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Text of the page (random words):
press 1952 page 433 robert ball 1918 2009 mrs barclay s pond harborne 1949 posted by stephen pentz at 12 55 am 8 comments labels andrew young burton watson issa ivor gurney norman maccaig r h blyth saigyō walter de la mare monday august 4 2025 frolic and detour forty one years on i retain very little from my three years of law school memories of friendships and of a love a las lost as for the law itself only a few scattered phrases remain from all those books and lectures for instance frolic and detour the concept comes from the law of torts an employer is not liable for the actions of an employee who engages in activity which is beyond the scope of his or her duties i have never had occasion to address frolic and detour in the practice of law on the other hand i habitually engage in frolic and detour when it comes to the reading of poetry recently i have been spending time in the company of bashō and walter de la mare as my decades with them have passed their companionship has become more and more comforting and essential where would i be without them hototogisu through a vast bamboo forest moonlight seeping bashō 1644 1694 translated by makoto ueda in ueda bashō and his interpreters selected hokku with commentary stanford university press 1991 page 314 a hototogisu is a bird that looks like an english cuckoo but is smaller and has a sharp piercing cry ibid page 198 r h blyth describes it as follows the hototogisu corresponds more or less to the english cuckoo the breast of the male is blackish with white blotches the breast of the female is white the inside of the mouth red it has a crest of hair on the head from early summer it sings day and night and ceases in autumn r h blyth haiku volume 3 summer autumn hokuseido press 1952 page 161 blyth provides this translation of bashō s haiku moonlight slants through the vast bamboo grove a hototogisu cries ibid page 161 the romanized version romaji to use the japanese term of the haiku is hototogisu ōtakeyabu wo moru tsukiyo ibid page 161 hototogisu means cuckoo ōtakeyabu means large bamboo grove wo is a particle which identifies ōtakeyabu as the object of moru tsukiyo moru means to seep tsuki means moon and yo means night hence the compound word tsukiyo can mean either moonlight or moonlit night a distinctive difference between the two translations of the haiku is that ueda translates the japanese word moru as seeping whereas blyth opts for slants through as a matter of beauty i prefer blyth s moonlight slants through to ueda s moonlight seeping but ueda s translation of moru is arguably more accurate a second difference is that blyth states that the hototogisu cries whereas ueda does not again ueda s translation is arguably more accurate bashō gives us only the word hototogisu to commence the haiku with no accompanying verb haiku poets in stating the name of a particular bird will quite often leave it up to the reader to infer whether the bird is singing or chirping warbling or silent but i should be careful not to overstep my bounds given my limited experience with japanese i am an amateur with no right to quibble with much less express opinions on translations but it is interesting to consider the choices that different translators make in any case whichever of the two translations one prefers bashō s haiku is lovely affecting and haunting james mcintosh patrick 1907 1998 midsummer east fife 1936 thus began a day or so of frolic and detour soon after reading bashō s haiku i happened upon this an echo perhaps from the valley then the peak a cuckoo s call gusai died 1376 translated by steven carter in carter traditional japanese poetry an anthology stanford university press 1991 page 281 with walter de la mare on my mind gusai s echoing call of the cuckoo hototogisu took me further afield and happily so echo seven sweet notes in the moonlight pale warbled a leaf hidden nightingale and echo in hiding by an old green wall under the willows sighed back them all walter de la mare the complete poems of walter de la mare faber and faber 1969 page 415 echo was originally published in bells and grass a book of rhymes faber and faber 1941 bells and grass a book of rhymes is ostensibly a book of children s verse however as all those who love walter de la mare s poetry know one should bear in mind the subtitle to de la mare s come hither his wonderful anthology of poetry published in 1923 a collection of rhymes and poems for the young of all ages in 1942 de la mare s volume of collected poems was published consisting of poems for adults in 1944 his volume of collected rhymes and verses was published consisting of poems for children in the preface to the latter volume de la mare writes to what degree and in what precise respect the contents of this volume differ from the contents of collected poems are little problems which i will not attempt to explore somewhere the two streams divide and may re intermingle both