Brian Bergstrom

ON POETRY AND 'TENDERNESS'— I was teaching Basho, the haiku master, last class, and one of the things he does is write about poetry, and he says haiku should possess three qualities: sabi (loneliness), shiori (tenderness), and hosomi (slenderness). They're all pretty vague, of course, but loneliness is something like the ironies that remind one of the transience of life (his example is old men with white hair acting as "flower guards" beneath cherry blossoms, which are associated with youth and freshness), and "slenderness" is basically what we would call "restraint" these days -- prizing simplicity in phrasing over needless decoration or pretty language/allusion. But "tenderness" is so hard to teach, and hard for students to understand. It's a quality that basically (I think?) is a reaction to the corrosive ironies and cleverness of "low" poetry of the time that ridiculed stock characters or known figures in a pursuit of showing off. Basho, at least in my interpretation, wanted to reject the pretensions of "high" poetry -- the kind that prized the clever allusion built on extensive education in classical forms -- while keeping its seriousness of purpose and philisophical depth; he also wanted to reject the empty cleverness and spiritual poverty of "low" poetry while keeping its unembarassed willingness to treat humble, everyday, or even vulgar subjects (one of his more famous poems describes a horse peeing near where he's trying to sleep), and use of plain, unforced language. I think that's what "tenderness" as a poetic quality means -- an embrace of the subject of the poem without critical or other kinds of distance, to be "tender" toward it, a respect for the thing being described/evoked that becomes an obligation to evoke it as fully and directly as possible (which is where the other principles come in). As I was (probably confusingly) trying to talk about this in class, I realized that this becomes, in modernity/modernism, "objectivity" as a grounding of r…

Anyway, here are my own translations of some of his poems; unlike many translators, I tried to keep the 5/7/5 meter even in English [hence, the technically incorrect use of "ocotopi"; so sue me, grammar nerds]: --- O, the ancient pond! A frog jumps into its depths: The sound of water --- Fishermen’s faces. At first light, what do I see? White poppy flowers. --- Suma’s fishermen. What cries from their arrowpoints? Flying nightingales. Nightingales flying disappear into the distance: A single island At Suma temple Listen to the ancient flutes Beneath the trees’ shade --- Octopi in pots Dream unattainable dreams ‘neath the summer moon. --- The moon is there, but there’s a feeling of absence. Summer in Suma. I can see the moon yet, something is still missing. Summer in Suma. --- Hair shaven and shed On Kurokami mountain – Old robes changed for new.* *[by his companion on The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Sora, who took the tonsure at the beginning of the journey] For a little while I watch the waterfall’s spray. My first summer’s rite. --- How cruel it seems! Beneath this warrior’s helmet: Only a cricket. --- Whiter than the white stones of Stone Mountain Temple blows the autumn wind.

an octopus backed up into a pot/trap

It's apparently World Octopus Day, which reminds me of Bashō and his poem about octopuses staring up at the moon from the pots they unwittingly mistook for homes, as well as something I wrote a while back about "shiori" [撓] / "tenderness" in his poetry

Just saying!

bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

🫡

🫡

Whaaat?! -- well, if you really need to get in, I think I know a guy....

Event description: Crafting Twists and Thrills: A Conversation with Author ISAKA Kotaro Thursday, October 30, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM (ET) In-person at the Japan Foundation, Toronto Event Hall | Admission Free | RSVP Required Author ISAKA Kotaro will share rare insights into his life as a creative at the Japan Foundation, Toronto, in conversation with Brian Bergstrom, translator for one of his novels Hotel Lucky Seven. The pair will talk about creative processes, inspirations, and challenges, in addition to experience with translation and film adaptations. Audience can also expect to learn more about Isaka’s most recent English translations Seesaw Monster and Hotel Lucky Seven and ask any burning questions they may have about his intricately woven plotlines.

Toronto people! I will be in town at the end of the month, moderating a discussion with Kōtarō Isaka (author of Bullet Train and Hotel Lucky Seven) for the Japan Foundation, among other activities. I'd love to see you!

tr.jpf.go.jp/isaka-kotaro...

Haha I love this movie!

Rainy Tuesday

🫡

If nothing else, it's nice to have a conveniently bald example of how so-called centrism is just the most craven mendacity

Look, I teach at 8:30 on Monday mornings

Even neighsayers too?

