2010年11月1日月曜日

Sound of Something




We are surrounded by so many kinds of sounds in our daily lives, rough ones, gentle ones, out of doors and in doors.
Besides, usually we are not conscious so much about the sounds we are familiar with.


踏切をわたり終えてもまだ残る
          急に止みたるカンカンのおと
It ceased all of a sudden
and is still ringing in my ears
after I have done to cross over the rail road,
"kan kan kan...."
I came mind out the alarm signal of railroad crossing when I will cross over, after I read a short writing about James Kirkup (1918-2009), a writer,a poet and a translator who is famous in Japan for having translated many lyrical poets especially tanka, which has 31syllables in Japanese, into the same number of syllables English verses.
He is known as a writer of haiku and tanka, as well.

It said that he was very sensuous about various sounds and when he came to visit Japan he was particularly interested in the sound of the alarm signal, during his sojourn.

In the short verse, tanka which I wrote above, I tried to express the alarm sound as "kan kan", but actually I have no way to know how he did listen to the sound for himself.

In fact, it is said that the sound of a barking dog has variant depending upon countries.
At any rate,why the barking dog sounds differently country to country?
As the difference between countries is self-evident concept, then, it maybe that each person could hear a specific sound differently.
Though it is a little side journey,once my dog cried "Gu-wan", staring at me, at the exact time for food and it surprised me because I heard it as "gohan"which means food.

Well,back to the topic of sound, some sound is often expressed by some onomatopoeia on writing.
Verses are belonged to comparatively short genre of writing, and if the onomatopoeia is ordinary one, the verse would be enable to escape mediocrity.
So, some uncommon onomatopoeia is quite important for writing not least for verses.
What does seem sure is that alarm signal was curious thing for Kirkup, for his sense, as a writer and a poet.

I'm afraid of his might have been bothered by a feeling of strangeness, if he read such a banal onomatopoeia as "kan kan"in a tanka verse.
Aside from my insensitivity to sound, the sound of alarm signal in Japan must be yet too familiar with me.


I really wish I could find out some specific sound for me somewhere in some country, someday.


by Kelly's Pics(haydillgirl), Flickr

この森に弾痕のある樹あらずや記憶の茂み暗みつつあり

Within this forest,is there not a tree that bears

the mark of a bullet

In thickets of memory

undergrowth keeps darkening

from"Thickets of memory" by Fumi Saito 斎藤 史(1909-2002)
translated by J. Kirkup

11 件のコメント:

stardust さんのコメント...

This is an interesting observation about the sounds.

Sound is energy that travels in waves through air, water, or other substances. When the energy is recognized by a part of our brain, we perceive it as a sound. So, it's up to our perception how the sound sounds. ( Right?) Your dog's "Gu-wan" is funny and an interesting example!

Do you know a radio program "Oto no Fukei" by NHK? It is a five-minute sound-scape consisting of special sounds somewhere in Japan.

BTW, I remembered this by association, "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

haricot さんのコメント...

I sometimes turn on a radio whimsically, but I have not noticed the program,"Oto no Yukei". It sounds interesting.

Your association to a tree is inspiring and I remembered a huge fallen tree which looked like a dinosaur's fossil in a dark forest. The tree lied down there as if it had fallen without making any sound.

haricot さんのコメント...

"Oto no Fukei", correctly, sorry for the misspelling.
Fukei is more suitable word, in this case as Stardust wrote, to "sound-scape"than Keshiki, I think. I imagine some sound in a subtle wind, by the word.

stardust さんのコメント...

Hello again, haricot.

For your intersts, 音の風景

haricot さんのコメント...

Thank you for the information, Stardust.

I listened to the program for the first time.
The sound brought me a certain smell of incense at that time.

I noticed sound tells and recalls many elements than I thought.

cosmos さんのコメント...

Your dog sounds so cute. As for my beloved cat, who died two years ago at the age of 20, somehow used to start mewing heavily when I was talking on the phone. The other party always took it for baby screaming. So if the call was from the unwanted, it was a good excuse to hang up, saying "sorry but I am in the middle of something".

You say "the sound brought me a certain smell of incense at that time", I'm afraid I am a bit off the subject but likewise the sense of smell brings us a lot of memories and emotions. Someone coined the word "scentimental" combined scent with sentimental. That sounds interesting, doesn't it?

haricot さんのコメント...

Thank you for the interesting story and a coined word, Cosmos.

Your cat tried to protect you from the unseen interlocutor with a bit of jealous, I suppose. How cute!

As for some smell, I experienced that when the season I visited abroad has come, I occasionally smell something the same flagrance or aroma I had felt there. I'm not a frequent traveller though, if I had a travel in each season, I would be happier through the year with "scentimental".

snowwhite さんのコメント...

Perception of the sound differs from a person to a person, from nationality to nationality.
Once German couple asked me "What are these noisey things?" They meant buzzing of cicadars. But I hadn't noticed them till I was asked. I heard but I didn't listened.

When the song "Sound of Silence" became very popular, I wandered what kind of sound it was. This is just an expression,maybe.But I imagine if I am in the complete silence, I feel uneasy badly. We always need the sound in the certain level, don't you think so?

You and your dog are very close, so that the bark sounded "Gohan" means the start of heart-to-heart communication, I guess.

"Kan Kan" impactfully sounds me "Danger Danger" and makes me hurry.

snowwhite さんのコメント...

This is a question.

I want to put short titles under my pictures. My template doesn't allow me, or just I don't know how .

snowwhite さんのコメント...

I'm sorry, Icould. Just I hadn't noticed for long time.

haricot さんのコメント...

Thank you for this comment, Snowwhite.

" I imagine if I am in the complete silence, I feel uneasy badly. We always need the sound in the certain level."
I agree with it. When I imagine if I were under such condition of no sound, I'm scared.

For me buzzing cicadas is like background music in summer except when they are too laud.
For the people they have no buzzing of them in the country, the sound might be too much even when it is not so laud.

I'm doing PC gropingly.
I tried it at the reverse and I could to link to.
Just for the title, after writing it you can change the letters into smallest ones.