bird from school

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Issa - This Dewdrop World - The Dewdrop Written shortly after the death of his daughter, Japanese poet Issa's haiku touches deeply on the heart of the human condition.

I'm very sorry for your loss.

I'm okay--things are peaceful. Though I have been anxious & edgy & struggling with motivation.

By the way, when I am grieving, these are two brief poems by Issa that help me: thedewdrop.org/2021/03/24/i...
asian.washington.edu/news/2023/04...

Sounds frustrating. What's the nature of the slump?

You weren't exaggerating. It's like they're trying to neutralize every poem with concentrated anti-poetry. Vile.

Gratulon! Mi certas, ke vi havos multajn pliajn sukcesojn.

Thanks for sharing your poetry. Especially loved the multisyllabic rhymes in the sixth stanza.

Horrible. The bland, naked hostility of it.

Kind of you to ask! Better than some but worse than others, I suppose. Haven't had the wherewithal to post much. How are you?

Sensational!

My money's on "good."

Thanks. I'll remember that. :)

Thanks for the additional linguistic knowledge! Though I'm sure your interpretation is correct, it's neat the the poem picks up additional potential readings in the translation process.

I imagine your interpretation is correct! However, just for fun, I'll share my initial impression. I thought that in this poem, Mareez, demonstrating self-awareness, realizes that his suffering is self-inflicted. Everyone he meets is wiser than him, because they haven't chosen to be miserable.

A bit! The tone can get more prosaic or more lyric/mythic depending on the POV character.

A dragon breathes fire, declaring: "Keep writing, Clare!"

& you? Something dragon-y?

Novel! Been working on it for ages. Melancholy, surrealistic children's narrative for adults; convenience stores & orphan girls gone missing; a poem in some of its moods. A goodly number of birds.

I feel Mareez would have a lot of advice for Maggie Cheung & Tony Leung's characters in that movie.

(In the Mood for Love / 花樣年華 is one of my favorites.)

That's the goal for today & tomorrow & the day after.

YouTube video by Zhou Xuan - Topic Age of Bloom (Hua Yang De Nianhua)

Lovely.

Looked up the title--seems like it shares a name with this Zhou Xuan pop song from the 40s? www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h95...

That song also gave Wong Kar-wai's gorgeous, achy film "In the Mood For Love" its original name, meaning "the flowery years."

Were you inspired by one of those?

February is better so far!

That's so sweet of you!

I knew it would be a hit!!

Illustration of a petrel flying by a glacier. Caption reads "But such a Land As Was--Cold and Bleak and Bare. From The Strangeland Bird Life, Illus. Cobb X Shinn

A group of five penguins greets our friend the petrel. Caption reads: "The Stranger Made a Dignified Bow"

Illustration of an irritated penguin giving a petrel a shove. Caption reads: "Stormy Quite Lost His Balance and Went Sprawling on the Ice"

The back two pages of the book. Illustration of birds (eider duck, albatross, stormy petrel, grey goose, puffin, sheath bill, emperor penguin, gull, adelie penguin, tern) appear, overlaid by two reading children in silhouette.

You gave me no choice but to read the whole book. Good decision.
archive.org/details/stra...

Gorgeous! Your spouse will lose their mind!

The stars are pretty & I like how they contrast with the "harsh" part of the title.

Just ordered it from interlibrary loan.

This one's wistful. Made me ache.

I hope we get to see a picture at some point (but if it is too personal to post I more than understand)