2011年5月18日水曜日

Closed Up


Can't you see a vast poppy field through this photo? If you can, I'm very happy, but actually this is a photo of a pot of poppies which I planted seeds, as you can guess easily.

I took this closed up photo thinking of Akiko Yosano's famous tanka that she composed in southen France, I don't know exactly where it is, viewing
a field full of poppies.


ああ皐月(さつき)仏蘭西(フランス)の野は火の色す
君も雛罌粟(こくりこ)われも雛罌粟(こくりこ)( 与謝野 晶子)

( Oh, how fantastic this May is!
We are both here in France, on the field of colour of fire.
You are one of the plenty of coquelicots. And me, too )



Akiko Yosano (1878~1942)(与謝野 晶子) was a writer and a poet, besides she wrote a lot of tanka poems with Tekkan Yosano(1873~1935)(与謝野 鉄幹) who became her husband after he divorced. The two of them had twelve children together.





Akiko and Tekkan organised an association for poetry and started to publish magazine maned "Myojyou"(「明星」 明=bright 星=star) in 1900, and the passionate style of expression of their poems complied in it had quickly become a mainstream of the field of literature and was called Romanticism, which became popular in Europe about 150 years earlier than in Japan.

The tanka which is noted above was written when Akiko visited Tekkan who went to France for climbing out of his doldrums. She was truly a great accompanist for the earnest runner.


たんぽぽとおなじ高さにみておればチェルノブイリか春のかげろう
                                                                                           永田 和宏
(I lie on a spring ground and see dandelions being as high as they are.
Is it air turbulence or something of Chernobyl disaster ,
rising up behind of them, in a distance?)

This tanka was written by Kazuhiro Nagata( 1947~)who is a tanka poet and a scientist, and it is set in his the fifth tanka book, 「華氏」( Fahrenheit).
In the postscript of this book, Nagata mentions that he realised that he got used to feel the temperature as measure of Fahrenheit in US, during his sojourn with his family to study science.



This book was published in 1996, ten years later since nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl happened.
I think the tanka I wrote down above was composed in Japan after he returned from US.
I don't intend to say that Nagata predicted the same revel of disaster would occur at nuclear power plants in Japan.

What I wonder is how his experiences in different culture effected upon his poetry.
Through this tanka he gives us a message with a sight of being closed up and of defamiliarization that might come from some living experience of him, mentioning not only as his knowledge but as his sensory temperature.

What can you see in the distance?



18 件のコメント:

andreiraduM さんのコメント...

Hello!

... so beautiful!
All the best.

stardust さんのコメント...

Wow, you captured a flying seed! Terrific! Love the reflection of puppies and the sky in the container where a white petal floats. I always feel dandelion fluff is like the universe. I'd answer on behalf of a red flower: "I see the sky and the sunlight filtering through the leaves reaching to me."

At the same height with dandelions, our sensory distance would become different from our usual one. And in another meaning, what happened in the past could happen in another corner of the world in the different time. History repeats itself spirally in time and place. That's what I felt.

cosmos さんのコメント...

Full of interesting observations.

Speaking of the field of poppies, "In Flanders Field" by John McCrae written during the first World War came into my mind.

They look fragile and ephemeral, but their "color of fire" must have stirred Akiko and Tekkan's fire deep inside of them

snowwhite さんのコメント...

I see the vast poppy field. I remember once we talked about "one implys many" in Fame. I mentioned one wild goose drawed in a hanging scroll. We see a big migrating flock of wild geese from this one goose. Poppies in your photo show me the vast field and I imagine I am amid of millions of poppies in fire red. Her emotion is outpouring freely taking the shape of poppies of fire red and your translation is so good!

The reflection of curving stalks is fantastic.

He is a scientist, so he is looking the world from different height and angle.

stardust さんのコメント...

Oh, dear! Of course "poppies", not "puppies".

haricot さんのコメント...

Thank you,andre,stradust, cosmos, and snowwhite,for your kind and interesting comment.

What shouldn't happen did happen at nuclear power plants in Japan. The more we know the facts that occured,the more they make us disappointed....

As for Akiko's tanka poem, I adore it and it makes me encourage with her passion and the rhythmic composition.

Tomoko さんのコメント...

