Poetry

The highest object of a language is its poetry. From what I can tell, Japanese poetry certainly makes learning the language worthwhile, for it is a completely unique tradition which is especially different from the Western poetry. すきです。I want to look more into the tradition as I learn the language. はいくのほんがほしいです。 Preferably with English translations beside the original. I like the idea of shorter imagery poems over the long narratives of the Western tradition. The simple beauty shows how painstakingly well crafted these poems are. Furthermore, I believe that the feelings they invoke relate to 日本のてつがく, with the Zen relationship to nature. Furthermore I've never been able to truly understand English meter, but the formal system of Morae is highly accessible (which is why it is even imitated in English through syllables). ばしょうの おくのほそみちをみたいです, which this blog is named after.

Final Composition

わたしはニューヨークにいます。がいこくにいきます。にほんとドイツへいきます。それからニューヨークへかえります。ベルリンはとてもおもしろいですがニューヨークはベルリンよりにぎやかです。ニューヨークはおおきいですから。きようだいはアメリカにいます。クリスマスにきょうだいにあいます。わたしはてつがくのけんきゅしゃそしてほんをごさつぐらいかきました。えいがはほしですから、いちじかんにえいがかんへえいがをみにいきます。

More Nujabes

Earlier in the year I talked a little about the Japanese Hip Hop producer Nujabes. This week, a new posthumous album has been released called "Spiritual State." Nujabes' jazzy and soulful production is at its best once again. I wonder about the title though, whether spiritual is meant in a Western sense or a traditional Japanese one. It would be interesting to see how Japan has influenced Nujabes, since most of his source material and inspiration comes from Western and specifically American recordings and styles. One piece of information I recently learned though is that Japan is a paradise for record collectors, because there are rare records not usually found in America are common there. Everyone wants to dig in Japan is how it was put to me. Anyway, enjoy this sample of his music:

Nujabes will certainly be getting some airtime on the radio tonight if I have anything to say about it. Check out wkcr.org or 89.9 FM from 1am to 5am to listen to The Hip Hop Show.

Revised Senryu

My last post with Senryu included one poem where the particle は began a line, which breaks traditional rules. I have revised this one below, using some of the same themes but not all. The main notion is the division between the mountain and actually going to it, separated by the katakana トヨタ, which draws into question the relation to the natural world.

ふじさんへ

たかいトヨタで

いきません。

And here are the original two:

サムライを

みます。あめです。

すいません。

カタカナは

がいこくのじじゃ

ありません。

As an additional point of explanation for the samurai poem, it is based on the movie Le Samourai directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. Rain is a major motif throughout and the first scene involving smoking is particularly notable:

And although I love the French, すいません.

Katakana Analysis Final

In Japanese, titles seem to often be transliterated rather than translated. Looking at the Japanese version of the movie “Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai"  (ゴーストドッグ:ザウェイオブザサムライ), rather than putting “Ghost Dog” in Katakana and translating the rest (as Japanese items are usually titled in America), the whole title is translated. Thus even the English loan word from Japanese, “samurai,” is treated as a loan word from English. It seems then that the Japanese treat a whole title as a single unit. The movie “Le Samourai” operates on the same principle. According to amazon.jp, this French movie is titled “サムライ” written in katakana for the Japanese release. It is interesting that they dropped the article “le” when they kept “of” and “the” for Ghost Dog. Perhaps it is because Japanese requires no articles, and this one is not essential for the title as a whole. Either way, foreign titles do require katakana even where the word is one as familiar as さむらい. Looking at “samurai” more broadly in Japan may help explain this phenomenon as well.

Commenters have pointed out that the Japanese animeサムライチャノウー also uses Katakana. The anime has many Hip Hop and western influences, which strongly influence Ghost Dog as well. Similarly Le Samourai is highly stylized in ways similar to the anime. Perhaps that katakana was intended to capture this effect. This is further supported by the fact that the more common word for “さむらい” in Japan is “ぶし” which Americans would only recognize from “ぶしど.” While “さむらい” is still a Japanese word, it is foreign enough in these contexts to warrant katakana.

Finally, the album “Mecca and the Soul Brother” (メッカアンドザソウルブラザー) was, according to amazon.jp, also fully transliterated. However this does make more sense, since both “Mecca” and “Soul” are usually written in katakana according to various sources on the internet. This allows it to be clear that they are foreign and correctly associates the word “soul” with the foreign genre rather than the philosophical concept. 

In cases such as these, it still seems hard though to explain why exactly titles are transliterated rather than translated. It seems to be a purely cultural trend though, and thus cannot be properly explained anyway. Consider also that certain titles are often left untranslated in English, such as “Yojimbo” in all its releases. Transliteration both makes the object seem foreign and helps where there is no proper translation. Perhaps leaving the titles as they are helps to advertise the mystery of the West. Because katakana is so tied up with these complexities of culture, it is easy to see why the textbooks would have trouble explaining it. Katakana does not abide by any strict logical categories in a way which only those fluent in Japanese can appreciate.

Some Senryu

For my literary project, I decided to try and write some Senryu. I hadn't heard of the style before the project, but it seems to fit my purposes much better than Haiku. I don't think these are at all traditional, but I enjoyed writing them and trying to structure them around the morae was fun.

サムライを

みます。あめです。

すいません。

いいトヨタ

はきれいですか。

たかいです。

カタカナは

がいこくのじじゃ

ありません。