Word and Image

[karadin.livejournal.com]

By counting the grains
of white sand on the seashore
I will find the sum
of the great number of years
you are destined to enjoy

anon japanese poem

Comments

[wongkk.livejournal.com]

I like some of these Japanese poems very much.

I'm a bit puzzled by how they come to be in English though! Are they written in English? (from "japanese poem" I assume not) I haven't noticed any explanation about a translator or translation (which there would usually be on this site for a magazine interview or a newspaper report) so I'm curious whether the translations are made specially for this site (there are clearly Japanese speakers contributing) or whether the poems are taken from a translated source (if so, I'd be interested in buying an anthology!) - or indeed whether some of them are written in English.

Meanwhile (and under all my curiosity!), I did enjoy this one: thanks for posting it.

[karadin.livejournal.com]

Since this one was posted by myself, I found the poem online in english translation, there was no japanese version of the poem beside it. And as this was anon, no mention of its source, or who translated it. I attribute the name of the poet when I can.

[wongkk.livejournal.com]

That's shame. Not knowing where something comes from, I mean. That's one of the problems with the internet: it's hard to know the source or authenticity of some stuff.

Ah well, if you - or anyone else - can recommend an anthology of classical Japanese poetry translated into English, I'd be grateful to know. I've a couple of nice Chinese ones (my written Chinese is dismal!) but no Japanese poetry - apart from Gackt's lyrics, of course!

A sympathetic translator can make a huge difference so, if there's anyone in particular recommended, I'd be pleased to learn that too.

I've no realistic hope of learning Japanese. Apart from the numbers, even the Chinese characters mostly mean something different!

Thanks for any help you can give on my questions about enjoying Japanese poetry in English.

[karadin.livejournal.com]

My favorite anthology is called The Ink Dark Moon, translations of poems by my favorite Japanese poets, Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, the author is Jane Hirshfield you can find it at Amazon.com

[wongkk.livejournal.com]

Ooh - thank you! I will go and look for the moon, like one of the good Crescent company Children ;)