by jkvincent | Jan 19, 2022 | haiku |
I went for a long walk yesterday and when I got back a very heavy box was sitting at the foot of our mailbox. I assumed it must be for Anthony. Some new rocks for his aquariums? But then I saw the label from Yaguchi Shoten, a used bookstore in Tokyo’s Jinbochō...
by jkvincent | Sep 19, 2021 | haiku |
the loofah gourd blooms while he chokes to death on phlegm a buddha Hechima saite / tan no tsumarishi / hotoke kana 糸瓜咲て痰のつまりし仏かな This is one of three poems which Masaoka Shiki scrawled on sheets of paper he used for painting just before he died at around 2 in...
by jkvincent | Feb 21, 2021 | novels |
My copy of Arthur Waley’s translation of the Tale of Genji is the single-volume Modern Library Edition from 1960 and it’s falling apart. I’m teaching it this semester so I was poking around on abebooks.com the other day looking for a used copy in better shape. Waley’s...
by jkvincent | Dec 29, 2020 | haiku |
The first page of Shiki’s “Rhyme Finder,” beginning with words that end in “a.” Anthony and I drove to Boston last week so he could check on a construction project. I brought back a carload of books that I’ll need for teaching in the...
by jkvincent | Oct 18, 2020 | haiku |
In January of 1685, Matsuo Bashō had been on the road since August. He was staying with his disciple Hayashi Tōyō in Atsuta just south of Nagoya when one evening the two men, together with two other local poets, decided to take a boating trip “to see the water in...
