For Japanese Speakers

Tera no kane
kasumi nashi de
dare ga shiru ka

(That worked out pretty good in Japanese! Very good Meagain.)



Hito fumanu
kasumi yama
o-tera kane no oto

Misty mountain
where no one steps foot
the sound of a temple bell

 

There is another form of haiku that is special in Japan. Well-known haiku poets, the classic poets, and even modern day poets and haiku entusiasts will produce one of these, sometimes there is some confusion and there may be 2 or 3 such haiku poems----but the concept is that one will only produce 'one' such poem in his or her lifetime.

I am talking about a jisei---a death poem. This is the final poem the artist produces when he knows death is inevitable and soon to be.

It is Spring now---but we just had a very cold weekend, and plenty of snow---so here are some winter jisei:

This one is by the poet Wakyu who died on November 10, 1759:

Tsui ni yuku
yuki fumiwakete
fude no michi

Heading to the end
treading through heavy snow
way of the brush

It doesn't say heavy snow but that is implied---fumiwakete comes from the verb to step (fumu) and spread apart (wakeru), so it could also be translated as to plow through. The way of the brush, refers to the life of a poet. It implies that the life of a poet is a tough one, but he also suggests that the path he must now go on (death) is also a difficult one.

Here is the jisei of Wagin, who died on January 3, 1758:

kuse ni natte
nishi ogamikeri
hatsu ashita

Its become a habit
bowing to the West
New Year's dawn

Based on Shinto traditions, the Japanese bow to the rising sun on the first morning of the New Years (hatsu ashita--first morning). The West is the direction of the land of the dead, and the Buddhist paradise. As a Buddhist Wagin had become used to bowing to the West. There is a saying in Japan that you are born Shinto and die Buddhist. This doesn't mean you change religion---if you are born Japanese you are always Shinto, but you also traditionally follow Buddhism. But the Shinto ceremonies tend to be more for the beginning of life---such as numerous ceremonies you take part in at certain ages as a child, or marriage, for example. But a funeral, and the ceremonies on the anniversaries of one's relative's death are always a Buddhist affair. But Wagin suggests that he will not bow to the rising sun on New Year's morning, because he is already ready for the next world.

Tojaku, November 8, 1799

Mu ni kaeru
mi zo
yuki shimo no itoi nashi

Returning to the void
this body!
no longer bothered by the snow and frost

A jisei does not neccesarily have to have a seasonal word like standard haiku. In fact it could be a tanka or another form of poem, though haiku are the most common. (I gave an example of a tanka in one of the early posts). Here is a haiku without a seasonal word by Toko who died on Feb 11, 1795:

jisei to wa
sunawachi mayoi
tada shinan

Death poems
are mere delusions.
there is only death

Sugetsu died on November 20, 1830:

tsumu toshi ni
tabiji e
yuki no kareno kana

The years have piled up
on my path
snow on the withered fields!


The famous Basho, died on October 20th, 1694:

tabi ni yande
yume wa kareno o
kakemeguru

fallen ill on a journey
my dreams
wander over withered fields

Basho's death occured after falling ill on one of his famous journeys--his last one---accross Japan.

Another famous poet--Issho, died December 6, 1688. He was hoping to let Basho, who would soon be travelling through his village stay at his home:

kokoro kara
yuki utsukushi ya
nishi no kumo

From deep in my heart
the snow is beautiful!
clouds in the west.


The following Autumn, Basho wrote a haiku of sadness over Issho's death:

tsuka mo ugoke
waga naku koe wa
aki no kaze

Move you tomb!
the sound of my weeping
the autumn wind

 

面白い
I use my ipad (though I'm sure any tablet device would do) and there's multiple keyboards you can get for free of off system preferences. It's really ingenious!

I'm still studying! But love the language, and especially the culture, there's always weird things you can learn everyday!
ありがとうございます。

 

^ がんばってくださいね。　

 

Thanks! For you or anyone else that may be interested, there is a challenge to learn 2,000 Kanji in 3 months that I have been doing.

