to be intimate with; to befriend
United Kingdom; Britain; Great Britain; England
at the most; at best; to the utmost; as much as possible; as much as one can
song; singing; classical Japanese poem (esp. tanka); modern poetry
suspicious; dubious; doubtful; unsure; untrustworthy; unreliable; strange
the eighties (age, years, etc.)
anyhow; anyway; somehow or other; apart from ...; setting ... aside
memory; ability to remember
middle-age; middle age; midlife; one's middle years
memorization; memorisation; learning by heart
unrelated; irrelevant; unconcerned; unconnected
proverb; saying; aphorism; maxim
wisdom; intelligence; intellect
to inherit; to succeed; to take over
Matsuo Bashou (1644-1694)
The Narrow Road to the Deep North (chronicle by Matsuo Basho, published in 1702)
long sentence; long piece of writing (e.g. passage, letter, article, telegram)
walking; pace; step; course (of history, one's life, etc.); history; pitch (of a screw, etc.)
to step firmly; to harden by treading
gem; jewel; precious stone
to search for; to look for; to hunt for; to search (a house, pocket, etc.); to search through; to rummage in (e.g. a drawer)
may; might; perhaps; may be; possibly
hand-copied sutras; copying of a sutra
about; roughly; generally; on the whole; completely; quite
to allow; to enable; to make possible; to make feasible; to permit
temptation; allurement; lure; enticement; seduction
female; woman; female sex; female lover; girlfriend; mistress
complete works; complete collection; complete series
prefix for forming ordinal numbers
volume (of book); reel (of film); scroll (of books or paintings); roll (paper, etc.)
period; time; opportunity; chance; age; term (e.g. in office); session (e.g. of parliament)
kernel; core; nucleus; center; centre
greed; craving; desire; appetite; hunger; avarice
originally; essentially; naturally; in the first place; to begin with
tenacity; persistence; obsession; implacability
crevice; crack; spare moment; interval; chink (in one's armor, armour); unpreparedness
to crawl out; to creep out; to begin to crawl