A Poem and Pictograph in Earth Language( EL ) for this month -- February 2002 --


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This is an EL (Earth Language) experimental page with English and Japanese.

This corner has continued for three years already! Thank you very much for your interest and suggestions, I could learn a lot.
For this month, I got a haiku from Minami Takeshita (Nara, Japan). It has some Japanese cultural content, even so you might enjoy to share her feeling specially for this early 2002, I believe. However it was quite difficult to create the new EL symbols for this haiku. What do you think about my attempt?

Here, I'd like to inform you about some Japanese culture. Now the Japanese calendar is the same to the Christian one, but until 1873, new year's day of Japan was the day of the coldest new moon using the solar and lunar calendar influenced by Chinese way. After the day, it becomes warmer day by day, so it has been called Risshun or Start of Spring. Before a new year coming, they cleaned everywhere and had a home ritual for keeping demons away. On each new year's day, people revived themselves by making everything around them fresh. Now the name of the day and the customs are still alive( I hope ) in current early February. Oni-gawara* in the haiku is similar to gargoyle: earthen figure of an angry face with horns; usually a pair of them are set on both sides of ridge tiles of a traditional Japanese roof, and they protect the home in peace from devils. Wish all people's home 'Earth' will be saved by imaginary oni-gawara cleaned by each people's heart.

このコーナーで恥をかきかき、はや3年目になりました。ご指導ありがとうございました。まったく不案内の分野への大冒険ですが、お蔭様でいろんな地域の俳人・詩人と知り合え、楽しく学ばせていただいてます。俳句や連句の国際的な人気の高まりはうれしいですね。あなたも英語や地球語でも挑戦してみませんか?
ンー、翻訳がとってもむつかしいですが、今月は奈良県の竹下みなみさんがすてきな俳句をお送りくださったのでご紹介します。作者は現在のお正月を詠んだのかもしれませんが、鬼祓いをして迎えた昔のお正月をイメージしてしまいました。中国のお正月は漢時代以来今も西暦の2月、日本でも明治6年までは、1年で最も寒い新月の立春を年初としていました。新年にそなえて家や家具をまっさらに磨き上げて新年を迎え、自分の心もまっさらに蘇って悪魔を退散させ、家庭の平和を守ろうとした美しいしきたりが、よく描けてるなぁと感心しました。「地球」という家の平和も、みんなの心の鬼瓦でしっかり守れるといいですね。
original haiku by Minami:
鬼瓦まっさらになり四方拝( Oni-gawara massaraninari shihou-hai )

English translation:

oni-gawara*( gargoyles )
become clean and pray toward
four directions


EL translation:

{{10(place),48(cover)} (building),17(upper)}: roof
{52(heated),{35,50} (soil/earth),(50)(goods)}: earthenware ( 27 for 'plural' can be added )(焼き物)
{#gc (preposition),25(join)}: with (~のついた)
{21(facing),{60,66} (horn)}: threat (威嚇)
{15,33,66}: face (n. as a picture-like-character (顔)
: oni-gawara/ gargoyles (鬼瓦)
gd {02({make -- into) one (direction)),68(heart)}: pray ( v.) (D動詞・祈る)
{gc (preposition),21(facing to)}: to/ toward (~へ)
{{17,33(globe)}(north),{18,33} (south),{19,33}(west),{20,33} (east)}:
four directions (四方)
{gd, gc }: (to modify the front predicate forming a verb like a gerund ) becoming ~ (~になって)
: {{36,60(real)}(now),50}: brand new product (新製品)
{15(recognition),13(same)}: similar situation (のよう)

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