Subject: (urth) Sado Island

From: Nigel Price <nigel.aprice at virgin.net>
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 13:13:03 +0000

About six years ago, there was a discussion on the list of the poetry quoted
in "The Death of Dr. Island" which was initiated by alga. As far as I could
tell, no one was able to pin down the source of the story's closing haiku.
Has there been any progress since then? Anyone know about these lines?

I gather that there was a massacre of allied POWs on Sado Island towards the
end of WWII, but have no idea whether that is in the least bit relevant. The
POWs were being used as forced labour in a mine on the island and were
apparently killed when the camp guards deliberately dynamited the mine while
the POWs were working in it. Could be - probably is - entirely irrelevant to
TDoDI, but I thought that I'd mention it.

Nigel

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From: Alice K. Turner <aturner6 at nyc.rr.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 01:07:10 +0000

> Has there been any progress since then? Anyone know about these lines?

Six years--gosh, are we all six years older? Surely not! Post the list,
Nigel, for the Web is six thousand times bigger than it was six years ago
and I will do a search. (I've been singing "Abdul Abulbul Amir" all
afternoon after getting the words and tune off Google--do not forget, my
friends, that the sons of the prophet are brave men and bold.)
-alga

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From: silk tree <albizia at feafaroth.org>
Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 12:08:37 +0000

On Thursday, April 10, 2003, at 08:07  PM, Alice K. Turner wrote:
> Six years--gosh, are we all six years older? Surely not! Post the =
list,

oops. I posted from the wrong address.

http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0003/0197.shtml
Seas are cold tonight...
Stretching over Sado island
Silent clouds of stars.

http://www.worldhaikureview.org/pages/whcjapan15.shtml

haiku about Tanabata (Star Festival) appears in the chapter of  =20
Echigo=A0 Road in  Basho's
Oku no Hosomichi: The Narrow Road to Oku
araumi ya Sado ni yokotau amanogawa (Basho)

Araumi  ya: wild sea
Sado ni yokotau: stretching to Sado Isle
Amanogawa: the Milky Way (literally)

Could be a pastiche of Basho?

I will ask some poetry friends.

mimosa=

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From: Alice K. Turner <aturner6 at nyc.rr.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 21:46:45 +0000

haiku about Tanabata (Star Festival) appears in the chapter of
Echigo Road in  Basho's
Oku no Hosomichi: The Narrow Road to Oku
araumi ya Sado ni yokotau amanogawa (Basho)

Araumi  ya: wild sea

Mimosa:
It is not a pastiche of Basho. It is the man himself (17th c.), and this is
a very famous poem. Here are a few more translations.

High over wild seas
surrounding Sado Island:
the river of heaven

      the rough sea -
      flowing toward Sado Isle
      the River of Heaven

      rough sea
      the Milky Way is crossing over
      to Sado

      And here is a tribute to it by a modern poet named Hoshino Tsubaki

      Sado Isle in view
      day stretches to an end
      on the vast sea

      (English version by ST & DWB)

      sado=Sado Island, north of Niigata; mie-te=has come in view;
oo-unabara=a big ocean; chijitsu=lengthening day, sunset getting later, a
spring kigo; kana=kireji, exclamation (Tsubaki is obviously conscious of
Basho's haiku: araumi ya Sado ni yokotau ama no kawa, or rough sea/ over
Sado Island/ milky way)

      As you gathered from the six-year-ago posts, the other fragments are
from Milton's "Il Pensoroso" and Tennyson's "Enoch Arden." I think the Basho
poem and the Tsubaki tribute are both intended to evoke feelings of humility
at our small place in the universe, which is certainly a theme in the Urth
series.

      -alga

      -alga

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From: silk tree <albizia at feafaroth.org>
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2003 03:07:31 +0000

> a very famous poem. Here are a few more translations.

I have been wondering why Wolfe translated the wild sea as
cold sea? I have not read the short story, maybe it would be obvious
if I had.

btw, that page where I found the Basho haiku explains about Sado island 
and
the Star Festival:

"The Milky Way (according to an ancient legend associated with Star
Festival) excites pity for the Altair-Vega couple. They can meet  only
once a year at the time of the Star Festival called Tanabata in East 
Asia.
Sado recalls the sadness of noble people who were exiled there, such as
the famous Noh-dancer Zeami or Saint Nichiren (Buddhist)."

I looked this up on google and found that the festival is on July 7th 
(so
it's not in winter (was wondering if that could explain the cold.) but 
one
interesting thing about the legend is that if it rains on that day, the 
couple
will be prevented from meeting.

http://www.watanabegumi.co.jp/jpculture/tanabata/tanabata.html

the translations you found...I like this one the best.

       rough sea

I am going to check my the book of haiku I have translated by Hass to 
see
if this Basho is in there. I would like to see what he has to say about 
it.

Anyway, in this poem since the sea is rough, perhaps it is raining. And
since it set on Sado, it is even more sad due to the mortal people who 
are
exiled there.

> [...]      As you gathered from the six-year-ago posts, the other 
> fragments are

mimosa

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