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posted by [personal profile] mmoa_writes at 01:10pm on 26/07/2007
Japanese Flower proverbs - http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa072901a.htm?nl=1
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posted by [identity profile] alagbon.livejournal.com at 07:00pm on 26/07/2007
"Hana yori dango" reminds me of one of my favorite haiku:

Sake nakuta
nan no onore ga
sakura kana

It's anonymous, and translates roughly as "Without sake, what use to me are the cherry blossoms?" There isn't a good way to translate it and keep the syllables, according to the person who I learned it from; and the middle line does count as having 7 because the "n" at the end of "nan" is considered syllabic for some reason.
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posted by [identity profile] mmoa.livejournal.com at 07:10pm on 26/07/2007
That's very pretty and rather amusing too: one of my favourite books that I've read this year was 'The Tale of Murasaki' in which the writer has included most of the original verses (there is a proper name for them, which I have forgotten...) written by Murasaki whilst at court. They are like very delicate eleventh century versions of the short email!
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posted by [identity profile] alagbon.livejournal.com at 10:37am on 27/07/2007
Ah, Murasaki rocks! I'm also partial to The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, which is almost a Heian-era blog...
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posted by [identity profile] mmoa.livejournal.com at 12:25am on 28/07/2007
I'm still looking for an English translation of that, actually, as well as an unabridged 'Tales of Genji'. I'm sure it just means searching through various Covent Garden books stores...
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posted by [identity profile] alagbon.livejournal.com at 04:48pm on 28/07/2007
Ivan Morris did an excellent translation of the Pillow Book. I also recommend his study The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan. I've never seen an unabridged Genji but I'm sure a university press somewhere brought one out.
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posted by [identity profile] mmoa.livejournal.com at 11:25pm on 29/07/2007
*hugs* My Quest can now commence!
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posted by [identity profile] alagbon.livejournal.com at 03:33pm on 30/07/2007
I'm glad to have been helpful, having spent most of 1999 sitting around drinking tea and reading Japanese literature instead of doing things I was supposed to be doing.
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