WKD - Hand Hands

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WKD - Haiku about Hands

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The Haiku Foundation
Per Diem for October: Hands-On
Haiku about Hands

“We are a species heavily dependent on our eyes, especially for connection with others and world around us. But our hands also connect, and that connection often reaches the heart. Right now my beloved mother-in-law, who doesn’t see well, is dying, and when you approach her, she reaches out her thin hand to connect.
These haiku about hands touch emotion. ... "
source : www.thehaikufoundation.org


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. The Hands of Daruma .

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Some thoughts shared by Naotaka Uematsu (FB)

senju-kannon 千手観音 Kannon with one thousand arms / hands

But the reading for this one is 千手 "sen-te"
and here is juubako 重箱 tiered lacquer ware boxes
But 先手is sen-te.
and futate 二手（nite, futate, nishu).
Two hands are 「両手 morote, ryoote, and we don't say "nite".


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. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


. te ni toraba kien namida zo atsuki aki no shimo .
. . . . .


手を打てば木魂に明くる夏の月
te o uteba kodama ni akuru natsu no tsuki


clapping hands,
and dawnlight in the echo:
summer moon
Tr. Barnhill


I clap my hands
and with the echoes, the day begins to dawn –
the summer moon.
Tr. Ueda


Summer moon –
clapping hands,
I herald dawn.
Tr. Stryk


as I clap my hands
with the echoes,
it begins to dawn
Tr. ?Columbia University


I clap my hands
dawning in the echo
the summer moon
Tr. Joshua Newman


when I clap my hands
they echo with
the summer dawn's moon
Tr. Addiss



when I clap my hands
it seems brighter from the echo
this summer moon
Tr. Gabi Greve


手を打つと、その音が遠く響き渡り、彼方にかかる夏の半月の中に消えてゆくようである。その月の色を見やると、今しも夜は、しらじらと明けてくるところだ.
source :　t-hideki2



This is the moon on day 23 of the lunar month.
It is just before dawn and Basho claps his hands twice in prayer. It seems the moon is answering his prayer and it gets lighter.

二十三夜の月は、もう夜明け前。柏手打って月の出を讃美すれば、其の木魂が響き終える頃には朝が来てしまう。
source :　itoyo/basho



Before he wrote this haiku about clapping his hands,
Basho had another version:



Memorial Stone at Kusatsu Hot Spring, Shirane Shrine
草津温泉 白根神社
Lively Echo of Wooden Sandals in the Summer Night.
This stone had been erected in 1842, in memory of 150 ago, when Basho wrote this hokku.
source : kusatsu/kusatsuonsen
夏の夜や谺に明くる下駄の音 (different kanji for kodama)


夏の夜や木魂に明る下駄の音
natsu no yo ya kodama ni akuru geta no oto

summer evening —
dawnlight in the echoes
of the clogs
Tr. Barnhill


. . . . .


It is customary to greet the sun deity every morning with two claps of the hand and a bow.

. 天照大神と大日如来 Amaterasu and Dainichi .


At a Shinto shrine it is custom to bow twice,
clap your hands twice and bow once more to greet the deity in residence.



. Kodama, the Tree Spirit .


. Geta, Wooden Sandals, Clogs, 下駄 .


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shiwade 皺手 wrinkled hand,
hand of an old person




梅折て皺手にかこつ薫りかな
ume orite shiwade ni kakotsu kaori kana

breaking a plum branch
I fret about my wrinkled hands
in the fragrance . . .
Tr. Gabi Greve

The cut marker KANA is at the end of line 3.

. Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 in Edo .


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むれる蠅皺手に何の味がある
mureru hae shiwade ni nanno aji ga aru

swarming flies
how do my hand's wrinkles
taste?
Tr. David Lanoue

. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 in Edo .


