Questions tagged [poetry]
詩歌. Japanese poetry, including haiku and tanka
39
questions
6
votes
5
answers
1k
views
Difference between ひらがな and 漢字 in this poetry
A friend of mine shared this poetry to me, and just for fun I decided to translate it in my first language, Italian. The author is 穂村 弘 Homura Hiroshi, a contemporary writer.
あした世界が終わる日に
あした世界が終わる日に
...
- 527
0
votes
1
answer
2k
views
The different ways to say "forever"
皆さん、こんにちは!
I have a somewhat basic but intricate question about the way the Japanese say forever or something close in concept (sayings, expressions or poetic ways would work too).
The context is that ...
- 1
1
vote
1
answer
214
views
Reading: 日々【ひび】 or 日々【にちにち】?
There is an explanation of the difference between 日々 vs 毎日 here:
https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/42641/31150
but it does not mention the reading of 日々, which wwwjdic says can be
日々【ひび】 or 日々【にちにち】...
- 2,036
0
votes
2
answers
140
views
What is this odd Japanese Symbol with a Dakuten? [duplicate]
I am currrently studying through the Japanese-English book called カルテットII, and this section goes over understanding the body of a text through context clues in the title. This is the example poem they ...
- 421
2
votes
2
answers
598
views
A couple linguistic questions about the Iroha poem
Here is the text of the Iroha poem, sided with a possible translation (mine):
色は匂えど Iro wa nioedo | Colors, although bright,
散りぬるを Chirinuru wo | Will scatter.
我が世誰ぞ Wa ga yo tare zo | In my world, ...
- 502
2
votes
2
answers
250
views
What is the difference in nuance between 思ったら and 思えたら?
敷島の日本の国に人二人有りとし思はば何か歎かむ is always translated into modern Japanese as some variation of 大和の国にあなたが二人いると思えたら何かを嘆こう and I'm wondering why is 思はば translated as 思えたら. Why not 思ったら? -aば is the conditional ...
- 55
3
votes
2
answers
561
views
What is the function of 「や」 in this sentence?
古池や 蛙飛び込む 水の音
This is a haiku by Matsuo Bashō. Is the や particle doing what it normally does, listing items?
3
votes
1
answer
170
views
How to write and sing Shigin (Japanese way of chanting poem) properly?
1, Should Shigin be written in Yamato (old Japanese language)? Or an even older version of Japanese? Can I write it in modern Japanese?
2, Are there rules for Shigin? Such as setting rhythms, melodies,...
- 31
4
votes
1
answer
276
views
Trouble understanding small bits of poetry in a Japanese novel
Recently, I bought my first Japanese novel to improve my reading skills. The novel itself uses a modern, very simple grammar (it's Ningen no kouta by Kō Machida) so it's not hard to understand. ...
- 81
0
votes
1
answer
106
views
空睨んでも - how can I tell when sora is being used for something other than the sky
I like to translate K-pop and anime themes as a hobby to help me understand and memorize the language. In Gurenge, a certain line sticks out: 夜の匂いに 空睨んでも.
My research suggests that if Sora comes ...
1
vote
1
answer
851
views
Is there anything special about single vowel words?
I'm not sure if this is a useful question or not. But I was surprised to notice まさか (masaka) was using a single vowel (a) for the whole word. The surprise came from the connection to "bakana" (バカな) ...
- 577
2
votes
1
answer
116
views
meaning of hiragana in a verse
This sentence is from a poem:
トイレットペーパーしゅるる.
The katakanas mean "toilet paper". How about the hiraganas?
I thought it would be a verb because of the る-ending, but can't find a verb like this in ...
- 378
4
votes
1
answer
493
views
Do the Japanese read Classical Chinese poems in Japanese or in on-readings?
The pros and cons of both approaches are obvious.
1) If you read by conversion into Japanese through kanbun, you get the sense. Meanwhile, you lose the rhythm, and sometimes it is not obvious what ...
- 2,398
2
votes
1
answer
353
views
事に感ず and Shigin vocabulary
I recently heard of the poem named Koto ni Kanzu, and I came across this page that provides the poem's text, along with a pretty convincing interpretation.
The poems reads as follows (I only added the ...
- 1,096
3
votes
2
answers
173
views
Translation struggles - Kuroshio Current being mentioned in a patriotic song
I'm trying to make sense of an old Japanese patriotic song 五・一五事件 昭和維新行進曲 陸軍の歌, and there's a line that contains a reference to the Kuroshio Current. The event this song was written about (the so-...
- 133
1
vote
1
answer
151
views
Advice and critics on a Haiku [closed]
I am trying my hand on writing some Haiku in Japanese. As I am by far an expert, I wanted to have your opinion on this one.
七の雪
立つ竹も鷺
冬の時
A few questions I have : Can you understand the image in it, ...
- 111
0
votes
1
answer
134
views
What is the best word choice for "cycle"?
In this poem, I want to say "...is the cycle of fall foliage", but I'm not sure if meguri is a good choice. I do not want to use katakana.
。。。は秋の葉の巡り（めぐり）
By the way, I'm still learning this app. ...
- 101
2
votes
1
answer
605
views
Why is 「てふ」 pronounced 「ちょう」?
I recently purchased a copy of One Hundred Leaves: A new annotated translation of the Hyakunin Isshu to try and improve my Japanese reading level. In addition to the English translation, each poem ...
- 105
5
votes
1
answer
187
views
Is a sentence containing two similar kanji any known figure of speech
Searching for Japanese poetry or simply reading song lyrics, I can find very often some sentences that contain two kanji characters of specific properties: They are usually close to each other, one is ...
