Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Kerfuffle

Issa's last home

Sometimes technology just sneezes. Since we were heading out to the woods for three days this past weekend, I thought I'd schedule a post for Sunday. Simple little task, no biggie.

Well, with Blogger, nothing is ever really simple. This go round, when I came back late Monday I discovered the formatting kerflooey and the youtube video pulling a Godzilla all over the page. So, my apologies, folks, I've reposted everything with corrections.

Of course, this gives me the opportunity to say we had a great time hiking in the woods, reading, and generally cavorting around the lodge where we stayed. It also gives me the chance to pass along two Issa snow-related translations by the David G. Lanoue:





he's also in no mood
to sweep the snow...
scarecrow







first snowfall--
it too
becomes Buddha
Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue





best,
Don

13 comments:

  1. neat house. looks like Issa lived
    very well.

    is that addition
    the gift-shoppe?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Man, when I go to the woods I try to forget about anything resembling technology. Other than some binoculors.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, Greg ...

    Charles, yeah, that was the idea and it worked well until I got back ...

    Ed, the "shack" has the suspicious look of a museum of sorts ... wonder if there are notecards and shot glasses and kerfuffles on the inside ...

    ReplyDelete
  4. I enjoyed the snow haiku very much.

    Today is very rainy where I am in Northern Cal. Perhaps I should write some rain haiku. Now that is a good idea although I am feeling transparent.

    Winter haiku writing can be a challenge.

    Best Wishes,
    /ph

    ReplyDelete
  5. why is it difficult?

    just drop the conditional ("should") and the abstract ("I") and

    write the poem.

    rain rain rain
    the way is muddy
    no one comest to visit
    How Pleasant!

    ReplyDelete
  6. PH, Glad you liked the Issa snow haiku - difficult for me, too, to write winter haiku ... it's a question of probing the mood, I guess ...

    And then, of course, Ed shows us the (muddy) Way - good one, Mr. B.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Issa's home looks tiny, but well appointed like his haiku. I love these words here, a wave of sensations.

    ReplyDelete
  8. acording to my extensive
    and exhaustive
    re-search

    Issa's tiny house
    is/was
    actually
    the store-house(shed of teh big house

    (which may be the structure off (behind) on the right)

    thias research has just led me
    into another "haiku moment":

    full moon
    rakes and hoes
    my dirt-floor hut

    ReplyDelete
  9. more:

    Just went to my shelf-of-haiku-Masters
    and found my print-out of

    Robert N. Huey's work (via J STOR)
    "Journal of My Father's Last Days. Issa's 'Chichi no Shuen Nikki'"

    it was published in

    Monumenta Nipponica, Vol 39, No 1, (Sprong 1984), pp. 25-54

    ReplyDelete
  10. Right you are, Ed ... this is the toolshed/shack, w/some serious renovation and cagey photog .... another nice ku ...

    Off to J-stor to check out the Journal of My Father's Last Days - thanks for the tip.

    ReplyDelete
  11. here: the Issa thing:

    http://www.jstor.org/pss/2384479

    a friend sent it to me
    soon after my dad died in 2002
    (via jstor) as I don't qualify to get into jstor...

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks, Ed ... you sometimes need a subscription for JStor ... but I got it.

    ReplyDelete