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- some of my HAND haiku -


Albrecht Duerer, Praying Hands




smacking a child　-
the sound of one hand
clapping

a mosquito
aiming noisily -
the sound of one hand



As long as the sun rises
And your heart beats,
Tao is at hand.



bright autumn sky -
the shadow of a hawk
on my hands



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carless Sunday -
kids skate on the road holding
hands of each other

Isabelle Prondzynski



MORE
- HAND haiku - kigo hotline


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morning preps --
I sneeze on my hands
time after time

Dennis Wright



MORE
- HAND haiku - Kenya Saijiki


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dew on the grasses
cools my hands -
early morning gardening

Hideo Suzuki




Steering the tractor
With my knees ~ my hands warming
Over the exhaust pipe

Res John Burman




the nights are long ...
the warmth of helping hands
longer

Willie Bongky





the sun spots
on her hands --
autumn leaves

Stella Pierides



. . . . .



rain all day -
my hands folded
in prayer

sunrise -
my old neighbour
folds his hands

Morgenrot -
mein greiser Nachbar
faltet die Hände

Gabi Greve






Gandhara Buddha -
his hand is watching
over us
Gabi Greve




Gandhara Buddha
Hanging around my neck
His wisdom in my heart

Res John Burman



MORE
- Shared at Joys of Japan - facebook -


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. Body Parts and Haiku .


. . . Read my Haiku Archives . . .



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[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]
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WKD - colorful haiku

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blue sky -
two white swans
in the green lake


Gabi Greve


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- Shared by Joys of Japan -


tandem shadows
I look up to see
two white ibis

Johannes Manjrekar





saffron sky
the green leaves
curling into brown

Asni Amin






first maple
leaves color the yard...
still morning glory

Jimmy ThePeach


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. Colors, Haiku, Kigo .


. . . Read my Haiku Archives . . .

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WKD - namekuji slug

after the rain - a hungry snail grows faster she was climbing up the tree munching on the small mushrooms that has sprung up during the long heavy rain

. BIG snail, photo album .


Extreme strong rain and thunder in Ohaga for 4 hours ...
. Ohaga in the Rainy Season .



mudslides on our access road
It was one of the worst strong rains with thunder going on for about four hours last night.
A lot of damage done in many parts of Okayama, Western Japan and Kyushu.
And now the front moves north toward Tokyo and Tohoku.





. Mudslides in Ohaga .



Heavy rain hits western Japan,
may reach central Japan through Fri.
TOKYO (Kyodo) --
A low pressure system and a rainy front brought heavy rain Thursday to the Pacific side of western Japan, prompting the weather agency to warn of downpours in a broad area from Okinawa to western and central Japan through Friday.

Precipitation logged 67.5 millimeters per hour in Ishigaki Island, Okinawa Prefecture, and 46.5 mm per hour in Cape Ashizuri in Kochi Prefecture, both in southwestern Japan, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
source : mainichi.jp


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BTW
this huge animal is not a snail, but a

SLUG - Nacktschnecke ナメクジ namekuji
Slug is a common name that is normally applied to any gastropod mollusc that lacks a shell, that has a very reduced shell, or has a small internal shell. This is in contrast to the common name snail, applied to gastropods that have a coiled shell large enough that the soft parts of the animal can retract fully into it.

Slugs belong to several different lineages which also include snails that have shells. The various families of land slugs are not very closely related, despite a superficial similarity in the overall body form. The shell-less condition has arisen many times independently during the evolutionary past, and thus the category "slug" is emphatically a polyphyletic one.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !






kigo for all summer

namekuji 蛞蝓 (なめくじ / ナメクジ) slug
namekujiri なめくじり / namekujira なめくじら

Branchiostoma belcheri, Japanese native slug

Best seen at the end and after the rainy season.

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空気にも絶壁がありなめくじり
kuuki ni mo zeppeki ga ari namekujiri



even in the air
there is a cliff -
this slug

Takano Mutsuo 高野ムツオ
source :　takanomutu.exblog.jp

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. - yookai, yōkai 妖怪 Yokai monsters - .
- Introduction -

- quote -
namekujira なめくじら slugwhale

TRANSLATION: a portmanteau of slug and whale; slugwhale
HABITAT: homes and gardens; as a regular slug
DIET: leaves and plants



APPEARANCE: As its name implies, the namekujira is a very large slug. Its body is described as reddish-brown in color, with a long stripe running down its back. From its head to its neck, it is covered in black spots.