whatever the quality of the water and of what it holds in solution sprang from the same source and here concerning that nor will i even venture on an alas silence is best a lovely and enlightening statement by de la mare over the years i have come to make no distinction between his adult poems and his children s verse and rhymes they indeed sprang from the same source and ultimately arrive at the same place beauty and truth james mcintosh patrick boreland mill kirkmichael 1950 a hototogisu followed by a nightingale and now the goddess echo had appeared drawing me further on high up the mountain meadow echo with never a tongue sings back to each bird in answer the song each bird hath sung satyrus 1st century b c 1st century a d translated by f l lucas in lucas greek poetry for everyman j m dent sons 1951 page 358 a bit later on my wanderings this came to mind nought to the far off hades but an empty echo cries there mid the dead is silence my voice in the darkness dies erinna mid 4th century b c translated by f lucas ibid page 279 erinna is said to have died at nineteen but ranked with sappho by some ancient judgments though little of her work survives her chief poem was a lament the distaff for her dead girl friend baucis ibid page 279 james mcintosh patrick city garden 1979 finally my frolic and detour came to an end when the following poem arrived unaccountably from somewhere although there is a connection with walter de la mare at common dawn at common dawn there is a voice of bird so sweet tis kin to pain for love of earthly life it needs be heard and lets not sleep again this bird i did one time at midnight hear in wet november wood say to himself his lyric faint and clear as one at daybreak should he ceased the covert breathed no other sound nor moody answer made but all the world at beauty s worship found was waking in the glade vivian locke ellis 1878 1950 in walter de la mare editor come hither a collection of rhymes and poems for the young of all ages constable co 1923 page 360 postscript please accept my apologies for the long absence dear readers writing this post i realized how much i have missed being here thank you for your patience james mcintosh patrick a castle in scotland posted by stephen pentz at 3 10 pm 18 comments labels bashō erinna f l lucas gusai r h blyth satyrus vivian locke ellis walter de la mare tuesday january 28 2025 suddenly over a lifetime i have failed to give the moon the attention it deserves but it is patient and forgiving despite my faithlessness thus in the first week of this month as i was out walking at twilight i happened to glance towards the vanishing sunset and there it was a brilliant and pristine white crescent moon a third of the way up the darkening but still powder blue southwestern sky how shall i describe that whiteness that thin curve of radiance set amidst pale blue i m afraid i have no words now as then i m left speechless i have been visiting bashō s haiku in december and january a few weeks before my encounter with the newly born crescent moon i came across this unlike anything it has been compared to the third day moon bashō 1644 1694 translated by makoto ueda in makoto ueda editor bashō and his interpreters selected hokku with commentary stanford university press 1991 page 207 the japanese phrase for the first phase of the waxing crescent moon is mika no tsuki third day moon mika means third day tsuki means moon no is a particle meaning roughly of bashō included this headnote to the haiku the third day of the month ibid ueda provides this comment since olden times the crescent moon had been compared to a great many things including a sickle a bow a comb a boat and a woman s eyebrow ibid bashō is absolutely correct words are not adequate as so often happens with poetry serendipity a poem appears and soon after the beautiful particulars of the world arrive echoing it or vice versa in addition this comes to mind night that shining moon watched by that one faint star sure now am i beyond the fear of change the lovely in life is the familiar and only the lovelier for continuing strange walter de la mare memory and other poems constable 1938 dudley holland 1915 1956 winter morning 1945 the lovely in life is the familiar and only the lovelier for continuing strange is paired in my mind with these lines from de la mare s now which appears in his final collection of poems now is the all sufficing all wherein to love the lovely well whate er befall the italics appear in the original text stumbling across the beauty of the crescent moon early this month brought home the importance of now a reproach to my usual state of sleepwalking and the serene power and charm of that beauty had an element of strangeness to it the moon seemed impossibly lovely beyond one s ken but there was something else at work as well the suddenness of that beauty s arrival as i absent mindedly looked skyward startled me took me aback and leaves me speechless still words such as miraculous or revelatory float to the