haiku - Dr. Strangelove

                                                         — haiku for greyhouse by naoko ishikura

haiku - happy May

                                                                             —Daily haiku by naoko ishikura

Poem by Atsuhiro Sawai

Early Spring

If I make an attempt to walk with each and every thing
   thrown off
the air with the mischievous smile of a devil
attempts to present all things to me
so that my being will be bewitched by any one of them.

I throw them away
and then I begin to walk all over again.
And the world is in early spring.
Under the girdered expressway a milk-colored haze is
   hanging,
the sunlight of morning shining into it aslant.

Where a powdering of frost halfway comes off the tops
   of roofs
children of sunlight blow upon tiny horns of spring.
Heads of grey-green colored hills and
heads of building of this side stretch up billowingly.

Looking out on this scene of such joyful existence
now I will stop questioning the condition of "happiness."

Jolly Chimp

I was wrong. Well, I'm constitutionally wrong about many things, but I thought by now, I would be kicking back, relaxed and doing lots of random things for fun (what I mean by fun = doing lots of leisure reading, organizing the closet to dig out spring/summer clothes, doing the silly dance with "Sexy and I Know It" alone, cooking some rirakkuma shaped inari, etc) after I get done with my thesis defense.

Wrong...I was so wrong! I got done with my thesis defense more than a week ago, but I've been still busy calling and emailing manga publishers to clear out copyright issues. I've asked them to give me a permission to use some of their manga pages on my thesis. Luckily, the publishers I've spoken with have all been very nice and helpful, and I heard back from 4 of them already and only waiting for one more. I just need to translate their emails into English and use them as written permission. What's taking so much time and what's so ridiculously annoying is...thesis formatting. I really don't know how to skip page numbers...or how to merge some separate PDF into my main thesis PDF...or how many single spaces are 2 inches...and I'm beginning to be very impatient and starting to re-hate Word and this genius non-metric system in the U.S. Well, no, hate is a strong word, and I don't hate anything or anyone, but sadly I'm beginning to really dislike this whole process and want to just get it out of my way.

Writing the thesis was fun, and I miss writing every day, but I will not miss this formatting process. It's certainly  a big waste of my time. I can be spending time on something more useful and important, like trying out my new Uniqlo leggings and indulging a self-fashion-show or skyping with nene! Speaking of nene, when I get back home in May, I probably need an entire day dedicated just to hang out with nene, and another day would be doing absolutely nothing but just staring at the "jolly chimp" for hours...(attention please: I 'hate' monkeys.) My daydream can keep going on and on. OK. Until that day, I just need to keep working...and I know, I know I'm really nearing the end...

Song of Myself, Part 51

Part 51
("Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman —from Leaves of Grass, in the 1892 edition)

The past and present wilt—I have fill'd them, emptied them.
And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.
Listener up there! what have you to confide to me?
Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening,
(Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.)
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the door-slab.
Who has done his day's work? who will soonest be through with his supper?
Who wishes to walk with me?
Will you speak before I am gone? will you prove already too late?

あいしてる

「あいしてる」（谷川俊太郎『いちねんせい』より 1988）

あいしてるって　どういうかんじ？
ならんですわって　うっとりみつめ
あくびもくしゃみも　すてきにみえて
ぺろっとなめたく　なっちゃうかんじ

あいしてるって　どういうかんじ？
みせびらかして　やりたいけれど
だれにもさわって　ほしくなくって
どこかへしまって　おきたいかんじ

あいしてるって　どういうかんじ？
いちばんだいじな　ぷらもをあげて
つぎにだいじな　きってもあげて
おまけにまんがも　つけたいかんじ

A gem found in the basement of Von's today

The Kiss by Shuntaro Tanikawa

As eyes are closing the world goes away
only the weight of tenderness assures me infinitely...

Silence turns into a quiet night
encircling us like a promise,
it now is not an estranging thing,
rather a tender farness that surrounds us
so therefore we by chance become lonely...

We search together
in a way that is more certain than to speak or look
and we discover
when we lose ourselves—

I wonder what I wanted to assure;
tenderness which returned from a long way off.
Losing words in purified silence
you now only just breathing.

You indeed now are life itself...
but even these words are punishable
presently when tenderness fills the world
and I fall down so I may live in it.