BEHAVIOR: Namekujira live in gardens and behave just like ordinary slugs. It is their size that makes them so strange. They crawl across doors and fences, leaving behind enormous, silvery slime trails up to 100 hiro in length—almost 182 meters.

ORIGIN: Namekujira is described in the Kujirazashi shinagawa baori, a comical Edo-period book featuring different types of pun-based whale yōkai. Its name is a play on words, combining the words namekuji (slug) and kujira (whale). In addition to its name, this yōkai’s description contains one more pun. There is a dish made from whale intestines called kujira no hyakuhiro. The name literally means “whale’s 100 hiro,” which comes from the great length of the whale’s intestines. So the gag is that while kujira no hyakuhiro refers to a delicious meal, namekujira no hyakuhiro is just a 182 meter long slime trail.
- source : patreon.com/posts/namekujira-

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. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .



source : 調布 妖怪通信

namename kujikuji なめなめくじくじ / 蛞抉、slug monster


................................... Aomori 青森県
五戸町 Gonohe

なめくぢの化物 The Namekuji Slug Monster
Once there was an actor with the stage name of タヌキ Tanuki. He got a message from his mother and was on his way home to visit her. On a pass where monsters come out at night it was already evening. A namekuji slug monster came out and took him for a real Tanuki badger. The monster asked him for something that he was most afraid of, so he answered 金 Gold Money . The next evening the slug, who thought to fight him to the death, threw a box with 1000 gold coins (senryoobako 千両箱) into his home. Thus the clever Tanuki became a rich man.


................................... Gifu 岐阜県
高山市 Takayama

If you eat a raw Namakuji or a green frog, asthma will be healed.


................................... Hyogo 兵庫県

A man once helped a monkey which was captured by an octopus and got a Furoshiki 風呂敷 wrapper as a thank-you present. That night he stayed at a lodge. There was a huge storm and a monster seemed to blow in. The man pulled out the Furoshiki and pulled it over his bed covers. Then the wind stopped. When he looked closer in the morning, he saw a slug in the Furoshiki and it seemed the monster had slipped on it and disappeared.


................................... Kagawa 香川県
詫間町 Takuma

Sometimes a beautiful girl is seen at the edge of the pond. But whoever sees this girl will be eaten that night. Once a medicine vendor passed by the pond and saw a monkey crying. The monkey had a stomachache, so the vendor gave him some medicine. The monkey threw something at him and disappeared.
That evening the vendor slept in a small room at a lodge when a huge serpent came out. It opened its huge mouth to eat him. So he threw the parcel from the monkey at the snake and it fled. Next morning the owner of the lodge came looking and they found that the present from the monkey had been a sludge, which is poisonous for the snake.


................................... Miyazaki 宮崎県
東臼杵郡 Higashiusuki

Once a hunter was about to shoot a monkey, but then he took pity on the animal and let it go. On his way home from the forest, the monkey appeared again and gave him a slug. He wrapped it in a wrapper and continued his way home. Suddenly a 山女 "mountain woman" monster appeared and wanted to kill him. But this kind of monster is afraid of slugs, so she run away fast and the hunter reached home safely.
This "mountain woman" is known as Yamahime 山姫 "Mountain Princess", a mountain monster.

. Yamanba, Yamauba 山姥 and 山姫 Yamahime Yokai .



................................... Niigata 新潟県

In former times, the 蛇 serpent, the 蛙 frog and the 大なめくじ large slug called Yamada no hime 山田の姫 "Princess of Yamada".
If one of these monsters hides under the main pillar of a home (daikokubashira 大黒柱), the daughter of the home will heal from her illness. This tale has helped many families.


