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Vor dem leeren Haus

schläft am Tor ein Hund allein.

Weidenblätterfall.

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Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902)

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Gracias al artista visual Leonardo Gutiérrez por prestarnos su obra:
juego delicado.

Tile: Origins of Japanese Literature
Japanese Title: 日本近代文学の起源
Author: Karatani Kōjin (柄谷行人)
Translator: Brett De Barry, et al.
Publication Year: 1993 (America); 1980 (Japan)
Pages: 219

Is this book really an academic work? I wonder. If I had to guess, though, I would have to say no. Origins of Japanese Literature belongs to a genre of non-fiction writing called hyōron in Japan. This sort of writing, while focusing on an academic topic, is more of a discussion than a well-researched argument with a thesis. The writer, generally a professor, draws on his or her vast knowledge of a subject in order to discuss it at length, centering on a few key ideas that other, more scrupulous scholars, can be inspired by.

The chapters in a book of the hyōron genre tend to be only loosely tied together thematically, as they were written over the course of several years in the life of the writer for various occasions. One chapter may have been an afterward to a zenshū (“Collected Works”), one may have been a guest lecture, and another may have actually been written as an academic paper. Footnotes and other references are few and far between, although many texts are quoted at length. As a result, reading a book of hyōron is like sitting down with a professor over a cup of tea in his study and listening to him talk about whatever he finds interesting at the moment. If you share the same interests and know enough about the topic to catch the references, it can be quite an enjoyable experience.

Karatani Kōjin is, for the moment, very interested in Japanese modern literature, or the literature of Japan during the Meiji (1868-1912) and Taishō (1912-1926) periods. During the Meiji period especially, Japan underwent the process of modernization at an extraordinarily rapid pace. Along with Western science and technology came modern ideas such as “nation,” “an interior self,” and “literature.” The formation of “literature” is especially interesting to Karatani, because, through literature, we can see the development of so other important elements of modernity.

If Karatani can be said to have a central thesis in this work, it would involve something that he calls “The Discovery of the Landscape,” which is the title of his first chapter. Before the onset of modernization, Japanese artists and poets, such as Buson and Bashō, understood the physical landscape of the natural world to be a reflection of their inner selves, which extended outward indefinitely. In pre-modern literature, for example, there is no distinction made between narration and speech, nor is there any distinction between the voices of different characters. Karatani argues that, during the process of modernization, Japanese artists and writers came to see the physical landscape as something outside of themselves that they could depict objectively and realistically. Other people, in the form of fictional characters, could be treated in the same way. Naturally enough, this discovery of exteriority led to a discovery of interiority, and these two phenomena together worked to create all sorts of modern concepts, such as illness, confession, the child, and literature itself. It’s an interesting argument, even if you don’t happen to agree with it.

For those of you interested in modern Japanese literature, Origins of Japanese Literature reads like a “Greatest Hits” playlist, as Karatani touches on most of the canonical modern authors while delving not so much into their fictional work as into the fragments of literary thought and criticism they left behind. Brett De Barry and her team of translators has done an excellent job of rendering Karatani’s text into polished and enjoyable English, and Ayako Kano in particular has undertaken the grueling task of annotating the text. The translators have helpfully provided a glossary of key figures and movements in the back of the book, and Fredric Jameson has not so helpfully provided an interesting yet characteristically unintelligible foreword at the front.

Mi è già capitato di pubblicare in questo blog qualche poesia: un falso Neruda e alcune lunghe poesie di Gioconda Belli con tutta la sua prorompente vitalità.

In questi noiosi e infiniti giorni di pioggia..di mancata primavera …mi viene voglia di condividere con voi, cari lettori del blog, qualche poesia scarna, essenziale, ma densa di pensiero e di immagini, come solo sanno essere gli HAIKU originali giapponesi.

Questa precisazione perchè ho scoperto che hanno scritto haiku persino Kerouac, Ginzberg, o Borges, o il nostro Sanguineti. Comincio a trascrivere, sperando di trasmettere qualche emozione anche a voi!

HATSUO BASHO ( 1644-1694)

Stagione delle piogge/ i miei capelli di nuovo/ intorno al pallido viso

Un banano nel temporale;/il gocciolio dell’acqua nel catino/ scandisce la mia notte

Silenzio/ graffia la pietra/ la voce delle cicale

Separazione/ le spighe dell’orzo/ tormentate tra le dita

Senza morire/ dopo molte notti di viaggio/ in un tramonto d’autunno

YOSA BUSON (1716-1783)

Brezza primaverile/ lungo il cammino sull’argine/ e la casa è lontana

Una capanna/ dove si vende il te/ e vicino un salice fattosi vecchio

KABAYASHI ISSA ( 1763-1827 )

Pioggerella primaverile-/ lecca, un topolino/ il fiume Sumida.

Più numerose le primavere/ più lunghi i dì/recano lacrime e lamenti.

Si sveglia/ e sbadiglia il gatto;/poi l’amore.

Luna e fiori/quarantanove anni / camminati invano.

Giovinezza:/ rende bello persino/ i morsi della pulce.

la vita è breve/ e il desiderio/ senza fine

In questo mondo/ dall’alba già tribola/pur la farfalla

Nel nostro mondo/anche le farfalle sono/ stanche di vivere

Il mio paese/benchè sia piccolo,/ i boschi sono miei

MASAOKA SHIKI (1867-1902 )

Nella sera di primavera/quale lettura per l’uomo/ senza compagna?

Tra la barca e la riva/ a separarci si alza/ un salice

Ombre d’alberi-/ e la mia ombra che si muove /nella luna invernale

Terre di nubi./ Verso sud volano/ vele bianche

Di me scrivete/ che ho amato i versi/ e i kaki

Sull’argine tra le risaie/vola bassa la cavalletta/ nel sole che muore.

Per quanto belle siano le traduzioni, penso che mai come in questo caso TRADURRE SIA …TRADIRE

E per concludere una definizione di HAIKU:

MATSUO BASHO: ” bisogna dar parola alla luce nella quale si intravvede qualcosa prima che scompaia la luce”

Potrei proporre, invece che finte..poesie dorsali ( mia vecchia polemica!) di cimentarci in nostri haiku..tra l’altro anche in Italia esistono concorsi di questo genere di poesia

Che ne pensate?

Cet après-midi rue de Babylone, fine petite pluie de printemps… Dans la vitrine du fleuriste, une assiette avec des poissons rouges peints. Tellement bien peints que je crois bien les avoir vus bouger. Et j’ai pensé à ce haïku de Masaoka Shiki:

L’averse d’été
tambourine
sur la tête des carpes !

Autre giboulée de mars