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f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

September 30, 2004

the other haiku moon masters

Filed under: pre-06-2006 — David Giacalone @ 2:58 pm

poetry of zen   Issa gets all the space around here, but I also admire and enjoy

the haiku of the two other great classical Japanese haijin, Basho and Buson.  As

the harvest moon wanes, I want to share an example of moon haiku from each of

them.  (The first one presented here, from Buson, was the very first haiku that

I went around quoting to friends — to demonstrate just how wonderful haiku can be.)

 

 

by Yosa Buson   (1716 – 1783)

 

 

Such a moon–

   Even the thief

  pauses to sing.

                        




 

 

by Matsuo Basho (1644 – 1694)

 

     Harvest moon–

walking around the pond

    all night long

 






monkey cellphone small  and a non-lunar Basho bonus:

 

   

     Year after year

on the monkey’s face

      a monkey face






 

 (translated by Robert Hass



 






last load washed 

the dryer won’t start

[bleep!]

                                [Sept. 30, 2004]

one-breath pundit














    • Since it’s Banned Books Week, I wonder what Prof. Bainbridge and Prof. Grace think about the

      Catholic Church’s Index of prohibited books.  And since politics are everywhere, I wonder how

      being a libertarian squares with being a devout Catholic.  Sincere inquiries from an apostate.






    • The Fortune article about business weblogging has gotten a lot of attention (like here and there).

      I wonder if Sun Microsystem’s president-blogger Jonathan Schwartz, or journalist David Kirkpatrick,

      has found a way to figure out how many actual people “read” Jonathan’s site (they claim 35,000 a

      day), or if we’re getting the usual bloated “hit” numbers.






    • Update:  In response to our recent post, Dennis Kennedy was kind enough yesterday to email me a lengthy explanation for the decision not to include any items from ethicalEsq in a list of materials on alternative billing by lawyers that he and Tom Mighell, composed for the current edition of Law Practice Today, which focuses on alternative billing.  I want to clarify that my reason for wanting this weblog to be included on the LPT link list is the different perspective it brings to the topic of alternative or value billing, as compared to the cheerleading found in virtually all other materials, which do not tend to deal with legal ethics or reducing legal fees.  Although I did not find Dennis’ explanation to be fully satisfactory, I must note that the Trackback problem at Dennis’ site has been (more than) remedied — thanks, DMK!













haiku heavyweights  sumo

read any banned books lately?

Filed under: pre-06-2006 — David Giacalone @ 1:17 pm







see the ALA/BBW children‘s poster . . . bbw2004 

 

This is Banned Books Week, and a good time to be thankful for our freedom of expression and

vigilant in guarding that right.   Of course, our right to read or write a book is greater than our right

to have that book available at a public library. The American Library Association’s theme for BBW 2004

is Elect to Read a Banned Book.   Find out more about banned and challenged books here.

 

bbw2004ya . . . see the ALA young adult poster

 

Since the weblog world loves lists, why not let us know how many of the most-challenged books

since 1990 you have read? [Only six for me.]   Click here to see the top twenty from 1990 – 2000 (the ALA

lists the top 100), and this year, plus the reasons for the challenges.

 


          

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