................................... Shiga 滋賀県
西浅井町 Nishiasai

If people use kumasasa 熊笹 bamboo grass, that has been purified at the shrine during a Spring festival, and hang it in their kitchen, there will be no cockroaches or slugs entering the kitchen.

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- reference : nichibun yokai database 妖怪データベース -

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source : togetter.com/

Jiraiya 児雷也 / 自来也
Princess Tsunade 綱手姫is standing on a Namekuji
Utagawa Kunisada

. Jiraiya 自来也 / 児雷也 "Young Thunder" .
Ogata Shuma Hiroyuki
児雷也豪傑譚 Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari
Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya

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雨十日蛞蝓多き厨かな
ame tooka namekuji ooki kuriya kana

rain for ten days
and so many slugs
in the kitchen . . .

滝川愚仏 Takigawa Gubutsu


人の死やいま光り出す蛞蝓
hito no shi ya ima hikaridasu namekujiri

a person died -
just then the slug
begins to shine

小林康治 Kobayashi Koji (1912 - 1992)

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正一位稲荷大社の蛞蝓
shoo ichi i Inari Taisha no namekujiri

really first grade -
the huge slug
at Inari Grand Shrine

山田ひろむ Yamada Hiromu
at Fushimi Inari Taisha 伏見稲荷大社



半夏生言葉の海に彷徨いて
hangeshoo kotoba no umi ni samayoite

Takashi

Takashi wrote this haiku in response to the image Yamada Hiromu painted.
He points out the contrast to the Grand Shrine and the slimy animal as a great juxtaposition.
source : miyachan55_2006


. taisha, ooyashiro, Ōyashiro 大社 .
grand shrines, great shrines, big shrines

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Slug figures / Shigeru Mizuki
- source : lowbrownie.com/tag/shigeru-mizuki -

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[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]

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WKD - bamboo shoots

bamboo shoots - the more I look the more I find today we harvested the first eight huge ones

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bamboo groves
in backyards past...
shadows of time


Two resources for bamboo shoot info:
http://agsyst.wsu.edu/bambroc.pdf
http://www.bamboo.org/FAQ.html#CanIEatTheShoots

Tom Conally, USA
Happy Haiku Forum


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market day
two baskets of bamboo shoots
sold in bulk

- Shared by Bos Tsip, Philippines -
Joys of Japan, 2012


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May 15 :

to study in silence -
I wish I could grow
like a bamboo shoot



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Bamboo shoots or bamboo sprouts
are the edible shoots (new bamboo culms that come out of the ground) of many bamboo species including Bambusa vulgaris and Phyllostachys edulis. They are used in numerous Asian dishes and broths. They are sold in various processed shapes, and are available in fresh, dried, and canned versions.
Shoots of several species of bamboo are harvested for consumption:
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


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閑居して筍番をしたりけり
kankyo shite takenoko ban o shitari keri

now retired,
I stand guard over
bamboo shoots

Kobayashi Issa


Comment by Chris Drake :

This is an important hokku written three months after Issa received half of his father's land in his hometown that seems to show Issa's attitude toward his new lifestyle. The tone is humorous and directed at himself. He uses a deliberately grandiose phrase for his new life as half-owner of his father's house and land, a phrase that in Issa's time was commonly used by wealthy merchants who retired early, turned over their business to a son or head clerk, and concentrated on one of the traditional arts, such as tea ceremony.

In the 19th century kankyo shite commonly means "having separated/secluded myself from the noisy commercial world," and in Issa's case it means above all that he's left behind his life of wandering around the greater-Edo haikai world and has settled down in the country -- though he'll make many trips to greater Edo in the future. Any respectable retired Edo merchant or literati has an equally respectable avocation to fill his spare time, a custom parodied by Issa when he says he now works as the self-appointed official guard of the bamboo shoots on his father's property.

