Big Board Response to Hurricane Earle on Haiku and Japanese
Dear Hurricane,
We really love you. Thanks for posting comments and reading our links. In response to your how to pronounce Japanese, please visit this link (this one right here). You can click on each of the boxes of the chart to hear the sound. The writing above the English is Hiragana -- the only writing system I've so far managed to get the hang of. If you're interested in haiku, Robert Hass's translations of Basho, Buson, and Issa are required reading. Some of the translations into English that stick to the five-seven-five pattern suck the life from the language. We have the Tale of Genji on our shelf. Neither of us has read it yet, even though we know we should.
We really love you. Thanks for posting comments and reading our links. In response to your how to pronounce Japanese, please visit this link (this one right here). You can click on each of the boxes of the chart to hear the sound. The writing above the English is Hiragana -- the only writing system I've so far managed to get the hang of. If you're interested in haiku, Robert Hass's translations of Basho, Buson, and Issa are required reading. Some of the translations into English that stick to the five-seven-five pattern suck the life from the language. We have the Tale of Genji on our shelf. Neither of us has read it yet, even though we know we should.
posted by Anonymous at
12:58 PM
2 Comments:
Sweet. I'll look for the Hass. I almost bought a copy of Tale of Genji at a used book store on Friday, but it was an old edition with tiny print that would have been tough on these old eyes. Instead I bought The Aeneid and The Handmaid's Tale. Today I'm going shopping for 2x4's for a homemade box spring. Our mattress sags; it's like sleeping in a canoe. It's starting to hurt these old hips. Fascinating, Earle, fascinating. Love you too- E
By
em, at 12:14 AM
Earle,
I think you should write a haiku about your sagging mattress. You're already onto something- "it's like sleeping in a canoe." Since I've been reading Issa's haiku (real haiku), I've been really inspired to write them, but the act seems far less authentic and spontaneous in English. Somehow. Reading them in Japanese, and then reading the English translations, you really get the sense that something is lost. Reading them in Japanese is inspiring me to work harder at learning Japanese. sukoshi zutsu naratteimasu (little by little I am learning.) Take care of those old hips...
K
By
wakarimasen, at 9:21 AM
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