Word and Image

[karadin.livejournal.com]

What color is
this blowing autumn wind
that it can stain my body
with its touch?

Izumi Shikibu

Comments

[wongkk.livejournal.com]

A kind LJ member let me at their scans of this extraordinary Shoxx photoshoot and the pictures are very beautiful: Gackt spinning a story out of poignant and misty images from a face in the mirror (this one) to his shape leaving his "angel" clothes behind to start a denatured life as a human. Powerful stuff.

In Asian language (well, Chinese!), "colour" often means "quality of" - not just something seen through the rods and cones in the eye - so the term "colour" is used which other characteristics, such as lustful, which seems very odd to Westerners! This is why you'll often hear Chinese people describing something as "red colour" e.g. "do you have it in red colour?"

Consequently, I read the poem as asking what is the special quality of the wind in autumn which can mark the skin with its touch.

Thanks for choosing an intriguing combination for us.