I spent yesterday just with my lappy and iPod - nothing else. I read up on Arthur Rimbaud and haiku. Inspired by the recent novel I read by Ryu Murakami, called 69 because of the 1969 setting, I read through most of the available online information of Arthur Rimbaud. I hope to head down to the National Library someday this week to read up more. He is inspirational, considering that he started on poetry at a very young age. I've yet to come across any of his translated poems, but I presume I'll love them. In addition, I read briefly about his scandalous partner, the Symbolist poet Paul Verlaine, Chuya Nakahara, Matsuo Basho, Edgar Allan Poe and Hideo Kobayashi. And, somehow I was directed to haiku (oh, of course, since Basho is known to be the master of haiku). Since I've only written freestyle poetry, haiku's strict boundaries did intrigued me and I attempted to write a haiku. But, I failed. With the basic boundary of the pattern of 5-7-5 morae (I used syllables instead), using 17 syllables, having one kigo (season word), placing one kireji at the end of the first or second line (since I'm writing in English, I used punctuation instead) and having 4 or less lines, this was what I ended up with.
Glad you came back now
drawing the warm ray of hope.
past gone present faced
But, I read more about haiku and realise that the first line has to be the first object and the next the second object, and so I gave up. Maybe for now I'll stick to freestyle since I can express myself better in that platform, but that doesn't mean I've given up completely in haiku. I'm going to read up more about it after Arthur Rimbaud.
I was actually first attracted to and fascinated by Basho's Old Pond, in which a few words were used to evoke an image of nature, and here it is to illustrate how a haiku supposed to be (as translated by Fumiko Saisho):
The old pond -
a frog jumps in,
sound of water
from Poem Hunter: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-old-pond/
Ryu Murakami's novel (as mentioned in the first paragraph the title is 69) was captivating and that explains why I managed to complete the book in half a day, which I would usually take a day to complete. His dark humor and description of the post-war Japan and her people made me think twice before taking a lunch break, and even washroom break. It wasn't suspenseful but the flow of the story and wanting to know what trick the lead character will pull or what trouble he'll get into next excited me more than a thriller. Reading the book was like going for a roller-coaster ride, emotion-wise. The ending I really love because Murakami managed to tell what the characters did after their high school. My personal favourite part is when the lead met with his homeroom teacher more than 10 years later and as if life was still in the 1969, the teacher rebuked him for having long messy hair and urged him to go for haircut. It was sad that the lead did not end up with his high school sweetheart, but the novel subtly showed that she still liked him. His tongue-in-the-cheek humor, detailed description of that era and his failure to look at some situation in rose-tinted glasses was refreshing. No prizes for those who know the answer why he is called an enfant terrible. There's the adaptation of his novel on screen, which I will be watching tonight. The comments given by those who have watched were positive, so considering this and that I enjoyed that novel, I would say I'm expecting a really good 2 hours. Read this book while listening to this (from the soundtrack of Honey and Clover Anime), I believe you'll enjoy it doubly.
P.S. There was a problem in uploading the song because the hard disk I have works only in Windows. So, thanks to Youtube.
Sheesh, I'm far behind in Honey and Clover and One Pound Gospel. I should stop watching variety shows - they are just TOO addictive (especially the ones with ARASHI).
One more week,
I woke up realising.
Why did I not feel the stomach knot up like this last week?