Wednesday 30 November 2016

Two Purple adjectives

There are two other lesser known adjectives for purple in Chinese but I couldnt do a complete set so if any one knows the missing words?



Saturday 26 November 2016

ISSA and SUMIRE

#Issa #sumire #haiku

TWO HAIKU ABOUT SUMIRE BY ISSA

Sumire saku / kado ya yoru sae / natsukashiki

Violet bloom gate ! night yearning longing sae = clear at least serene ? natsukashiki yearn long for as adjective

Violets blooming serenely by the gate at night I yearn to see 

Or possilbly its late twilight and hes pleased to reach his destination ?

Waga mae ni / dare dare sumi shi / sumire zo mo

I before this time place who who live indeed violets emphatic also still here


Before me  who indeed lived here the violets still remain 


December theme will be Summer and Heat !
With a few Wintery things thrown in for contrast!


Tuesday 22 November 2016

Sumire Kanji

#sumire #kanji #hanzi #unihan #chinese #japanese

N.B. how the meaning differs in Chinese and Japanese

Copyright Julie Vaux 2016 

A note about the copyright notice You are quite welcome to share it for educational purposes
If you do that please include a link back to this blog or encourage students to use paypal though?

Chiyo Horses Violets Haiku

#Chiyo #Horses #Violets #Haiku #Sumire #purple

A simple but elegant haiku is todays addition to the November Purple Theme Series

Kake izuru
Koma mo ashi kagu
Sumire kana

Kake galloping izure older / alternate form of deru 
Koma young horses or ponies mo also ashi legs  kagu a verb scent smell sniff 
Sumire Violets!

Spring time and perhaps Chiyo was walking thru the countryside and past a field of young horses who had come racing through long grasses mixed with flowers and and now are standing near a fence legs covered with scent due to trampling through a patch of violets? 





Saturday 19 November 2016

Murasaki Prints

#purple #murasaki #japaneseprint #ukiyo-e

Purple is my November Theme so Lady Murasaki!



She is suppose to be at Ishiyama temple viewing the autumn moon though the artist has rendered the hills as Chinese style peaks? However it is an excellent illustration apart from that!
I also love the color balance of rich purple blue sky and strong grays!

Support this blog! Blogger may be free but Broadband isn't and ADsense takes months to build up to the payment threshold!






Friday 18 November 2016

Chiyo and Sumire

#chiyo #haiku #sumire #violets #translation #romaji #notes #julievaux

Sumire is the word for Violets and things with similar coloring in Japanese
 and is also a #kigo for #spring

#Chiyo wrote in one Haiku

Ne o tsukete / Onago no yoku ya / Sumire Soo

Word for word

Origin attachments
 young woman of craving !
violet grass / small plant

or is it grass?

Some people translate ne as root root of desire or craving but Chiyo was a devout Buddhist

The Origin of Attachments

A Young Womans desire (for) note Chiyo uses onago not onna !

Violet but violet what

Yes Soo means small plant but why emphasize some thing everyone knew

Soo can also refer to Cursive writing in Kanji or Kana

So I find myself wondering if any paper seller in Chiyos home town was selling purple tinted poem cards or paper slips for letters?

The Origin of Attachments
A Young Woman's craving 
"Violet Writing"  

Saturday 12 November 2016

Murasaki and Musashino

KKS XVII 867 Anon thougt possibly Narihira ?

#kokinshu #heianpoetry #murasaki #musashino

The theme for November is PURPLE and the word Murasaki refers
to both a plant and the color of its blossoms - PURPLE

Murasaki no           plant of
Hito moto yue ni    single /the poet as individual?  stem or origin yue ni reason for being there
Musashino no                  musashi plains  once grasslands now covered by modern Tokyo
Kusa wa minagara    grasses while seeing
Aware to zo miru.     appreciate indeed seeing

I had to expand this for it to be poetic in English

A single plant of murasaki
is the reason for my visit
to Musashi's plains
its plants are worth viewing
yes indeed worth seeing

Where Tokyo is today was once a wide stretch of grasslands low hills and rivers
Very different from the mountains and farmlands around Kyoto's valley.

I'm still laptop free n have limited net access
next time I can get near a computer
SUMIRE 2 haiku by Chiyo

Like these translations ?

Support this blogger via    paypal.me/JulieVaux