.
The Three Wise Monkeys in the Monkey Sculpture ("Mizaru/ Hear no evil, Kikazaru/ speak no evil, Iwazaru/ see no evil"), Nikko Toshogu Shinto shrine, Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan: photo by rangaku1976, 2008
The monk asked Fuketsu, "Speaking and silence belong to the absolute and the relative worlds; how can we escape both these errors?"
Fuketsu said,
"I always think of Kónan in March;
Partridges chirp among the scented blossoms."
"I always think of Kónan in March;
Partridges chirp among the scented blossoms."
Crested Wood Partridge (Rollulus rouloul), male: photo by Michelle Tribe, 2008
Reginald Horace Blyth: Zen (excerpt) in Haiku: Volume I: Eastern Culture, 1947
what a beautiful bird...I have never seen it...! "scented blossoms in Kónan..." I pray for that
ReplyDeleteTom,
ReplyDeleteSpeaking and silence
Partridges chirp among the scented blossoms
3.22
shadowed shape of cloud in pale blue sky
above ridge, sparrow calling from branch
in foreground, waves sounding in channel
in line of descent from one
more, version of same
places of sound in thinking,
still to notice, what
white of cloud above shoulder of ridge,
shadowed green pine on tip of sandspit
Partridges are generally modest in their plumage, though of course to other partridges it probably doesn't seem that way.
ReplyDeleteBut this one is a real beauty.
What can we do but pray and hope for something good on the wind for Japan (and everyone).
Very beautiful and helpful this morning. Thank you. This entire situation (Japan and Libya) seems like an event of suspended animation, which seems like a petty and irrelevant complaint on my part.
ReplyDeleteI like the contrast of black feathers that I imagine very bright and the red tuft...
ReplyDeleteCurtis, know what you mean about the suspended animation.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, on the ornithological front...
Someone here speculated at first that the bright red shape directly above the red tuft of the partridge is a fuchsia blossom.
I contended that it is in fact the foot of another partridge.
A shy partridge, shrinking from view and half-concealed beneath a leaf.
And where then is the second foot? it was sensibly countered.
two dilemmas...!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but I have to disagree here with Someone.
ReplyDeleteBut the good thing is that I completely agree with you, Tom. And I can see the second foot slightly behind the first one (is very out of focus, but there it is).
A beautiful bird and a beautiful post as usual.
I do not post to disagree just to say what I think
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that's a one-legged partridge hiding in the background. I can see part of its beak.
ReplyDeleteI agree with "someone"
ReplyDeleteit IS "a fuchsia blossom"
when you get to be my age
you can certainly tell
a
blood-red chicken leg
from an
erotic
fuchsia blossom !
where's the "pear tree"?
where is
anything?
............:)
ReplyDeletedoes seem to have a bit of a neural resonance
ReplyDeleteand that kind of semiological recapitulation which returns itself
to wonder
where the banal
is disturbed by beauty
and beauty by the banal
and where the distribution
of disturbances
leads an other essence
to stir
what timidness
is there in the sculpting
of a chirp?
a chirp is like a cannon
whose every molecule
is both a sigh
and a flowering
an approach
which returns
Tom and Someone,
ReplyDeletePerhaps we could say it's a particularly beautiful fuchsia-colored left (or maybe right?) foot. . . .
3.23
light coming into cloud against shadowed
green ridge, sparrow calling from branch
in foreground, waves sounding in channel
sense of past elsewhere, is
particular in traces
to experience, picture each
occasion, only it is
grey white clouds to the left of point,
silver of drops splashing into channel
Brilliant comments all. I am considering obtaining a red tufted crest.
ReplyDeleteEvery viewpoint expressed so far has its merits.
Someone, however, who has latterly been exposed to this further evidence, is now convinced that
the red splash in the background is the foot of a female Crested Wood Partridge, perching comfortably on one leg (as, in the video evidence attached to the above, one of these clever birds is seen to do).
Perhaps that might be described as the "stand and wait" posture.
Great post. To talk of the relative worlds, birds are an excellent company to keep.
ReplyDeleteYes, though it may be our company sometimes seems less than excellent to them -- things being relative, that is.
ReplyDelete