Glaswegian Literary Works

Tags

Glaswegian

My brother challenged me to come up with a list.  He

supplied:

Tae Kiss a Mockit’ Bird  and You, Missus.

Sibling rivalry strikes:

 

Arms and the Wee Man (plays allowed)

The Duchess o’ Malkie

Labour’s Lost

Midsummer’s A Dream

A Streetcar Named Blantyre

View from The Erskine Bridge

Six Characters in Search O’an Off-Licence

Oor Toon

Laird of the Pies

Prejudice

Crime and Nae Punishment

Ma Damn Ovary

Lorna’s Doon

Paralytic Handy

The Grapes o’ Carnwath

Nae Remembrance o’ Things Past

101 Pit Bulls

Cousin Bet-Fred

Anne o’ Green Gorbals

Rilla o’ Kelvinside

The Wind in the Willow Tearooms

Three Hard Men in a Boat

Done for Possession

High Wind in Jamaica Street

Oranges WERE the only Fruit

P****shed Family Robinson

Aye, whit Beloved Country?

F**** off, Pendulum

The Life of Pie

Nae Expectations

The Heartlessness of Midlothian

Bender is the Night

One Threw Up in the Cuckoo’s Nest

North Anger Abbey

The Peril

Alice in Poundland

Alice Put through the Looking Glass

Trainspitting

And Quietly Flows The Clyde

A Man fur Wan Season

The Bonfire o’ Profanities

Wan Scoop

Just so ye know stories

Grand Master Goes Commando

The Redundant Rainmaker

… all copyright!!

 

 

 

Hahakigi: The Broom Tree

Tags

boussokusekika, Tale of Genji, The Broom Tree, Utagawa Toyokuni, Utsusemi

(Artist:Utagawa Toyokuni; Denman Waldo Ross collection, Museum Fine Arts, Boston)

 

Vice-governor’s wife

was as a broom tree growing

in a shabby yard.

She chose her safe marriage,

for rank dictated conduct.

The Shell of the Locust

Tags

Go, Nokiba-no-ogi, shell of the locust, Tale of Genji, Utagawa Kunisada II, Utsusemi

(Artist: Utagawa Kunisada II; ukiyo-e-org)

Variation on earlier post: The Locust Lady

 

 

Utsusemi and

Nokiba-no-ogi play

Go.  Genji then goes

for the former, but she flees,

leaving her robe behind her.

.

Kiritsubo

Tags

Fujitsubo, Kiritsubo, Murasaki Shikibi, Shining Prince, Tale of Genji

(Fine Arts, San Francisco. Artist: Isoda Koryusai; c 1770 Achenbach

Foundation. Gift Miss Carlotta Mabury)

 

Oh, Kiritsubo,

bullied, you wasted away.

Your son was banished.

Fujitsubo looks like you;

the Emperor wed her, but

The Shining Prince will return.

Wild Geese at Suma

Tags

Genji, koto, Murasaki Shikibu, Suma, sutras, wild geese

 

Should he send for her?

No, that would not be penance.

To fast, meditate

would be more apt, propitious.

The shells on the shore,

empty as past promises,

are crushed by the waves.

In the ebb and flow of life,

his thoughts are tossed like driftwood.

A gloomy koto

gives expression to his grief.

He intones sutras

as he hears the wild geese cry.

They choose to leave; he cannot.

Heartvine

Tags

Fujitsubo, Genji, heartvine, Murasaki Shikibu, Oe

 

Oh, Fujitsubo,

to hint at old resentments

just adds to despair.

If only I could vanish!

My guards officer

spoke of how we’d worn heartvine

in the olden days.

I attached a note for the

Prince to an unblossomed branch

and took my farewell.

No more flowers in my cap.

The sad Oe station

is only marked by pine groves.

This is littoral exile!

 

 

Safflower

Tags

safflower, Tale of Genji, tanka, Tayu

 

Genji is informed

by Tayu that a sad girl

plays music all day.

Genji is intrigued and scores.

He should have checked her out first!

Lavender

Tags

Genji, Japanese poetry, Murasaki, Peeping Tom

 

Genji seeks healing

for his burning fever but,

like a Peeping Tom,

he spies on all the ladies :

Murasaki is his choice.

 

The Locust Lady

Tags

Tale of Genji, tanka, The Locust Lady, Utsusemi

 

The girl Genji likes

has her home broken into.

Utsusemi flees.

The cad confiscates her robe

and he sleeps with her best friend.

 

The Jeweled Chaplet (Tamakazura)

Tags

Jeweled Chaplet, Mandarin ducks, Murasaki Shikibu, Tale of Genji, Tamakazura, Tosa Mitsuoki

Tanka 3 in my series:

 

Tamakazura

 

 

 

Outside, on the stream,

a pair of Mandarin ducks

paddle in tandem.

If roofs were removed, would we

see such faithfulness, or not?