Life in the Land of the Rising Sun

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Getting Tanka-ed

溶ける霜
新しい壁
まだ途中
石が足りない
囲い直そう

tokeru shimo [Melting frost]
atarashii kabe [A new wall]
mada tochuu [Still half-built]
ishi ga tarinai [There isn't enough stone]
kakoi naosou [I'll mend the fence]

(BTW, there is actually a pun in this poem. "Ishi ga tarinai" with one different kanji means "There isn't enough will (to do something).")

posted by The Moody Minstrel at 10:10 PM

16 Comments:

  • Hmmm, I gotta get my will up to cleanin' up around here....or I could read a good book.

    I'll get back to you...

    By Blogger ladybug, at 12:45 AM  

  • In awe as ever. When does your brain ever stop creating stuff, Mr Minstrel?

    By Blogger Olivia, at 11:10 AM  

  • Sounds like my "cuppa tea"

    By Blogger QUASAR9, at 7:03 AM  

  • Hehehe... what a lazy poem.

    By Blogger Selba, at 11:17 AM  

  • Hello! I've decided it is very rude of me to have conversations with you on 'Livvys blog so I've decided to add you to the list of reasons why I should be fired :D Just stopping by to say hi, no time to read your stuff right now! (which one should be reading anyway?!) - have visitors this weekend. I'll be back to talk about your persecution of those toxic u's and unnatural love of the letter z :D

    PS. I did have time to read the poem and have to say getting laugh out of me when hungover is difficult but this poem did it.

    By Blogger MattJ, at 7:31 PM  

  • Not enough will for the wall.

    Lovely, Moody.

    By Blogger San, at 4:11 AM  

  • Apologies for the garbled earlier message, there was still quite a lot of Jameson's in the blood I think ;)

    By Blogger MattJ, at 7:32 AM  

  • Hey, great to see you here Matt, you're Minstrel's second new reader from my blog, the first being Nikkipolani. This is great community stuff!

    By Blogger Olivia, at 9:54 AM  

  • ROW ROW ROW YOUR BOAT
    gently up the stream
    Up the creek
    with out a paddle
    If you know what I mean...

    Bubbles Tiny bubbles
    in my beer
    make me happy...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:34 AM  

  • I think some people got it and some didn't. Oh, well. That's the beauty of Japanese poetry: it's truly in the (mind's) eye of the beholder.

    [Imagine a quasit!]

    By Blogger The Moody Minstrel, at 11:04 PM  

  • I'm with Dave (the working man's Don Ho).

    By Blogger Pandabonium, at 6:23 PM  

  • Ooh I think Nikkipolani came over to me and posted a comment but I scared them away once they realised that it has no actual content lol!

    By Blogger MattJ, at 3:23 AM  

  • Nikki is a gentle soul - there are lots of roses and cats on her blog ;)

    By Blogger Olivia, at 9:24 AM  

  • Matt
    That's okay, Matt. Content seems to be out of fashion these days, anyway. ;-)

    Actually, I don't think Nikki gets scared away that easily. Oh, and Jamesonized blood is perfectly okay here!

    Olivia
    Yes, you do seem to be a major hub on the information highway, m'lady!

    Actually, according to my web tracker, the top ten sites in terms of referrals to mine (not counting search engines or my Blogger profile) are as follows:

    Snabulus - 9.5%
    Atomic Romance (Swinebread) - 1.7%
    Nikkipolani - 1.3%
    Pacific Islander (Pandabonium) - 1.2%
    A Life with a View (San) - 1%
    Mick's Page - 1%
    Artmeliana (Olivia) - 0.8%
    Anything Beautiful (Happysurfer) - 0.6%
    Quasar9 - 0.5%
    Lady Angele - 0.4%

    Referrals from other sites I know amounted to 0.2% or less.

    Interesting statistics, I'd say. Actually, I think the high numbers on Nikki's and San's sites are mainly due to the fact that I'm a newcomer getting scrutinized by the regulars. Last time I checked (about a month ago) Snabulus was about the same, Pandabonium's site was number two at around 2%, and Olivia's site was third at around 1.5%. Things change quickly in the cyberworld, I'd say, but Snabulus continues to be the top referring site (other than search engines). I have to wonder about that...

    By Blogger The Moody Minstrel, at 10:22 AM  

  • Beautiful. I realized that I've never linked to your website, so I'll do that for the poem. I really, really liked it.

    You don't have to like my writing in return, btw. This statement of appreciation for your writing comes free of charge and free of future obligation. Just in case that wasn't contextually obvious.

    By Blogger Kami, at 2:37 PM  

  • But I have ALWAYS appreciated your writing, Kami!

    Oh, and thank you!

    By Blogger The Moody Minstrel, at 1:05 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home