shafts of Sun.' 00:04:23.982 --> 00:04:25.500 align:middle line:90% (ASIDE) Thanks, Becca. 00:04:25.500 --> 00:04:32.580 align:middle line:84% "Come fall, we'll name our album 'Bands of Rain.' 00:04:32.580 --> 00:04:37.230 align:middle line:84% Now we're leaving behind lanes of gean 00:04:37.230 --> 00:04:41.610 align:middle line:84% blossoming in the meadows, heading off on the Hosomichi 00:04:41.610 --> 00:04:45.410 align:middle line:90% to look for Shirakawa. 00:04:45.410 --> 00:04:49.130 align:middle line:84% Now we'll let our looking survey Scotland from Monreith 00:04:49.130 --> 00:04:54.500 align:middle line:84% to Poolewe, setting out to see the best view of all, 00:04:54.500 --> 00:04:57.460 align:middle line:90% where the land meets the sky. 00:04:57.460 --> 00:04:58.000 align:middle line:90%