- 405
2
votes
1
answer
310
views
How do I understand 「わが身世にふる ながめせし間に」
This might be a difficult question but let me give it a try here.
I have trouble understanding this poem by 小野小町:
花の色は うつりにけりな いたづらに わが身世にふる ながめせし間に
I understand that the words 「ふる」 and 「ながめ」 are ...
- 123
3
votes
0
answers
216
views
Phonetic Mapping of the Hiragana System Used in the Okinawan Omoro Sōshi
The classical Okinawan poetry collection the Omoro Sōshi is written (mostly) in Hiragana, but the phonetic mapping of the characters to sounds seems to be different to their standard mapping.
For ...
- 130
0
votes
1
answer
98
views
Trouble parsing lyrics under lack of particles
As always, we have to take non-sentence poetry at face value; sometimes it is almost always ambiguous, but there is probably another perspective I am over looking. Taking a look at the final verse ...
- 99
2
votes
2
answers
149
views
The difference between もう and まふ
I have seen the poem title 君死にたまふことなかれ spelled 君死にたもうこと勿れ. I'm assuming given the poet's reputation, that まふ is some antiquated word analogous to the modern もう. What is it's use and meaning?
- 145
-2
votes
1
answer
129
views
How does Bylth's translation of this haiku by Kiin hold up?
柴ふねの立枝も春や朝かすみ (shiba-fune no risshi mo haru ya asa-kasumi)
How spring-like the branches
Standing up in the firewood boat
In the morning mist
--Kiin
Probably my ...
- 21
2
votes
1
answer
333
views
looking for a haiku maybe written by Sasaki Sadako
I'm looking for the Japanese text of the following haiku, maybe written by Sasaki Sadako :
Statute of A-bomb child
she seems as if walking
after a butterfly
I found the English text here. The author ...
- 715
6
votes
1
answer
809
views
Is the layout of this text supposed to resemble a style of poem?
While playing a Japanese video game, I became curious about the layout of these book pages that appear each time you finish a chapter of the game.
The text of each page summarizes one of the chapters,...
- 1,019
2
votes
1
answer
181
views
Would a phrase 人の跡を求める be understood without a reference to Basho?
There is a quote from Matsuo Basho:
古人の跡を求めず、古人の求めしところを求めよ
Nowadays, would a phrase 人の跡を求める be understood as "to follow someone"s footsteps". Would it be grammatically valid in contemporary ...
- 6,557
3
votes
2
answers
398
views
Couple of classical Japanese questions
I found a poem by Nagai Kafu entitled 震災 (The Earthquake) in a volume of Japanese prose and poetry. It's a short poem about the Ansei Edo Earthquake (安政江戸地震) in 1855 which destroyed the red light ...
- 6,910
2
votes
1
answer
273
views
Does there exist a poem that uses direction to change its meaning?
I've been reading about writing order and the question has been poking at me for a while now: since writing order could theoretically introduce ambiguity, is it possible that someone has written a ...
- 123
1
vote
2
answers
1k
views
What are the basic physical differences between japanese poetry and prose?
I am not asking about genre, meaning or anything other subjective issues. I am talking about the following type of things in english:
English prose (no rhyme, no rhythm). May also have literal ...
- 113
4
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Why does this haiku have a 5-6-5 pattern?
I was amazed to read the following haiku in "小林 一茶" (a book written by 宗左近/Sō Sakon about the famous poet) :
我と来てあそぶ親のない雀
At first sight, the text given by 宗左近 doesn't seem regular : 5+6+5 morae ?....
- 715
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How do you indicate line breaks in a poem when it is written without actual line breaks?
In English, if you have a poem, like
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Sugar is sweet,
And so are you.
and you need to write it on just one line (for reasons of space or whatever), you would ...
- 5,655
11
votes
3
answers
869
views
Mora count for 思ふ in Classical Japanese?
During an analysis I was performing of the poems contained in the 古今集 I noticed a curious pattern. Otherwise perfectly-formed poems included in the collection seemed to ignore the morae-count on a ...
- 5,250
13
votes
1
answer
815
views
Are haiku typically "padded" when read aloud?
I was once told that haiku should be "padded" so that instead of 5/7/5, they fit an 8/8/8 meter:
■■■■■□□□ ← wait for 3 beats after this line
■■■■■■■□ ← wait for 1 beat after this line
■■■■■□□□ ←...
user1478
4
votes
1
answer
348
views
How wrong is my constructed poem?
I tried writing a classical Japanese poem:
赤き空
青かりたり根
夢がごとし
元を返るべし
汚さざらまし
And here is a rough literal translation:
The red sky,
The origin that was once blue,
Like seeing a dream,
It would be best ...
- 16.3k
2
votes
1
answer
161
views
u and Senryu placement
I am in the process of publishing a book on verse, more particularly, "American Haiku and Senryu -- 1008 Pauses Along the Path" and I need to ascertain whether or not the title is appropriate, i.e. is ...
- 29
2
votes
0
answers
418
views
Looking for the original Japanese of this haiku [closed]
I'm sure this is a translation of a haiku but I'm not able to find the original text or even the author.
As the sun
goes down the birds
land one by one.
I've been trying to Google it but can't seem ...
- 121
5
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Redistributable Anthology of Haiku or Tanka in Electronic Form
I think a graded anthology of haiku or tanka might make an excellent chrestomathy for learning kanji and japanese.
Are there any appropriately-licensed (e.g. creative commons / public domain) haiku ...
7
votes
1
answer
701
views
Archaic words used in haiku
My teacher who practices haiku told me that in haiku they still use the traditional names for months. I was wondering which other words are still used in haiku.
- 565