frog leaps in,
builds water's sound.
h/t Bob Villa.
4.01.2009
3.31.2009
Day 33
Old pond, full of mold
through which a frog slips away
into water's sound.
Meh. 5-7-5 again. Must be the formal poetry packet I just handed out to my students that's keeping me so rigid these days.
No, dirty mind, not that packet!
3.30.2009
3.29.2009
Day 31
The old pond a space
for a frog to leap into,
for water to sound.
A bit more of the traditional kindy-garteny 5-7-5 style. This one perhaps more successful than the previous...
3.28.2009
Day 30
Pond yawns,
frog leaps in
water sounding out.
Taking a note from yesterday's funning around.
Also realized that I've blown the numbering of all the days, and will have to remedy that at some point in the future.
But then, aren't we always fucking up the numbering of all our days?
3.27.2009
Day 29
Off-the-wall pompilid--
Friulian jubilates except
Watcheye's soul brother.
Played the Oulippian n+7 game this afternoon... Except I also adj+7'd, prep.+7'd and v+7'd.
Seriously, you expected maybe 365 translations that I can't have any fun with?
Day 28
Fur ice yaw
karamu tobikomu
Maze no too
Here's what spellcheck thinks of Basho. I do like the "yaw"
3.25.2009
3.23.2009
3.22.2009
3.21.2009
Day 24
the old pond--
frog sprung into
water's sound
In "yesterday's" post, I caught onto the idea of "springing," which may or may not be available in the Japanese, but the way the spring and old meet up against each other creates an enjoyable premonition and admission of the surprise in the last line. I have to admit, though, my personal imagination of the pond is a humid, midsummery one...
Day 23
old pond--
spring frog
water sound
My first fully missed day, and the first day of spring, to boot. Anyhow, in honor of the equinox...
3.20.2009
3.18.2009
Day 21
Here by the old pond
a frog suddenly leaps in--
to water sounding.
5-7-5: see? Overdone. But that's the business of this blog, no?
3.17.2009
3.16.2009
Day 19
The old pond's
frog leaps in
water's sound.
Why not two possessives? Can't the pond, as central fact of the poem's occasion, be the source and the generation of the water's sound as well as of the frog? The environment--i.e., the larger locus of the poem's activity-- may very well be the source of this poem's meaningfulness, so I thought I might give the sound it's generative location in the pond itself. I do dig the enjambments quite a bit, whatever the case may end up to be.
3.15.2009
Day 18
Full, rude, ick, yet--
call what zooms toy boat coming
amazing;--no, all told...
Listening to Raoul Hausmann while cleaning up after Peter's 11th bday party, while doing laundry, while doing dishes and sweeping/mopping, which spurred me to a homophonic translation tonight. I was intending to head this way one of these days (though, at the tender young age of Day 18, it impresses upon me the breadth of this project--where the fuck else do I go from here?!?!).
I do like--quite a bit--the "Full," the "zooms" and the "no." The fullness of the pond seems to be a given in the original, but the insistence gives the poem new possible directions. "Zooms" is particularly fun--the idea of the frog's speed involves itself in there. The "no" is a bit more problematic, yet still fascinating. The idea that the frog has nothing to do with the sound is given a certain English-y force by fact of the "no"--which suggests that we (The Readers) are wrong in our assumptions of the splash being the product of frog against water--the sound is instead (and correctly, I believe) the water's.
More homophonic shit at later date(s), I'm sure.
3.14.2009
Day 17
small grove's
pond--
a frog's leap then
water's sound
Embellishment, yes. Yet this is my imagination of the pond, and why not allow it in?
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