Hello,haricot.
I am a late visitor. Your new post を読ませて頂いてましたが、体調が悪くてパソコンに長く座っていられなかったもので、遅いコメントになってごめんなさい。
ポピーは大好きな花の1つです。フランスに渡った与謝野晶子の情熱な感性が伝わってきますね。私もタンポポの綿毛の写真を何枚か撮りましたが、haricotさんのは綿毛が旅立つ瞬間のNice shot!です!首相の先日の新しいエネルギー政策についての会見を見ましたが、今は実現性が薄そうな気がしましたが....現実と理想はどのように埋められていくのでしょうか....と感じています。バラのむこうは緑の5月ですね。次回は英語で書きますね。

haricot さんのコメント...

Hello, redrose
Thank you for your comment.
体調が良くない時、PCは確かに辛いです。目も肩も凝るし。
どうぞ、お大事にして下さい。マイペースでブログを書いているので読むのに時間を割いてくださるだけでもありがたく思います。
タンポポの綿毛は偶然の産物です、、、(^^;)

ruma さんのコメント...

The graceful sense wraps your artworks.

Have a good weekend...
For your calmness and beauty.

Greetings.
From Saga, Japan.
ruma

haricot さんのコメント...

Thank you, ruma, for your comment.

I'm encouraged and I got a will for some shots.
Have a nice and peaceful weekend.

Louis la Vache さんのコメント...

hee hee... Are you trying to compete with the opium producers in Afghanistan?

;-D

ruma さんのコメント...

31-syllable Japanese poem (Waka) and Haiku made in Japan.
Those English translation is very difficult.

Of course, it's possible if add many modifiers.
However, then it is not a work.

The Japanese depth is felt for me like eternity...

"Concise"
It's Japanese proud-hearted loftiness.

Tomoko さんのコメント...

Hi,haricot.
HaricotさんのPCも調子悪かったのですね。今あちこちで同じ事がおこっている様です。お知り合いで悪い事があったそうですのに、コメントありがとうございます。大丈夫ですか?私持病の喘息が今回ひどかったのですが、大分回復して元気になりました。でもまだ無理は出来ないので、いつも歩いて行くバラ園はタクシーに乗って行ってしまいました!!きれいでした!!

☆sapphire さんのコメント...

おはようございます。

ようやく直ったみたいです。ステキな写真と与謝野晶子さんや永田和宏さんの短歌をありがとうございます。「ああ皐月~」はとても好きな歌です。明治のロマンティシズム全開といったところかしら。「仏蘭西の野は火の色す」このあたり、晶子の情熱と鉄幹への想いが凝縮されているようで、こちらも燃えてしまいます。タンポポの写真と永田さんの歌がシンクロしていていいなぁ!特に綿毛の2枚目は秀逸です! 

英語でコメントしたほうがいいのでしょうか? 私は日本人どうしの場合、日本語のやりとりのほうが自然だと, 勝手に考えている人なので、ごめんなさいね。海外の方も母国語が通じる場合は母国語でコメントしあっているし....職業がら、日本語を大切にしています。特に和歌、俳句、近代短歌の場合、日本語の真髄が出ているので、日本語でさせていただきました。失礼のだん、お許しください。

haricot さんのコメント...

Louis
So funny! I would like to compete if I could.

ruma

Thank you, again.
It's so difficult to let be concise.
Please give me some advice when my interpritation is too redundant.

sapphire
日本語のコメント有難いです。
英文の練習のためにこのブログを始めました。でも海外からコメントがあると嬉しいものだということも知りました。
よく鑑賞していただいて幸いです。
永田さんの奥さんの河野裕子さんのこともいつか書きたいと思っていますが亡くなられてまだ間がないし、どれだけ書けるか迷っています。

haricot さんのコメント...

ruma

sorry for the misspelling, --> interpretation

GABRIELA さんのコメント...

I just love tanka by Akiko Yosano!!! I think they represent the best part of her work!
"Hair in morning tangles,
perhaps I should comb it out
with spring rainwater
as it drips from the ink-black
feathers of swallows'wings."
This is from RIVER OF STARS - Selected Poems of Akiko Yosano
(Translated from Japanese by
Sam Hamill and Keiko Matsui Gibson)

What I see though the window is what will be still there when I'm no longer going to be part of this world....
And you need only a handful of flowers to make a garden!

haricot さんのコメント...

Splendent translation!
I'd like to read RIVER OF STARS.
Thank you so much for introducing this poem. I will find out this book.

Oh, it's too sad what you see...though it sounds like surrealism and touches me.