26 Tuesday Nov 2019
Posted in History, Literature, Nature, Personal, Poetry, Psychology, Social Comment
Photo of kanji by Jmettlen on Wikimedia Commons
Even our friends’ graves
will one day be ploughed over.
Grief diminishes
through time and we smile once more.
Calligraphy on
headstones will be eroded.
The deceased’s peers die;
his name is then forgotten.
The pines which are deemed to live
for a thousand years
are, in actual fact, chopped down –
disrespectfully,
or just pragmatically,
according to how life’s viewed.
21 Wednesday Feb 2018
Tags
choka, cliches, Japanese poetry, lyricism, onomatopoeia, rhyme, scansion
The old verse is best:
toil is ennobled by it.
Even a beast’s cry is onomatopoeic.
I know what I like
and I don’t mean a good rhyme,
necessarily,
or rigid scansion.
Even transferred epithets
can be somewhat trite.
Melodic lyricism
conveys true feeling.
Even cliches from the past
have elements of truth.
06 Tuesday Feb 2018
Posted in Poetry, Psychology, Social Comment, Writing
Another re-vamp of the 14th century Japanese monk’s
observations:
Some people just live
to view the next spectacle.
Deferred gratification
is alien to them;
anticipation is lost
on such as these types.
They drink while they wait
and then push their way forward,
to seize the best views,
shoving past others
who have queued up patiently.
Discrimination
is lacking. Anything thrills.
They can’t wait for the next show.
28 Thursday Sep 2017
Posted in Nostalgia, Poetry, Relationships, Religion, Writing
The dead’s handwriting
has power to affect us.
The ink was as fresh
as if only yesterday
the brush had been dipped.
He blurred the paper with tears
and re-read her words;
then consigned them to the flames.
Smoke spiralled to the heavens.
He no longer craved
longevity from the gods.
As the snow drifted,
his despondency increased.
The end of the year approached.
25 Monday Sep 2017
Posted in art, Arts, Humour, Literature, Nostalgia, Poetry, Relationships, Romance, Writing
(Wikipedia. Murasaki Shikibu portrait
Author: Kano Takanobu; )WalkerPlus)
When the letter came,
he did not let her see it.
It was pathetic,
but he saved the woman’s face;
she was a princess!
Murasaki was unique –
she should understand.
But why was he so nervous
if the other meant nothing?
Lady Hitachi
is the one he visits now.
No woman need fret:
she has a ginormous nose!
There is no competition.
(I have used Edward Seidensticker’s translation of
‘The Tale of Genji’ throughout. I have taken his prose
and cut, paraphrased and transformed the material,
re-shaping it into chokas and tankas. My intention was
to capture the spirit of the tale, but to return it to poetry
by using traditional Japanese forms.
Seidensticker made the work accessible to me, for which
I am indebted.)
25 Friday Aug 2017
Tags
Genji seeks healing
for his burning fever but,
like a Peeping Tom,
he spies on all the ladies :
Murasaki is his choice.
21 Friday Jul 2017
Posted in Animals, Environment, Nature, Poetry, Writing
My first example of Bussokusekika. All you Japanese poetry experts
out there, have I got it right? I am using the structure 5,7,5,7,7,7.
(Photo by Nilfinian… at Dumbleton Hall.
Wikipedia)
Muntjac deer, freeze-framed,
hoping that you are unseen;
your ears are alert.
Every sound I make, you hear.
Your rasping bark at mid-night
lets me know you are still there.
