larryhammer: animation of the kanji for four seasonal birds fading into each other in endless cycle (Japanese poetry)
[personal profile] larryhammer
My current by-the-desk calendar is a monthly Japanese-woodblock-print-plus-haiku thing, and so far it has amused me so I guess it’s working. This month’s haiku is by Shiki, a Meiji-era poet who modernized both the haiku and tanka forms, often cited as Japan’s fourth haiku master:
sanzen no
haiku o etsushi
kaki futatsu


Three thousand haiku
I have read through, and now—
two persimmons!
(The woodblock is this sparrow hawk on a persimmon branch.) This is actually a pretty good translation, both on the literal level and for tone. The only padding not in the original is the “and now—” though the switch from past to present tense makes it partially inferable. However, there’s one missing bit of information that helps with appreciating the poem itself: Shiki was the editor of a (groundbreaking) haiku magazine—he’s been reading the slush pile. Break time!

There’s something to be learned here about the craft of translation.

---L.

Subject quote from Call It Dreaming, Iron & Wine.

Date: 24 February 2022 07:52 pm (UTC)
sovay: (I Claudius)
From: [personal profile] sovay
However, there’s one missing bit of information that helps with appreciating the poem itself: Shiki was the editor of a (groundbreaking) haiku magazine—he’s been reading the slush pile. Break time!

Aw!

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