You can follow my blog (or at least check it out to get the jist of the challenge) it has certainly helped my Japanese, and I'm only 3 weeks into the challenge!

https://travelbryce.wordpress.com/

 

それってありえないわ。。

Have you reviewed? I will be surprised if you can remember 800 or more of them. Either way, that's a lot of exposure in just 3 months so give it a shot..

The exposure alone will be great. You'll probably be re-studying all of them and learning them via context for the next year or two though.

一日、かんじはどのぐらい勉強している？
How many hours a day do you spend on that btw?

 

In the beginning I was really nailing them down, then I started to notice there was so much vocabulary that I couldn't read a character by just seeing them written out every time. But here is my thinking, is that exposure is great like you said, and once I study more and get a larger vocabulary base the kanji will be much easier

In fact, even if I can't pronounce the Japanese reading of a kanji, by having an understanding of the radicals, I can have a pretty good guess at depicting its meaning, and a highly accurate rate of being able to write it. In fact writing is the easy part for me. I have 480 so far, I study about 2-3 hours a day minimum, and I like to continue that exposure with reading Japanese literature or videos (anime YouTube vids, podcasts) which I don't factor into my study time.

I thought I had mastered my hiragana and katakana before, but wow!! After using them as the foundation for learning Japanese, I'd say I'm fluent in hiragana and katakana, like I can read the symbols as fast as I could roman letters, but the kanji is still difficult, just less threatening I guess. It seems very logical, and well, we know lots of useless information anyways right? We have the capability of learning all these kanji, in the end it just matters whether we chose to do it or not.

 

Thank you Sleeping Caterpillar-----I didn't even think of that!!! I have droid tablet-----I'll have to look for that!

 

I always urge people to learn the kanji----I think it really helps your Japanese. There are sevweral times many years ago that I would hear a word that I didn't know, but because of the context of the conversation, I immediately knew what characters the word was made up of, and the meaning of the word. Having learned the word that way, I immediately remembered it---never forgot it.

When I was living in Japan and learning Japanese, when I had gotten maybe a little over 300 characters, I happened to thumb through a newspaper, and discovered, much to my delight, I could actually read the regular news on the last pages (car accidents, murders, fires, etc). Sometime after that---on a nice spring day, I got on my bicycle and decided to ride around-----it was amazing how many words I learned that day, and how much I Japanese I was beginning to understand, by reading the Kanji.

And the surprises I discovered-----for example, a very big prominent sign by my nearest train station I suddenly noticed was an advertisement for a local health clinic-----and in big giant kanji, for all to see, said SEIBYOU (Venereal Disease).

You might try going through Japanese newspapers and finding articles that you can read----you may find the same stories easy to read already. There is a lot of free websites---I've always enjoyed Mainichi Daily News and Yomiuri, Asahi, etc. Last time I checked, the Nikkei tries to get you to subscribe. You can jump between the english and Japanese versions of the stories as well.

 

腟やんけ！

遂に、日本語が出来るや んけ！
I just hate using the keyboard on my Droid... Not used to these newfangled way of doing things.

 

That's awesome! Being in Japan sounds like a wonderful way to adapt to the language and culture, thanks for the sites to check out!

 

Man, I really should buckle down and learn [Finish] Kanji. I think it would help me actually reach fluency in Japanese. It is a goal of my mine. I've made it to JLP2, perhaps a stretch of JLPT1 just through speaking and "learning the kanji they make you study for 4 years in college."

Facebook & things are fine -- a newspaper I would be looking up kanji I know and don't know too often.

めんどくさいと思うんだけど、いつか漢字を含めて（自分の）日本語を進ませるのかんぁ。。って

でも、今は心配しているのは。。１年半内に日本に戻れないこと。。やっべいよ！　そんなん時間がたつとね、’流暢’の窓が閉まりそうやん。　　あらら、大変だぞ。　

I just do my best to maintain atm. I'm just turning 27 now so, I wonder if age 28-30 isn't too old to acquire fluency in another foreign language. 無理だと思わんけど、 had I been a better college student I would've already fucking been there now!!