There may be some utilitarian value to Issa's new guard duties, since bamboo shoots are harvested for their food value, and monkeys, deer, wild boars, and bears also enjoy eating them, but bamboo shoots grow quickly, often in great profusion, so Issa may be deliberately be presenting himself as a guard of a natural process that happens even without guarding. Two hokku before this hokku in Issa's diary (for the 4th month [May] of 1813) he writes:

tsuyu chiru ya waka-takenoko no zokuzoku to

dripping dew,
young bamboo shoots
rise endlessly

(I follow Maruyama Kazuhiko's reading.) So it seems Issa is parodying himself as he goes around looking at vigorous bamboo shoots rising upward in May. The shoots may also be an image for Issa's view of hokku (and renku) as creations rooted in the earth that appear of their own accord and mostly just need a little looking after.

Chris Drake


BACK TO
. WKD : take no ko, takenoko 竹の子 bamboo shoots 筍　 .


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. Food with bamboo shoots .


. Bamboo shoots in 2010 .


. . . Read my Haiku Archives . . .

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WKD - Translating Haiku Forum

[ . BACK to Haiku Theory TOP . ]
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Translating Haiku

Memos of the Yahoo Forum, founded in April 2006

My experience in the translation business goes back more than 40 years, working as a medical doctor/translator in research programs for the WHO, University of Heidelberg.
Later I studied Far Eastern Art and began to translate
texts about Japanese Buddhist Art.

I am born German and live in Japan since 1977. I work as professional translator for scientific and HiTech texts and do cultural translations for my pleasure.

I do not consider myself a poet and translating haiku is rather new to me. Since neither Japanese nor English is my mother tongue, it is indeed quite difficult for me to find the right words.

I will nevertheless try to assist as best as I can to help you understand Japanese Haiku. Apart from the pure language problems, there is a lot about the culture that you might not know and I can provide "footnotes" for this kind of missing knowledge, I hope.

Gabi Greve, GokuRakuAn, Japan, 2004
Languages: German, English, Japanese (a bit of French and Latin)


. Japanese Haiku - Translations .
Join me on Facebook, since October 2012


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In the translation forum
let us just try to understand the original and present it to the readers who do not speak Japanese (or any other original language for that matter) as best as we can, to give all a chance to understand it better, in its original form and contents.
Considering the old haiku of Japan, we even have to make a time-slip to their use of the language and the culture at that time.

Studying a haiku at the forum includes literal translations and then other versions that might be possible.
Some might read better as poems, others not.
In that way we can show how a short Japanese poem is indeed not so easily transformed into another language.

As I mentioned, we also need cultural background information.
Knowing a haiku is about Manpuku-Ji we need to explain a bit about this important temple and its atmosphere.
"Autumn festival" is a simple translation of AKIMATSURI, but it will not tell you what really happens then and how the Japanese associate and feel about it. So you need more cultural background.

I admire Robin Gill for giving his thoughts and versions while translating a haiku.

In studying a translation by someone else, let us see what other kinds of versions we can come up with. Not as a competition for "Best Version", but for bringing out the broadest meaning of a haiku to more of the haiku friends who do not read Japanese and who are here to study.

Translating Haiku Forum, March 2007


Some haiku are rather wonderful in Japanese but plain and simple in the English translation. Many friends keep asking:

What am I missing ?

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Did you know,
you can polish your Japanese,
but not japanese your Polish ?!

I was told so many years ago by a Polish Jesuit priest at the Japanese Language Center in Kamakura.


Many of you are tempted to write their own haiku in Japanese!
I can understand the feeling, but please, take my advise.

First learn the normal Japanese language as it is spoken in Japan (many books teach you "literal" Japanese, which no one speaks).

Once you consider yourself fluent in normal Japanese conversation, start reading about haiku and get your big Japanese saijiki. Learn the vocabulary needed there, get some knowledge abuot the grammar used in haiku. There are plenty of cheap books in Japan.

