On the 20th of this month I got up and went downstairs and there were leaves across the kitchen floor, as if blown in on a gust of wind. They are still there. Autumn always comforts me.
The same day, blowing in on another wind, there came two different leaves in the form of packages for me. One of them was a volume called Japanese Love Poems, edited by Jean Bennett and illustrated by Scott Cumming. Poetry is notoriously difficult to translate, especially between two such dissimilar languages as Japanese and English, but I find the translations in this volume to be very fresh and evocative.
The poems date as far back as the third century (possibly further), which does tend to make me wonder for how long, exactly, humans have had the same emotions? Here's an undated Japanese lyric from the selection:
Two things cannot alter,
Since Time was, nor to-day:
The flowing of water;
And Love's strange, sweet way.
Reminds me of another old lyric:
Of course, these are things I know nothing about, but I am anthropologically and aesthetically interested.
It's a very beautiful book, in content and as an object, the illustrations forming a significant part of its charm.
The book was not coming to me for the first time, actually. I had sent it (after my initial purchase) to the illustrious illustrator, and he very kindly wrote an inscription and sent it back.
The second package I received that day was a Japanese purse – the purse equivalent of this:
Today I received another package in the post. It was this book:
I've read and appreciated Alan Watts before, so am looking forward to reading this. I am actually, very, very slowly, working on my own translation of the Tao Te Ching and this looks as if it will help me.
By the way, talking of the "flowing of water", here's a little extract from Alan Watts' book:
… Tao is the flowing course of nature and the universe; li is its principle of order which, following Needham, we can best translate as "organic pattern"; and water is its eloquent metaphor.
Unless I’m much mistaken, the clip is from Un Chien Andalou.Hang on. I’ll just check.No, I’m wrong. It must be L’Age d’Or. This is a somewhat longer film, so I won’t check the whole thing, but I’m pretty sure that’s right. The first part is here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHZyIx3oNZkBruce Lee was great.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzLhiWd9Efw
great post quentin. full of rich impressions. thank you for the glowing reference. i appreciate it. :happy:
Thank you. It’s a great book.
well, not great, but good enough. 😆
No, it’s definitely crossed over the border from good enough.
you are very generous. i, of course am partial. it was a labor of love for me. both for my wife, the editor, as you know, but just for the love of love itself. i was surprised and completely taken by the simplicity and power of the poems themselves. the universality of love. expressing the beauty of love is a high form. i found it somewhat indirect compared to western expressions, representations of this mystery, so artful in the poetry of the japanese.
i was surprised and completely taken by the simplicity and power of the poems themselves. the universality of love. expressing the beauty of love is a high form. i found it somewhat indirect compared to western expressions, representations of this mystery, so artful in the poetry of the japanese.There are often particular codes in traditional Japanese poetry, too. For instance, if someone’s sleeve is wet with dew, that means they’ve been crying on it. Animals are also often used to represent lovers – for instance, the cry of a deer is a mating call and is used to express the loneliness of someone seperated from their love.
ahhh, very interesting… conventions.i picked about half of the poems myself and just went by my interest and feelings. you obviously have delved much deeper into it. what i did was immerse myself for months in studying originals at the metropolitan in n.y.. i think i mentioned that.it was such a heavenly coincidence that they were having two great shows at the time… momoyama screens and ukiyo-e woodblock prints. i was going to columbia university at the time and my student i.d. got me into the extensive library of extremely rare japanese books. a whole book of wave patterns in silver ink…. remember that well. some of these books were hundreds of years old. what a trip.also, i love japan and everything japanese. i think i was a kamikaze pilot in my last life… i was born in 1943 during the war.
you obviously have delved much deeper into it.Well, I studied Japanese at university, which included modules in classical Japanese, so we had to read old poems and so on in the original. it was such a heavenly coincidence that they were having two great shows at the time… momoyama screens and ukiyo-e woodblock prints.I’ve always enjoyed traditional Japanese art. Generally more so than traditional European art.
it is a very demanding form of art. i didn’t really have time to master it at all, just the essence… a new york times review referred to my illustrations as “japanesque” . that didn’t bother me, because they did praise the pictures.i have access right now to a silk screen studio and plan to experiment with the ukiyo-e use of blocks of brilliant colors.i am cutting my teeth on a calendar of stories of the amazing ‘mulla nasr eddin’. i will post on it soon. when it’s finished.