 

My friend, you're never too old to do anything! Have you already passed the JLPT2? That would be rather impressive! How many people can say they learned fluent Japanese? That's a huge achievement,

And that's a good point. I mean I'm only 19, but I was studying Japanese 2 years ago, and stopped for a couple of months once I had to face the kanji. And now I'm learning it wishing I had started sooner! Times going to pass, you can either do nothing, or learn Japanese, you know? Or learn anything! But the point is, nothing's going to happen easy. 1+1 is better than 0! Just take it Kanji by Kanji! Good luck man! I hope you do it!

 

Ok people---bear with me, since I am not really used to typing in things on a touchpad---such as the on-screen keypad on my tablet. But it is with my tablet that I am now able to inout in Japanese.

So the way I will enter the haiku now is to first write it in Japanese using my tablet, then I will post it. Then I will come back and edit the post on my laptop and put in all the English and Romaji.

So if you see a post of haiku written just in Japanese----just wait a bit and I will add in the English.

 

I thought of putting in some Spring haiku, but we are getting some light snow today, and it has been overcast all day---very wintery looking out there. Here are some haiku from 2006 - 2007 (I don't think I have shared any of these ones yet):

雪雲り
夕方に
町の光や

Yukigumori
yuugata ni
machi no hikari ya

Snow clouds
in the evening
the village lights!

I love how the lights of a village or town contrast against the darkening gray overcast sky of an early winter's evening. Or in the late evening, after the sun has gone down, glow against the low hanging clouds, heavy with snow.


雪雲り
日暮れに
遠寺の鐘

Yukigumori
higure ni
toudera no kane

Snow clouds
at day's end
a distant temple bell


雪の朝
流れ星の
静かさ也

Yuki no asa
nagareboshi no
shizukasa ya

snowy morning
the stillness
of a shooting star!

Most likely this would be in the very early morning before sunrise, though potentially it could be a brighter one in the early light. I have experienced the quiet hiss of a shooting star that many people report (and science can't quite explain), on the other hand, when they are silent, there seems to be something special about that silence. As it plummets towards earth, you know that a rock travelling at a very high speed, is melting under intense heat into nothingness, and yet this climactic event (climactic for the rock), happens in utter silence, and lasted for only a brief moment.


大雪の
人もなく道
神さびた

Ohyuki no
hito mo naku michi
kamisabita

A big snow
the road void of people
serene

A big snow
the empty road
touched by the gods

There are a lot of ways we could say kamisabita, and I don't know if any of them do justice to the word. Kami is god or gods, sabiru can mean mature, or mellow, but it can also mean to rust, and to be lonely. But it can be a very special loneliness connected to the Japanese appreciation of simplicity and the rustic. Sabi is one of those words that does not have an english equivalent. Another translation for kamisabita is hallowed. I could also use, filled with the gods, for the last line.


重い雪雲
支えるか
老い松也

Omoi yukigumo
sasaeru ka
oimatsu ya

the heavy snow clouds
does it hold them up
--the ancient pine tree?!

Oimatsu is simply a very old pine, another word would be the aged pine tree. In the initial interpretation of this, it is an aesthetic experience of the tree against the clouds. But old trees and other old things of nature, are especially filled with kami---the shinto gods. As an animist belief system, everything has kami within it, but the old things have come into their own way with there kami spirit. Perhaps we could say that they are so filled with kami, that they outwardly manifest that in the gnarls of their trunks and branches and the silent strength such old things portray. To hold up the clouds demonstrates that silent, god-filled sense of strength. We could take it even further though---clear across Eurasia, the tall straight pine trees seem to connect with the World Tree, the Axis Mundi----the celestial center of the world that pierces from the underworld, into our world, and then into the upper worlds. It is the portal of the divine, where spirit connects to us, and we can possibly connect to spirit. The big giant cedar pines in Japan certainly look as if they could be such a portal and universal center. I have a book called Nippon Shinwa (Stories of the Japanese gods) which has the only true Japanese scriptures---the Kojiki and Nihongi----in it, and explores and discusses these very old myths. As I recall, there is a Pillar God who is connected with the creation of the structure of the universe----and seems related to these old cedar pines.