And then, try to find a Japanese teacher who will kick your shin if you make a mistake.
Do not go for the "backpatting" pet gaijin approach, that will not help you improve your language skills.
When someone tells you "お上手ですねええ” you should know it is time to run, fast ...


And please, please, please, do NOT use Babbelfish or other online translation services.

They may be useful for normal text, but never for poetry !


Writing your own haiku in Japanese only works if you are serious to invest about 5 years of intensive language learning (best spent in Japan) and then the rest of your life for improvements.
So better not start at all and spend your time more efficiently to improve your skills for writing good haiku in English (or whatever your mothertongue is).

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Cross-cultural Musings

When translating, it is not only about words, but of a cultural understanding that might not (and usually does not) exist in the target language.

I will always remember the first missionaries looking at what we now call "Buddha Statues". They only saw hineous fiendish demonic fetishes (Götzenbilder in German) and translated the literature accordingly.
When I started writing about "Buddha Statues" in German, more than 30 years ago, I had to sort of make up my own vocabulary to convey what these things mean here in Japan in their original context and in the daily life of the Japanese.
Consider a statue of a Kannon with 1000 arms and a poor missionary 200 years ago trying to cope with such a monster in his Christian vocabulary ...


What I am trying to say is this

Usually you look into things from the standpoint of your own culture, trying to understand it on YOUR terms, using words of YOUR language.

I try to understand things Japansese on THEIR terms, the Japanese way. This means re-programming the old brain, loosing the European cultural clutter and start from ZERO ... Ichi Ni San ...

Gabi Greve


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Musings by Chibi, November 2008

I am beginning to believe... truly believe, that haiku can only be written in Japanese because it is intrinsically Japaense. I look at it this way. If you are to construct a sake cup made from Japanese wood, of Japanese design, in a Japanese setting filled with sake made in Japan... then how can you do so in another wood, design, setting or drink? By definition, you just can not.


MORE by Chibi
Translating Haiku Forum


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Translating Place names 　
Placenames
I think place names should be used as they are in the original language. If necessary, an explanation about the meaning of the name can be given in a footnote.

Arakawa　荒川 river Arakawa

Arakawa is the full name of the river. Putting the denominator "river" in front of the name will tell a person who does not know any Japanese:
This is a river called Arakawa.
(To not translate: river Ara, or even worse, river Wild.

法隆寺 temple Horyu-Ji, this is a temple called Horyu-Ji


東京, this is Tokyo, meaning the "Eastern Capital".
不二, this is Mount Fuji, in the old writing of Issa, Meaning Mount "Not Two".


Here is a haiku with a play on words on the "stone mountain".

Ishiyama no ishi ni tabashiru arare kana

splashing on the stones
of Mount Ishiyama -
these hailstones

Matsuo Basho, Tr. Gabi Greve
Read the full discussion HERE !

...

ishiyama no ishi yori shiroshi aki no kaze

autumn wind
whiter than the white cliffs
of this mountain

Tr. Gabi Greve


................... Comment by Larry Bole:

When a Japanese person hears "Ishiyama," do they just hear a name, or do they hear the underlying meaning of that name? I am tempted to suggest they just hear a name, in the same way that English people most likely just hear "Cambridge," and "Oxford," without thinking "Cam-bridge" (a place where there was a bridge over the River Cam), and "Ox-ford," (a place where oxen could ford a river).

So if "Ishiyama" is used in a translation 'as is', I would think it should be footnoted as to its meaning. And if one decides to do that, why not just use the name's meaning in the haiku, and make "Ishiyama" a footnote to that?

I'm also curious about Mt. Asama.
Does "Asama" mean something in Japanese?

Read more of the thoughts on this by
Larry Bole

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Haiku has those two elements,i.e Kanji and hiragana, image and music.

Asama 浅間 is old style Japanese that comes from Ainu.
It sounds softly, romantic, analog and emotional.

Sengen is Kanji itself that is image, reasonable, digital and theoretical.

