Sunday 30 October 2016

The Tamakura Problem

#Priest SOGI #spring #waka #LateHeian #tamakura

SOOGI a Zen Priest 1421-1502was noted for writing Waka Renga and Haiku.

This poem is GSRJ XV 480 and also appears in Miner.

Yo o samumi 
Ume ga ka chikaki
Tamakura ni 
Tsuki wa kasumite 
Harukaze zo fuku

Night of cold or Cold World

(Soogi was of commoner background and a priest)

Plum blossom scent nearby chikaki = chikashii

on arm pillow  Miner adds a reference to tears on sleeves that is NOT in the Japanese text !

A Zen priest with an arm pillow I get stuck here

Either in this case Tamakura might be a place name or he's not just refering to his sleeves but to everyone present or he's being very ironic given he was to my knowledge not like Ikkyu

I cant shake off the feeling he's used a simple cliched phrase and given it multiple levels of irony

moon blurring dim hazy sprint mist? the thickness of pollen?

spring wind emphatic particle blows

The first part of this pillow is quite "normal" but what is a Zen priest doing and where

I would love to know if there was ever a place near Kyoto anywhere in Japan called Tamakura.

Frankly I could see the Japanese calling a hamlet or remote hermitage thats nestled between hills "arm pillow".

If there is a double or triple meaning that adds so much more depth to the poem.


Sorry there's no Kanji but my laptop died and I'm using a library terminal!

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Friday 28 October 2016

HELP TECHNOZI RETURN

I need a new laptop

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Have some lovely stuff trapped on HDD

The laptop self immolation occurred just before I was about to do a backup AAAARGH

Monday 17 October 2016

HIATUS Alert Laptop in for repair

My laptop battery died so no blogs until I get

a) new battery delivered for instalment

b) install new app on mobile to post blogs

Sorry Folks

Please browse through older posts !

Tuesday 11 October 2016

Spring Hanzi

In keeping with the announced #Spring #Autumn theme this weeks #technozi




Copyright Julie Vaux 2016
cos one day i want to collect all of these in a PRINT book !

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Friday 7 October 2016

Naku Shika No

#autumn #waka #sarumaru #heian #japanese #poetry

Oku yama ni 

Momiji fumi wake 

Naku shika no 

Koe kiku toki

Aki wa kanashiki 

This is one of the earliest poems to use the deer's cry phrase.

I translate this as

Deep in the mountains

oku+yama+ni
not mountainside as some do

Momiji is maple leaves but I suspect fumiwake is one long compound verbal and the romaji should be rendered as one word however to translate accurately
its fumu+wakeru
is the poet trampling on leaves or pushing through a pile of them?
note that wake can mean dividing so I choose

Pushing through maple leaves

Naku shika no the cry of the deer(s)

Koe kiku toki

sound works time the sound works on effects or maybe hear time

Aki autumn wa subject marker

kanashiki is Bungo modern form is kanashii sad mournful pathetic

Deep in the mountains
Pushing through maple leaves
(I hear) the cry of the deer
A sound making autumn mournful

Yes its four lines not five but it makes the translation a poem in English and not just a paraphrase?




Tuesday 4 October 2016

AUTUMN HANZI

#OCTOBER #spring #autumn
Alternating between the two since its #spring in my Hemisphere but #autumn up north

Copyright J.Vaux 2016 



Saturday 1 October 2016

Autumn Colors

#autumn #colors
2 files for you to download



Its spring in my hemisphere but what I'm trying to suggest here is late autumn and the final fading and fall or leaves to gray and frost reminding us that winter approaches !

ENJOY 

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