 

Here is another tanka I composed in 2006:

冬の夜
松の間に
地蔵菩薩あり
ほう覚えろよ
と風がなくの

fuyu no yo
matsu no ma ni
jizobousatsu ari
hou, oboeroyo
to kaze ga naku no

In the winter's night
between the pine trees
sits Jizobousatsu
'Hey remember... remember...'
the wind cries


On post #13, I mentioned the jizobousatsu--the little stone boddhisatvas. You find them in mountain temples and shrines, and other sacred places in the mountains and countryside. You can buy ones that are anywhere from a few inches tall to maybe a foot or so, for you to place yourself on one of these spots with your own prayer. However they are generally considered gaurdians of children, and children especially need to be gaurded in the afterlife. Most of them are placed with prayers for a stillbirth, or an aborted child (which is suprisingly common in Japan). There is something certainly tragic and sad connected with many of these little statues.

I have seen very old jizobousatsu that are so old, the stone carvings have lost most of their details. Generally each one looks more like a phallus--correction, many of them look just like a phallus.

谷風や
そこの地蔵様の
思い出

tanikaze ya
soko no jizosama no
omoide

The valley wind!
reminding
of the Jizo-sama there.

This is actually a summer haiku. The valley wind is a wind that rises up from a valley in the summer. This Jizobousatsu could be sitting in the valley below, or this haiku could be metaphoric for a memory of some sort rising up from the subconscious that reminds one of other, more hidden things, or perhaps that tragic thing one doesn't want to recall, or at least recall directly...


冬霞
谷懐の
古神社

fuyugasumi
tanibutokoro no
furu jinja

Winter's mist
the old shrine
at the bottom, deep in the steep valley

tanibutokoro refers to deep within a steep valley that is surrounded on each side by steep mountains.

 

I am at home alone (the wife's exercising, and I think everyone else is at a movie). There is a strong wind blowing outside, and I have a CD of Chinese lute (Pipa) music playing. Whenever I put on this CD I feel like I can almost taste a very nice cup of Jasmine tea. I would go make some, but I'd have to look for it, and I'm too lazy---I will add another haiku post to this thread instead. The Pipa is known as a biwa (琵琶) in Japan. The CD has such titles, poorly translated as, 'Chen Hsin-yuan to Pacify the Barbarian/Fall into Courtyard,' 'Playing Xiao and Drum Under the Setting Sun,' 'A Tyrant in the Difficult Status,' and 'A Blossom of Plum.' These songs are generally classic pieces that were played on the Pipa. The title of the CD, is 'Shi Mian Maifu' which means, 'Ambushed From Ten Sides.' It is also the title of the 3rd song. This song is listed on wikipedia as a traditional classic for the Pipa. The authors that put out the CD translated it as 'An Overall Ambush.'

Anyway----it's a great CD if you like stringed instruments, and want to set that perfect mood for a cup of Jasmine Tea. Some of the songs are played solely by a Pipa, others are accompanied by other traditional instruments.

It's spring, but Colorado can still get a lot of snowstorms this month (today was close to 70 though...). Regardless, winter and fall haiku are my favorites. Here are some more from 2006---I'll stick a Spring one in there:

夜の闇に
寝る町
大雪おこり

Yoru no yami ni
neru machi
Ohyuki okori

In the darkness of the night
the sleeping village
a blizzard arises

At night, as most of the creatures of the day, including man, sleep, they are completely oblivious to the storm brewing up outside their homes. But it wouldn't matter, we are helpless and weak against the fury of mother nature's storms. Nothing we can do will arrest its development.

夜の森
水の音
みみづく鳴き也

yoru no mori
mizu no oto
mimitzuku naki ya

Forest in the night
the sound of water.
A horned owl cries!

The seasonal word hear is the horned owl---but I cannot say for sure what season that is off the top of my head----I'd have to look it up.