Read the thoughs of Nakamura Sakuo

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Famous Places, best with a word of information.
The Hepburn Romaji spelling and the spelling used more or less oficcially now can be different. I usually try to reflect both.

東大寺, Toodaiji, Temple Toodai-Ji
利根川, Tonegawa, River Tonegawa
大和田湖, Toowadako, Lake Towada


松尾芭蕉　Matsuo Basho, Mister Pine-Tale Bananas
Pseudonym for Matsuo Kinsaku 金作,
Matsuo Chu'emon Munefusa 松尾忠右衛門宗房



WKD: PLACE NAMES of Japan

WKD: PLACE NAMES of the WORLD


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General problems concerning our haiku translations will be collected here, as they come up.

Spelling Japanese : Please use the Hepburn System.


The Basics of Japanese Haiku Theory - A Long List
Gabi Greve


WKD: Haiku .. Japanese Words in Cultural Context
Reading and Translating the Japanese Haiku Masters



Tips about translating ... Jane Reichhold
Simply Haiku Summer 2008, Basho


WKD: Direct translation versus meaningful translation
chokuyaku versus iyaku


Translating the Poetry of Miyazawa Kenji


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Online Dictionaries, Synonym Dictionaries and more

Tools of the Trade, check our various LINKS here.

Add your favorite language tool LINKS.

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Some theory about translating Japanese haiku


Basho’s Haiku: Selected Poems of Matsuo Basho
David Landis Barnhill
In the introduction, Barnhill mentions some of the problems involved in translating haiku.
http://www.modernhaiku.org/bookreviews/Barnhill'sBasho2005.html



Rise, Ye Sea Slugs!
Robin Gill
The way Gill translates is not only marvelous, it is absolutely revolutionary.
Instead of giving the reader the idea that there is only one way to translate a haiku, he offers a word-for-word translation and then goes into great detail explaining the ambiguities of the Japanese language along with the secrets of Japanese behavior. His final translation is often a series of possible ways of putting the haiku into English. . . .
He is even secure enough to admit when he really cannot figure out what the author was trying to say. . . .
http://www.paraverse.org/flyreview.htm



SHIKI : debate on translating haiku, 1999
Susumu Takiguchi
http://haiku.cc.ehime-u.ac.jp/shiki.archive/9912/1063.html

Can the Spirit of Haiku be Translated ?
Susumu Takiguchi
http://www.worldhaikureview.org/2-1/whcessay_translatedst.shtml


What can I say on translating haiku?
Eiko Yachimoto
http://www.poetrylives.com/SimplyHaiku/SHv1n4/Yachimoto.html


Translation discourse on a haiku by Issa
Darko Suvin
... PDF file achive.vanderbilt.edu/



Obscurity is not something to be emulated, and we should be careful to avoid it in modern hokku.
The issue of translation arises, however, whenever one reads an old hokku put into English. The average reader does not know, first of all, if the original was clear or vague, or whether the English translation simply transfers the meaning from language to language, or if the translator has added considerably from his or her own imagination.
David : ODDITIES OF TRANSLATION / Hokku
. . . . . and more
... reading a word-for-word translation does not mean one is getting the same effect as reading it in the original language.
source : David, Hokku Inn


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Professor Yuasa Nobuyuki:

It looks as if
Iris flowers had bloomed
On my feet --
Sandals laced in blue.
Matsuo Basho

"the language of haiku ... is based on colloquialism, and in my opinion, the closest approximation of natural conversational rhythm can be achieved in English by a four-line stanza rather than a constrained theree-line stanza.... "
.
"this translation is primarily intended for lovers of poetry, and only secondarily for scholars whose minds should be broad enough to recognise the use in a translation like this. It's not for those purists who insist (without believing either in its validity or possibility, I presume) that haiku should be translated with the original seventeen syllable scheme or at least into three lines."
source : The narrow road to the Deep North



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Translating Personsl Pronouns　

Personal pronouns are often implied in the Japanese language, but should be translated in other languages when things are not quite clear.

my love for you

(anyone's anonymous) love for you

are two different meanings.
It usually does not add additional depth to a poem, but a bit of confusion which is better avoided.


