31 Tuesday Oct 2017
Posted in Summer 2012
Second poem inspired by the above text:
(Image: Asano Takeji: JAOD site)
On a moonlit night,
she sat by the verandah
while a flute was played.
Ladies were talking, laughing.
I stood to one side,
leaning against a pillar.
Go on! Say something!
(The Empress was cajoling.)
I didn’t know what to say.
I’m struck by the moon;
She was satisfied:
There is nothing more to say.
30 Monday Oct 2017
Posted in Environment, Literature, Nature, Poetry, Writing
Tags
Another inspirational text. How about these poems
which I constructed, based on this work of literature?
(Yintan pics; Wikipedia)
It drizzled all night.
Where the spider’s web shredded,
raindrop-spangled threads
resembled pearl strands; shimmered.
When the sun came up,
frail flowers raised sodden heads,
slowly, of their own accord.
What astounded me,
was that when I described this,
no one cared a jot:
it was taken for granted.
27 Friday Oct 2017
Posted in Arts, Industries, Poetry, Relationships, Religion, Social Comment, Writing
Tags
alloy, differential hardening, gohei, iadoka, katana, Moving Zen, nioi, nukitsuke, resilience, seppuka, tachi, tamahagane, yasutsuna
Then Yasutsuna
saw half the swords were broken
on the battlefield.
After thirty days he’d forged
curved, slaughter-proof blades.
The gohei protect
our tatara from evil.
Older steel will stretch.
By the flames’ colour, we know
when the curve must be straightened.
Burns just mark me out;
hammering gives me tremor.
I can’t stop half-way.
Cold alloy cannot be worked.
I cannot grip my chopsticks.
Thick clay is applied
to the blades, before quenching.
Resilience comes
with a gradual cooling:
that is how we gain our souls.
The visual effect
of differential hardening –
a bright, speckled band –
can be seen from long angles:
nioi can never be faked.
Sharpening gives shape:
it can take up to two months.
Some old tachi blades
can be converted, but lose
signatures in the process.
The nukitsuke,
or ‘Moving Zen’ as it’s called,
used by Iadoka
show two hands better than one:
tensile strength and grace revealed.
You protect your lord.
Seppuka preserves honour,
warrior, weapon:
Tamahagane’s fusion
of deity and mankind.
27 Friday Oct 2017
Posted in Summer 2012
The Ujii Temple,
where the Autumn leaves excelled,
north of the city,
was the perfect place to think
of evanescence
and Life’s deep disappointments.
The religious path
suddenly seemed attractive,
but he could not leave Nijo
and Murasaki.
He wrote to Fujitsubo:
Mist obscures the moon,
but she was implacable.
Having chosen retreat,
she could only gaze on snow.
27 Friday Oct 2017
Posted in art, Arts, Literature, Nostalgia, Poetry, Relationships, Romance, Social Comment, Writing
Tags
Fujitsubo’s voice
curled round her hangings, like smoke.
Genji, now a man,
could no longer draw these drapes
and, if he were to visit
over-sensitive women,
he would freeze to death
on their balconies, while they
admired the swirling snowflakes,
his friend advised him.
When the colours of a robe
don’t match the season,
it is like the wrong partner
and your heart is frost-damaged.
26 Thursday Oct 2017
Posted in art, Arts, Horticulture, Literature, mythology, Nostalgia, Poetry, Relationships, Romance, Writing
Tags
choka, Full Moon, Genji, liana, Moonflower, Murasaki Shikibi, Shining Prince, Yugao
(Photo: Benjamin Graves, Sasebo, Japan:
Moonflower)
Liana, twilight
beauty, coy evening face :
a flower passed to
a shining Prince, on a fan,
by a frail, shy girl
in a shabby, cluttered yard,
in the full moonlight.
White as a glimpsed, pale forehead,
your fragrance attracted moths.
You opened yourself
to the evening dew; not
quite de-flowered, but jinxed.
Genji wiped salt tears on his
perfumed sleeve – to no avail.
25 Wednesday Oct 2017
Posted in art, Arts, Literature, Poetry, Psychology, Relationships, Romance, Writing
(Utagawa, JAOD)
Love seemed a torment:
it had all been so fleeting
and now she was gone.
He could not quench his regrets
and felt deep despair.
Why had he left her alone?
Orange blossom scent
mingled with his memories.
Everything seemed so dream-like.
No explanation
of her death seemed to make sense.
O, clandestine love,
your effects are so profound;
your inception so shallow.
24 Tuesday Oct 2017
Posted in art, Arts, Literature, Poetry, Relationships, Religion, Romance, Writing
(Chikanobu: Snow-bijin entering
the temple. JAOD)
Everything changes;
nothing lasts, the old nun said.
To see a beauty
in a nunnery was odd.
Hiding from the world
must be a sad reaction.
He was made restless
by that one, brief glimpse of her.
But she would not answer him;
she would rather die.
He saw it as haughtiness.
A man’s insistence,
she felt, was just like the wind
which would blow hot and then cold.
24 Tuesday Oct 2017
Posted in art, Arts, Literature, Poetry, Psychology, Relationships, Religion, Writing
(Kotozuka Eiichi: JAOD)
In the tedium,
the gloom became contagious.
His querulousness
was becoming quite tiresome.
She felt like someone
half-way across a log bridge,
not knowing which way
she should go: forward, or back?
Irresolution gripped her.
Then she determined
that she would take her vows – now!
She sought no favour,
other than the way of peace.
.
23 Monday Oct 2017
Posted in art, Arts, Fashion, Literature, Poetry, Psychology, Relationships, Social Comment, Writing
(Kiyoshi Saito; Maiko Kyoto.
JAOD)
Although you can wear
the same clothing as others,
everyone’s unique,
even if they’re related.
You can’t summon up
individual qualities.
The Sanjo princess
did not quite reach his standard,
whatever she was dressed in.
She wasn’t equal
to Oigimi after all,
but he could train her.
She had a fair bit to learn.
He hoped she would not shame him.
