-- おそろしいメノナイト日記 -- Mennonite Oku no Hosomichi

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2010-03-11T15:30:00.001-08:00

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have I a body?

2010-03-03T19:15:00.000-08:00

Have I a body or have I none?

Am I who I am or am I not?

Pondering these questions,

I sit leaning against the cliff while the

years go by,

Till the green grass grows between my feet

And the red dust settles on my head,

And the men of the world, thinking me dead,

Come with offerings of wine and fruit

to lay by my corpse.

-- Han-Shan, tr. by Burton Watson

hotoke ni wa

2010-02-28T09:18:00.000-08:00

hotoke ni wa
sakura no hana o
tatematsure
waga nochi no yo o
hito toburawaba

When gone in death,
I'll take cherry blossoms
as your rite for me . . .
if any wishes to make memorial here
for me in my life over there

-- Saigyō; tr. William R. LaFleur

Yakushi Nyorai

2010-02-23T08:35:00.000-08:00

I Shall Be Released

2010-02-21T18:42:00.000-08:00

Breasts -- Gary Snyder

2010-02-19T18:43:00.000-08:00

That which makes milk can't help but concentrate
out of the food of the world
right up to the point where we suck it,
poison, too ...

Gary Snyder, Axe Handles

Breasts -- Gary Snyder

the decline of Japanese culture

2010-01-31T19:52:00.000-08:00

morning these chains

2010-01-27T10:48:00.000-08:00

morning these chains old loves
caress you again

a footprint in neatly raked asphalt
the old tar pits

"Tu a souffert de l’amour à vingt
et à trente ans”

now you are on the West Coast
flying to Japan
with a girl who says she loves you
but her moods are not your moods

the white-gloved driver at Narita
conducts you to the old stone house
of Yokohama
haunt of foreign devils rising from
distended graves

shackled down again
in the little room, your Muse approaches,
your Muse of many names -- Catatonia,
Miss Dance, Lady Echo, Toyotamahime,
the White Heron -- she enters and in her train
the familiar sky horses -- you mount
and ascend, flying to the moon in the company
of the pihi, the hoopoe, the phoenix

now you are in the Midwest
flying to hell
the Mennonite farmers are angry, schizoid
in the locked ward your tablemate is psychotic
whereas you are merely
suicidally depressed

now you are in the Hamptons in the lap
of improbable luxury
with a Chinese girl who wishes you to fuck her
on the pristine beach
you oblige

morning these chains old lives
caress you again
but the air is pure, the momiji bleed
deep red, even in winter

the air has changed, and the century
and the melancholy humors

new times, new moods
this ancient world
welcomes you again

-- Ross Bender

victory

2010-01-07T17:58:00.000-08:00

Fuji -- Banshun

2009-12-13T11:47:00.000-08:00

富士 . . . 晩春

美

かくも単純に

かくも無意味に

常にあり

常にあり続ける

たとえ山々が揺れ動いても。

神々が自らの喜びとして創られた

自らの像として

美として。

大倉純一郎訳

カイ・ニエミネン選詩集　「森で誰かが．．．」　（本多企画　宮崎　2000）　より

-- Kai Nieminen

Amish Druid, 1967

2009-12-12T06:41:00.001-08:00

San Francisco Oracle, Vol. 1, #7

strange women approach me

2009-12-10T08:12:00.001-08:00

strange women approach me on the bus
wanting to know my business
they’re subtle
asking for directions
asking for a cigarette
don’t they know you can’t smoke on the bus?

might be social workers
might be ladies of the night
might be a honey trap
you never know
when you’re riding the bus

that’s why I just say no
keep staring ahead in the distance
watching the streets go by
and the people dancing
murals, coffee shops, hair braiding salons

and days go by

you see women on the bus
you think you recognize
exotic women in rain ponchos
with the Chinese character for “the way”
(in Japanese “michi”)

when you get a little closer
it’s some football logo
you feel foolish for having asked
“why are you wearing ‘michi’ on your poncho?”
they must think you’re nuts

that’s why I just say no
when I get the impulse
to talk to strangers
keep staring ahead in the distance
watching the streets go by

--Ross Bender

gone far to the northeast . . .

2009-12-09T16:32:00.000-08:00

tsune yori mo
kokorobosoku zo
omōyuru
tabi no sora nite
toshi no kurenuru

A forlorn feeling,

this time more sharp than ever:

journeying along

under a vast sky where I see

the old year sink to its close.

--Saigyō, tr. William R. LaFleur

Donald Keene at the Tomb of Basho

2009-11-25T19:41:00.000-08:00

search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/fl20090906x1.html

Seed Pods, Gary Snyder 1967

2009-11-25T19:30:00.000-08:00

San Francisco Oracle, Vol. 1, #7

Father Divine

2009-10-24T08:01:00.000-07:00

Donald Keene Part 1

2009-09-06T05:42:00.000-07:00

search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/fl20090906x1.html

Lord, It's the Samurai

2009-08-31T09:24:00.000-07:00

www.asiansart.org/samurai1.html

Let the gleam of naked swordblades transport you to a time when samurai used them to slice noses off of an estimated 38,000 victims, buried in this mound in Kyoto, one of at least a couple such "nose tombs" in Japan.

Kemari at Tanzan Shrine

2009-08-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

la via del tren subterraneo

2009-08-12T13:51:00.000-07:00

All summer I roamed the vast expanses of the New York City transit system like a solitary cloud drifting with the wind, intoxicated by the elegant surrealist poetry posted in the graffiti-draped subway cars:

La via del tren subterraneo es peligrosa. Si el tren se para entre las estaciones, quedese adentro. No salga afuera. Siga los instrucciones de los operadores del tren o la policia.

a coney island of the mind

2009-08-11T12:13:00.001-07:00

In the summer of 1968 I went to New York and discovered the subway. My first trip was out to Coney Island, in homage to Ferlinghetti. The sand was dirty and the roller coasters shabby.

Let's go

Come on

Let's go

Empty out our pockets

and disappear

Missing all our appointments

and turning up unshaven

years later

old cigarette papers

stuck to our pants

leaves in our hair.

Let us not

worry about the payments

anymore.

Let them come

and take it away

whatever it was

we were paying for.

And us with it.

--Junkman's Obbligato, Lawrence Ferlinghetti

dosojin no maneki ni aite...

2009-07-07T10:10:00.000-07:00

I seemed to be possessed by the spirits of wanderlust, and they all but deprived me of my senses. The guardian spirits of the road beckoned, and I could not settle down to work

--Oku no Hosomichi, Matsuo Basho, tr. Donald Keene

sozoro kami no mono ni tsukite kokoro o kuruhase, dousojin no maneki ni aite . . .

コスプレー Philly 2009

2009-04-15T04:54:00.000-07:00

Philadelphia Cherry Blossom Festival 2009

2009-04-14T10:05:00.001-07:00

Yaguchi Yorifumi 1985 -- "Ancestors"

2009-03-20T11:34:00.000-07:00

For latest Yaguchi poems, see CMW Journal -- Yaguchi Yorifumi Issue

-- おそろしい メノナイト 日記 -- Mennonite Oku no Hosomichi