Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 22:07:31 -0500
Subject: Re: (urth) Sado Island
From: silk tree 


On Saturday, April 12, 2003, at 04:46  PM, Alice K. Turner wrote:
> > http://www.worldhaikureview.org/pages/whcjapan15.shtml

> It is not a pastiche of Basho. It is the man himself (17th c.), and 
> this is
> a very famous poem. Here are a few more translations.

I have been wondering why Wolfe translated the wild sea as
cold sea? I have not read the short story, maybe it would be obvious
if I had.

btw, that page where I found the Basho haiku explains about Sado island 
and
the Star Festival:

"The Milky Way (according to an ancient legend associated with Star
Festival) excites pity for the Altair-Vega couple. They can meet  only
once a year at the time of the Star Festival called Tanabata in East 
Asia.
Sado recalls the sadness of noble people who were exiled there, such as
the famous Noh-dancer Zeami or Saint Nichiren (Buddhist)."

I looked this up on google and found that the festival is on July 7th 
(so
it's not in winter (was wondering if that could explain the cold.) but 
one
interesting thing about the legend is that if it rains on that day, the 
couple
will be prevented from meeting.

http://www.watanabegumi.co.jp/jpculture/tanabata/tanabata.html

the translations you found...I like this one the best.

       rough sea
       the Milky Way is crossing over
       to Sado

I am going to check my the book of haiku I have translated by Hass to 
see
if this Basho is in there. I would like to see what he has to say about 
it.

Anyway, in this poem since the sea is rough, perhaps it is raining. And
since it set on Sado, it is even more sad due to the mortal people who 
are
exiled there.

> [...]      As you gathered from the six-year-ago posts, the other 
> fragments are
> from Milton's "Il Pensoroso" and Tennyson's "Enoch Arden." I think the 
> Basho
> poem and the Tsubaki tribute are both intended to evoke feelings of 
> humility
> at our small place in the universe, which is certainly a theme in the 
> Urth
> series.

mimosa


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