🫡

A reader review upset at the cheating element of one of the stories in The Dilemmas of Working Women by Fumio Yamamoto: "I hate the part where cheating is considered nothing ?????? Like HOW ????" Also, if you've read this story, the cheating is in fact not "nothing" - it has personal and professional consequences; the fact that the main character does it and then feels little guilt about it is part of her journey of realizing what the problem with her relationship actually is

I'll be honest—I appreciate most reactions to The Dilemmas of Working Women, including negative ones (those can be interesting too!), but there's a knee-jerk type of reaction to the fact that a character in one of the stories cheats on her boyfriend that always makes me go, "Oh, grow UP"

Propos dégradants | Sous pression, Martinez Ferrada refuse d’exclure un candidat Pressée de démettre un candidat dans Hochelaga ayant tenu des propos dégradants à l’endroit de plusieurs élus municipaux, la cheffe d’Ensemble Montréal, Soraya Martinez Ferrada, plaide plutôt que tout...

Soraya, Équipe des trompeurs. Elle a brisé la loi, exigeant un dépôt illégal, choisie comme cheffe lorsqu'elle n'avait pas le droit (car elle n'habitait pas Mtl) et maintenant garde un candidat toxique. www.lapresse.ca/actualites/e...

🤷

The inability to attach comments to end/footnotes is one of the things that drives me the most crazy. Why? Why???

😈😘

#mcm #nsfw #peace

I fondly remember Anarchopanda from the 2012 Montréal protests

Was this fact-checked by ChatGPT? Because Michael Emmerich, someone I know personally, wrote a book about the reception of The Tale of Genji, but he is not someone who's translated it.

🫡

ooh baby call me The Undersigned again

🫡

👀🫡

Armed and ready for Sunday

screenshot from robertbloch.net (Audience question regarding the aspects of the Ed Gein murder case as they have supposedly, "historically" applied to Psycho. This otherwise cliched question rates inclusion here because of the breadth of Bob's definitive answer.) BOB: First of all, I didn't know anything about those aspects when I wrote Psycho. I did not use Ed Gein as a basis for Norman Bates at all; I used the circumstances, which were: somebody could live in a small town, where everybody knows everybody else's business, and conduct a series of murders without anyone suspecting. But people don't like this. They like to believe the legend. When you get right down to it, Ed Gein did not run a motel. He killed nobody in the shower. He did not preserve the body of his mother. None of those things were part of Mr. Gein's background. I invented a character at the time which, not having read the details, which were not being printed initially or immediately, because they were very prudish in most cases. Life magazine and a few other publications later came out with a great deal of stuff, but I would not have used it even if it had been available, because it didn't meet with my particular plot requirements. But the legend persists, and will continue to persist. A little over two weeks ago, I think, a network show called Hard Copy asked if they could interview me regarding Psycho. I said I did not want to be interviewed; I didn't want to go down to a studio. They said, "We'll send a crew out." I said to myself, well, if it's good enough for Ackerman, it's good enough for me...

screenshot continued They came, and throughout this interview they kept asking, "Didn't you think of Norman Bates because of Ed Gein?" Didn't Ed Gein inspire the characterization, and blah-blah-blah. I kept telling them what I just told you, and the interviewer and crew kept looking sadder. And sadder. I said to myself this isn't going to happen. Sure enough, the show came on, and they'd gone to Plainfield, which had been Gein's home town, and they did a very nice broadcast regarding the case, and they used some dramatization footage which I swear was probably part of a documentary that had been made at the time, because it was in black and white instead of color, and was not aired because it was undoubtedly too strong for audiences then. They salvaged that and put together this program. And I was a non-person. I didn't exist. My name wasn't mentioned, and I certainly did not appear onscreen. Obviously, if I had, they would not have had a program, because their title was The Inside Story: The Truth About the Ed Gein Murders! And my denials were the exact antithesis. This is a horrible lesson in how easy it is for media, today, to distort by omission, or by any kind of editing, what actually happened, what occurred. What I'm citing is trivial; it doesn't mean anything one way or the other. But think of the implications-how this sort of censorship and willful distortion affects so called "news" reporting, and so-called documentaries, on various topics that are of social or historical importance to an audience. And that's something that scares me far more than the activities of Mr. Gein.

all the press around the Ed Gein show seems to insist that Robert Bloch used Gein as the inspiration for Norman Bates - it’s become the accepted narrative - but here’s the thing: he didn’t!

It just seems like a profound misunderstanding of itself

You.
Are.
Allowed.
To.
Insult.
The.
Police.

It’s a core First Amendment principle. This is utterly lawless behavior, for which there will be no (short-term) consequences.

That he does it so casually, as they are walking away, in front of cameras.

Rightly confident in his impunity.

My tiramisu cake, cut, with a slice on the plate

Tiramisu cake, photographed from above

Uncut tiramisu cake, shot from the side

Tiramisu layer cake time again