Thursday, 21 July 2011

Issa: Do not kill the fly!


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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Mosquito_2007-2.jpg

A female mosquito of the Culicidae family (Culiseta longiareolata), about 10 mm in length, Lisbon region, Portugal: photo by Alvesgaspar, November 2007
.....Mosquitos in the day-time;
Buddha hides them
.....Behind him.


.....A matter for congratulation!
I have been bit
.....By this year's mosquito too.


.....A glimpse of a mosquito:
From now on
.....An old man's world.


.....The bean-curd of last night
Gleams whitely:
.....Striped mosquitos hover.


.....Do not kill the fly!
See how it wrings its hands,
.....Its feet!




Issa: haiku translated by R. H. Blyth in Haiku, Volume 3: Summer-Autumn, 1952



http://www.fulltable.com/VTS/c/chem/SH793.jpg

Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation advertisement: Fortune, August 1943 (via full table)

http://www.fulltable.com/VTS/c/chem/uc/SH296.jpg

Union Carbide Corporation advertisement: Saturday Evening Post, June 1949 (via full table)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Closeup_black_fly.jpg

Black fly: photo by Mark Span, 19 May 2011
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10 comments:

  1. Anonymous21 July 2011 at 06:33

    These are extremely wonderful.

    "The bean-curd of last night
    Gleams whitely"

    My determination to buy nothing until the depression has lifted and dispersed has broken down and I must now begin purchasing Blyth.

    ReplyDelete
  2. STEPHEN RATCLIFFE21 July 2011 at 07:22

    Tom,

    Johnny says that the mosquito's nose makes it look like an aardvark. . . .

    7.21

    grey whiteness of fog against invisible
    ridge, green motion of leaves on branch
    in foreground, wave sounding in channel

    system which had been space
    of objects in it, and

    as object, present as thing,
    actual subject matter

    silver of sunlight in fog against ridge,
    wingspan of gull gliding across channel

    ReplyDelete
  3. TC21 July 2011 at 19:03

    Curtis,

    Blyth's books are the only ones I can think of that provide an effective antidote to the Depression.

    (While selecting and posting these, I thought -- What a rare sense of humour, both on the part of the poet and on the part of the translator.)


    Steve and Johnny,

    actual subject matter

    for the day was a meditation upon Johnny's observation, intuitively brilliant as usual.

    I did learn (or perhaps imagine?) that there is not only a certain strange resemblance but a curious sympathy, perhaps bred of affinity, between these two wondrous creatures.

    For example:

    An Aardvark having a nap while scratching his elbow after a visit from his friend Mosquito.

    ReplyDelete
  4. STEPHEN RATCLIFFE22 July 2011 at 07:28

    Tom,

    Johnny wonders how the aardvark could have a mosquito friend if the mosquito is biting it. . . .

    ReplyDelete
  5. TC22 July 2011 at 07:56

    The aardvark wonders that too, Johnny, when he wakes up.

    ReplyDelete
  6. aditya22 July 2011 at 08:17

    Pardon me while I dilute the element of joy .. well Tom you did that in the place, by posting the Union Carbide pictures. But that is as the saying goes.. Both the beauty and the misery of it. It sends jitters down my spine every single timeto think of the havoc caused in Bhopal. And to think their CEO escaped scot free.. continuing to live his American dream.

    Here

    And here

    By the way there have been a million mosquitoes in our room all through the summer.

    early morning mosquitoes-
      fifty folded knees
    all of them Buddha

    ReplyDelete
  7. aditya22 July 2011 at 08:18

    The keyboard and the screens in this 'cyber cafe' belong tot he stone age. No wonders ..

    ReplyDelete
  8. Skip Fox25 July 2011 at 08:03

    I was told the mosquito's "note" is a high-C.

    ReplyDelete
  9. TC26 July 2011 at 08:13

    A Stone Age high "c" --

    skeeter jitters on

    the Buddha's folded knees.

    ReplyDelete
  10. aditya26 July 2011 at 23:23

    Oh this is lovely!

    ReplyDelete