Number 18: wind

[lady_shonagon]

The leaves of the bush clover rustle in the wind.
I, not a leaf,
watched you without a sound.
You may have thought I paid no attention.

Kenrei Mon-in Ukyo No Daibu, translated by Kenneth Rexroth

It's windy, today, and I am going to wear my hair loose.

Comments

[sofieyamaneko]

This is absolutely lovely!

i hope you enjoyed the sensation of the wind playing with your hair ;)

[lady_shonagon]

I had a lovely windy day, thank you =)

The Rexroth translations are gorgeous, when I worked in a bookshop I always recommended them - he kept the cleanness of Japanese poetry while making them beautiful in English. I spent far too much money on my little collection and don't regret a penny of it. I'm glad you enjoyed it too!

[sofieyamaneko]

Well, you obviously know much more about japanes literature and poetry than I do. I'd love you to share more of it from time to time.

I guess I just love these short poems because they concentrate on describing one single moment, a single sensation - a sound, a picture, a feeling - and by doing so transcend it to something universal.

[lady_shonagon]

I know very little about Japanese literature, I promise! I probably do love Japanese poetry above any other form - exactly for that concentration, the pause it creates in you, that you mentioned - but I've read very little classical Japanese literature, and only a little modern. The problem isn't just finding Japanese fiction at all in the UK but finding good translations too - I don't think English and Japanese mesh very easily as languages, so a really good translator, like Rexroth, is golden.

I am very tempted by the expensive Pengin Deluxe edition of The Tale of Genji, but I think it may need to wait for a very special occasion/excuse . . .