山深し
森にかくるる
冬の月

yama fukashi
mori ni kakururu
fuyu no tsuki

Deep in the mountains
hiding in the forest
the winter moon

~ruru is an older verb conjugation. Here is another one--a spring one--along the same lines:

古池に
隠りょうとする
春の月

furu ike ni
kakuryou to suru
haru no tsuki

in the old pond
it tries to hide--
the spring moon

Whenever you use 'furu ike' (old pond), it probably calls to mind the most famous haiku of all--especially outside of Japan: furu ike ya/kaeru tobikomu/mizu no oto, or, 'The old pond!/frog jumps in/the sound of water.'

The moon, I think I've mentioned before, has a lot of meaning to the Japanese. It is a symbol of enlightenment for example. The moon trying to hide in a pond, is an aesthetic interpretation of an experience when, at least for a moment, one has been gripped by nature. It becomes much deeper though if we think of the old pond as a metaphore for the consciousness, and under it's surface---the subconscious. As I have stated before, I am not Buddhist, but rather an animist, so I could interpret the moon in ways other than Buddhist enlightenment---such as a deep knowledge of spirit, or the connection to the other side, or even that animating force (what the Japanese would call 神 kami) within each living thing. And the pond, rather than, consciousness, could be that veil between physical reality, and the hidden reality of spirit. There are so many ways that one could experience this haiku---some perhaps, at least for me, touching on that special feeling of 幽玄 (yuugen----See post # 36 to learn about yuugen).

The Chinese Pipa music however, has got me to thinking about haiku regarding the biwa. Maybe next time I'll have one or two of those.

 

Years ago when I lived in Osaka, I would go to Takigi No Plays in the park surrounding Osaka Castle. Takigi refers to the fires that would burn on each side of the stage---which many many years ago, would provide the light for such plays at night. They were incredible to see, especially with Osaka Castle lit up in the background.

Here is a concert that makes use of Takigi---it is a tsugaru shamisen concert. The shamisen is a little different than the biwa, or Japanese lute. It is a 3-stringed instrument, that has no frets on its neck. The tsugaru shamisen is a special kind of shamisen that uses thicker strings---because it was played hard and fast. In fact, the tusgaru style was, to me, rock music that was a few hundred years ahead of its time. It was played by a bunch of bohemians----wandering musicians in 16th Century Japan, who would play in the streets for money and food. I find the music to be truly incredible and creative.

This concert starts with a couple of musicians playing some traditional pieces and then turns into Yoko Nagayama, playing her famous tsugaru piece, Jonkara Onna Bushi. Her song is of a lonely female tsugaru musician, wandering around Japan playing her shamisen in the cold winter. She is apparently following someone she loves, but the affection is not returned---she sings 'Haru wa watashi nya tou-sugiru' (Spring, for me, is too far away) suggesting that she has not had sex for sometime (spring can be a euphemism for sex). While a woman's heart is her weakness, a man's heart is blown here and there by the wind. In almost every video version of this song she ends the song by looking longingly into the camera (except this one which is filmed more from the corner) singing, 'Anta ga hoshii...' (I want you...). ("I knew it! She wanted me, the whole time she was singing about me---she is following me around, madly in love with me!!")

I was never impressed with the young Yoko Nagayama (a J-Pop idol), but I am seriously infatuated with the adult Yoko------boy what I'd give to have her as a mistress...!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH9YQ7H_25o"]澤田勝春氏　勝成氏による長山洋å*ã®ã€€ã˜ã‚‡ã‚“から女節をごå*ªèƒ½ä¸‹ã•ã„！ - YouTube


Ok---here are a couple of haiku from yesterday and today:

雪ぐもり哉
道に
津軽三味線

yukigumori kana
michi ni
tsugaru shamisen

Threatening to snow!
in the street
tsugaru shamisen


Ok----here is a Pipa (Biwa) haiku----and a spring one no less:

春風に
乗る遠雷
琵琶法師也

harukaze ni
noru enrai
biwa houshi ya

distant thunder
riding the spring wind.
the Biwa playing wandering monk!