. aimai 曖昧 ambiguous, unclear or vague .


a bad translation or
. . . . Haiku Riddles . . . .


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As a translator, sometimes you have to make up words as you begin to understand things deeper. Or experiment with spellings to convey the meaning of the CUT, kireji etc.

In January 2007, I came across a kind of re-export for the word haiku in English in a Japanese text from the haiku town Matsuyama in Ehime/Japan:

eigo HA.I.KU 英語ハイク

The katakana spelling of ハイク (in my re-translation: HA.I.KU) indicates this is a foreign word not common in traditional Japanese language.


There is now even a book introducing English language haiku to the Japanese reader:

HAIKUのすすめ―
日本人のための英語ハイク入門
吉村 侑久代



　© amazon.com


another book on the subject

俳句とハイクの世界
(The world of haiku and HA . I . KU
星野恒彦 / Hoshino Tsunehiko


MANY More LINKS about 俳句　英語 ハイク!!


eisaku ha.i.ku 英作　ハイク　English-language ha.i.ku,
ha.i.ku composed in English (to include the translation of SAKU)
source : www.haiku-hia.com
Haiku International Association
eisaku haiku

sekai haiku 世界俳句 World Haiku
. . . CLICK here for Photos !
Magazine of the World Haiku Association 世界俳句協会
Natsuishi Banya 石番矢

sekai haiku nyuumon 世界俳句入門 A Guide to World Haiku
ISBN-13：9784806046950
Book by 夏石番矢

. . . . .

shinkoo haiku 新興俳句 New and Fresh Haiku
Modern Haiku - gendai haiku　現代俳句

Experimental Haiku
jikkensei haiku 実験性俳句
zenei haiku 前衛俳句

avantgarde Haiku 前衛俳句 zen-ei haiku
vanguard haiku

jiyuuritsu haiku 自由律俳句 free verse haiku

tanshi　短詩 short poem


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Untranslatability
is a property of a text, or of any utterance, in one language, for which no equivalent text or utterance can be found in another language.

Terms are neither exclusively translatable nor exclusively untranslatable; rather, the degree of difficulty of translation depends on their nature, as well as the translator's abilities.

Quite often, a text or utterance that is considered to be "untranslatable" is actually a lacuna, or lexical gap. That is to say that there is no one-to-one equivalence between the word, expression or turn of phrase in the source language and another word, expression or turn of phrase in the target language.

A translator, however, can resort to a number of translation procedures to compensate.

Check it out HERE !
© Untranslatability, from Wikipedia




Add your favorite translation LINKS as a comment here.


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Poetry is language skating on thin ice.
Translators fish through a hole in the ice.

"The Foreignness of Languages" and Literary Translation
Brother Anthony, An Sonjae (Sogang Univeristy, Seoul)
WKD Library


"Buson and
the Language of Japanese Poetry."
by Makoto Ueda
WKD Library


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My Archives about Haiku Theory and General Subjects


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COMMENTS

The discussion on the "cut" has been very interesting and shows another example of "doing your research". The poem "snicked" into place once I realized the meaning of the folding mat and its uses.
This is what I mean about Japanese HAIKU. I have always found it exciting, frustrating, informing, exhausting, etc...(in short a "joyfull struggle") to attempt the translation on my own especially with tools like google combined with membership in groups like this group.

I feel very blessed to know people with such deep interest in Japanese HAIKU.
Thank you all.

ciao... chibi

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Thanks. One of the things I enjoy about being in a group like this, is that it gets me to re-reading things I haven't read in a while,and it is an impetus to study haiku. If I could read Japanese fluently, I would follow in Shiki's footsteps, and study, study, study Japanese haiku, both classic and contemporary.
Such study couldn't help but improve one's own haiku (if one can get beyond "the anxiety of influence," to use the critic Harold Bloom's phrase).

Larry



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