Thank you kindly Anny, Douglas.
The first stanza is a paraphrase of a celebrated haiku of Basho (which goes
4-11-5 in syllable count, incidentally). Its transliteration runs:
botan shibe/ fukaku wakeizuru hachi no/ nagori kana
I didn't think much of the translation in the bi-lingual anthology I had my
paws on :
How reluctantly the bee emerges from
The depths of pistils of a peony!
(Asatoro Miyamori (1869-1952) 'One Thousand Haiku: Ancient and Modern' -
Tokyo: Dobunsha, 1930.)
so I rewrote it. The succeeding lines are a kind of mediation on
appropriation and translation, on experience and language. Sorta! Those I
wrote this morning, squatting on the carpet.
On 19/03/2008, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Welcome back David, & with what élan in this.
>
> Doug
> On 19-Mar-08, at 5:04 AM, David Bircumshaw wrote:
>
> > Absolutely Basho
>
> Douglas Barbour
> [log in to unmask]
>
> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
>
> Latest book: Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
>
> to rid me of
> the ugh in
> thought
> i spell anew
> weave the world
> out of the or
> binary
>
> bpNichol
>
--
David Bircumshaw
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
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