There has got to be a better way to translate that----monks would often wander around, like the tsugaru shamisen players---playing ballads of famous battles and other tales. There are several interesting ghost stories around such figures----such as the one about the monk who is asked by a spirit to sing the ballad of the famous battle between the Heike and Taira clans in Southern Japan. He fears for his life and to protect himself he paints buddhist sutra (scripture) all over his body, except his ears. After being moved by the song, the ghost wants to take him to the spirit world so he can always hear the song, but because of the painted scriptures all he can see is his ears----so he takes those, ripping them off the head of the monk. (At least that is the story as best as my memory recalls).

Speaking of taking Yoko Nagayama as my mistress:

春の風
所どころに
浮寝鳥

haru no kaze
tokorodokoro ni
ukinetori

spring wind
here and there
birds sleeping on water

Ukine, means to float and sleep, as on the waves. When you sleep on a boat you---ukine. But it also means to have adulterous affairs-----it is somewhat like the Filipino euphemism of a butterfly, floating from flower to flower. Ukinetori is a euphemism for lovers sleeping around.

 

Denver got hit with another snow---I enjoyed it. It started lastnight and snowed all night, there was heavy wind making it a blizzard---but perhaps not as bad as they expected. It snowed off and on all day today too, but the streets were clear fairly early in the day----a spring snow so temperatures were not as cold as if it would have happened a month or two ago. But for that, here are some more winter haiku:

入り船まち也
遠島の
雪の月

irifune machi ya
toujima no
yuki no tsuki

Waiting for the boats to return!
the moon and snow
on a distant island.

Japan has numerous fishing villages all up and down its coast. The term 入り船まち (irifunemachi), means to wait for the boat or boats to return. But there is the usual wait for family and friends, when they expect boats to return in the late afternoon or the evening. And then there is the real wait---when a boat or group of boats are late in returning to port.


January 1st, 2010, I composed another fishing village haiku. I have mentioned several times that at the beginning of the year---the first time you do something is very special. A fishing boat in a fishing village, is not only a source of livelihood, it is is also dependent upon to protect your loved ones while they are using it to earn that livelihood---so the first time you go on a fishing boat, is not only special---they make a ceremony out of it with the village---to pray for good luck and a prosperous and safe year. This ceremony is called 乗り初め (norihajime), or First Boarding----and you do not just come (kuru) to the boat, you ceremoniously-come (Mairu) just as you would to a shrine:


波と風も
お参り
乗り初め哉

nami to kaze mo
o-mairi
norihajime kana

the waves and the wind too
ceremoniously come
the first boarding!


Speaking of New Years, and doing things for the first time----today I rewrote an old haiku that was a bit sloppy----thiking it over I felt it was better expressed through a tanka. I was thinking of so many poor souls in Japan-----there are many of them-----products of broken relationships, who go on quietly, doing their jobs, living their mundane lives---broken down loners in a very group-focused culture:

妻の捨て櫛
と着物に
忘れられた鍵
淋しき
初湯の音也

tsuma no sutekushi
to kimono ni
wasurerareta kagi
sabishiki
hatsuyu no oto ya

the wife's discarded comb
and in a kimono
a forgotten key
how lonely
the sound of years first boiling water!


Is everyone depressed enough now? Here is one to bring you back up to an aesthetic reality from november 2008:

山道也
露霜は
月にちらちら

yamamichi ya
tsuyujimo wa
tsuki ni chirachira

the mountain path!
frozen dew
sparkling from the moon

There's that moon again---you may go back to post 57 or some earlier posts if you forget the philosophical significance of the moon----or not, and just enjoy it at an aesthetic level.

 

I apologize for not posting anything lately----I had internet problems for a bit (a disagreement with Comcast, over an error one of their reps did which effected my billing and wifi), then I decided to take all my posts in this thread and fix them up a bit (Yes---these are spontaneous and you know how you can improve something you've written when you revisit it a month later), and then post them to a blog on wordpress.

Each day I have been posting 1 to 2 posts, and I am up to about page 4 or so in this thread. Once I am close to having them, then I will start posting again.

If you guys want to see the blog it is: haikubydavid.wordpress.com