Issa's Untidy Hut: Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Friday, March 8, 2013

Small Press Friday: Amanda Palmer

If Amanda Palmer ruled the world, with some wee assistance from her able consort, NG, I would be a very happy person, indeed.

I was late to the party, arriving around the time that her EP of Radiohead covers, accompanied by ukelele and voice, was released (it's available here for a dollar). Her offering to let the listener, first, listen to the entirety free, and, second, pay what s/he wished for the recording intrigued me.

Which is how this all ended up on Small Press Friday.

Why, you might ask, Small Press Friday?

Well, the lesson here is universal, in its own way, and if you think it's "I need a Kickstarter to keep my press afloat, publish my book of poems, promote my album, feel in your need here ______," you've got the wrong end of the stick (and perhaps are not even in the correct wooded area).

Sure, there are lots of things to be cynical about, but Amanda Palmer's passion is not one of them. Her intent, too, draws a bye. One thing to perhaps be cynical about is talent.

Amanda Palmer has it. Do you.

So this week's Small Press Friday assignment is to watch the TED video, above. For me, it is brilliant, in intent, execution, and, most of all, in heart. It is my understanding it's gone super-viral, and was passed on to me by a friend. And so I pass it on to you.

How's that song go - you've gotta have heart?

And for the truly skeptical about Radiohead on ukelele, here you are (this builds, darlings, yes, it is a shaky handheld in the beginning, but all of that will fall away in a mindblowing finale):

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Art by Kuniyoshi Utagawa

traveling geese--
the human heart, too
soars

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

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Friday, October 26, 2012

On Translating Chiyo-ni: Isabel Winson-Sagan & Miriam Sagan - Small Press Friday

Woodcut of Chiyo-ni by Utagawa Kuniyoshi

A note: the following, a set of two translated poems by the haiku master poet, Chiyo-ni, embeded in a haibun style form, was sent along this way by Miriam Sagan and her daughter, Isabel Winson-Sagan. I have always loved Chiyo-ni; her work doesn't get nearly enough exposure to my taste. So, here's a little something to enjoy.

     Fiesta is over, although it is still hot. The sunflower seeds I planted inappropriately in the half barrels on the front porch almost touch the ceiling of the portal, and have finally bloomed. I think the thrashers might be gone--the stick nest in the cholla bush looks empty.

     My daughter Isabel and I sat down to translate Chiyo-ni, probably the most famous 18th century Japanese woman haiku poet--no easy task, but an exciting one. Autumn poems seemed appropriate.

     Chiyo-no writes:

mikazuki ni
hishihishi to mono to
shizumarinu.

Isabel showed me how the kanji of the first line which reads in part "3 sun moon" means either new moon or crescent moon. Hishihishi is considered untranslatable and onomatopoetic--translator Patricia Donegan says it is a kind of awareness or feeling.

Here is our best effort:

at the new moon
bit by bit
everything hushes

Then we tried:

hatsukari ya
iyoiyo nagaki
yo no kawari

Iz was practically acting out the first line, jumping up and pointing--first wild geese! Then we had a tortuous discussion about the rest which literally just means the nights are growing longer and longer. Where was the poetry? In a figurative turn, it seems.

first wild geese!
growing longer--
migrating night

By then we were so hungry we had to go to the Tune-Up cafe around the corner and drink our favorite Arnold Palmers. I walked Iz half way home and came back through the dry neighborhood, watching the red ants.

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