surface but i shall restrain myself relying on the circumspect william james in his final conclusions on mysticism i will leave it at this higher energies filter in william james the varieties of religious experience a study in human nature longmans green and co 1902 page 519 best to turn to a poem the elm this is the place where dorothea smiled i did not know the reason nor did she but there she stood and turned and smiled at me a sudden glory had bewitched the child the corn at harvest and a single tree this is the place where dorothea smiled hilaire belloc sonnets and verse duckworth 1938 belloc s poem and the phrase a sudden glory in particular bring this to mind sudden heaven all was as it had ever been the worn familiar book the oak beyond the hawthorn seen the misty woodland s look the starling perched upon the tree with his long tress of straw when suddenly heaven blazed on me and suddenly i saw saw all as it would ever be in bliss too great to tell forever safe forever free all bright with miracle saw as in heaven the thorn arrayed the tree beside the door and i must die but o my shade shall dwell there evermore ruth pitter 1897 1992 in don king editor sudden heaven the collected poems of ruth pitter kent state university press 2018 page 106 the poem was written in 1931 ibid page 106 paul ayshford methuen 1886 1974 magnolia soulangiana at corsham c 1963 while i was out on my daily walk last week a few hundred feet in front of me a dark bird with a wide wingspan flew slowly away just above a grove of pines beside the road the bird banked to the left and settled on a branch near the top of a pine given the size of the bird s wings i suspected and hoped that it was a bald eagle but i couldn t be sure from that distance it could have been a hawk an owl or even a large crow i assumed it would be gone by the time i reached the pine but when i arrived and looked up there it was a bald eagle perched on a high branch surveying the territory encountering a bald eagle is not a rare occurrence in this part of the world but i never cease to be amazed and grateful when i cross paths with one of them i never tire of or get over those penetrating unflinching eyes or the sharp curve of that deep yellow beak unlike any other hue of yellow or the cry that now and then comes from the sky as one of them circles slowly overhead arrival not conscious that you have been seeking suddenly you come upon it the village in the welsh hills dust free with no road out but the one you came in by a bird chimes from a green tree the hour that is no hour you know the river dawdles to hold a mirror for you where you may see yourself as you are a traveller with the moon s halo above him who has arrived after long journeying where he began catching this one truth by surprise that there is everything to look forward to r s thomas later poems macmillan 1983 r s thomas poems can be spare and acerbic especially when his subject is the modern world but there is no shortage of beauty the heart of his poetry is his lifelong attendance upon the silence of god as he makes his way through our short time in paradise wales in thomas case at times there is a note of complaint the merest hint of a doubt but withal he is patient he is often rewarded the bright field i have seen the sun break through to illuminate a small field for a while and gone my way and forgotten it but that was the pearl of great price the one field that had the treasure in it i realize now that i must give all that i have to possess it life is not hurrying on to a receding future nor hankering after an imagined past it is the turning aside like moses to the miracle of the lit bush to a brightness that seemed as transitory as your youth once but is the eternity that awaits you r s thomas laboratories of the spirit macmillan 1975 ian grant 1904 1993 cheshire mill 1939 the beautiful particulars of the world often arrive unexpectedly and unaccountably at our doorstep or we at theirs suddenly there is no planning involved nor itinerary to be followed we simply need to pay attention so says an inveterate sleepwalker and never cease to be grateful to a mountain village at nightfall on a spring day i came and saw this blossoms scattering on echoes from the vespers bell nōin 988 1050 translated by steven carter in steven carter editor traditional japanese poetry an anthology stanford university press 1991 page 134 james cowie 1886 1956 pastoral c 1938 posted by stephen pentz at 12 35 am 3 comments labels bashō hilaire belloc nōin r s thomas ruth pitter walter de la mare william james saturday december 21 2024 autumn into winter as i have mentioned here in the past each day i read a poem in the morning and a poem in the evening this was today s morning poem autumn ends lost in vacant wonder at how the months flow away in silence i sit alone in my idle hut thinking endless thoughts an old man s cares like these leaves are hard to sweep away to the sound of their rustling i see autumn off once again tate ryūwan 1762 ...