pine windneedles falling on the water'scool soundmatsu kaze noochiba ka mizu nooto suzushi~BashoTranslated by Jane Reichhold
Month: August 2018
Weekly Basho Haiku #34
life's journeyplowing the patch of rice fieldback and forthyo o tabi nishiro kaku oda noyuki modori~BashoTranslated by Jane Reichhold
Linguistic Jokes
Another word I've seen before, but I didn't really think of it as word (just as a meaningless Spanish-sounding name). In the wonderful Tintin books by Hergé, one of the recurring characters who appears in several stories is a General Alcazar who was constantly either overthrowing the government of his fictional Latin American country or … Continue reading Linguistic Jokes
It’s a Gene Wolfe Word!
I'm not doing a great job about getting these up each Wednesday and Friday (having missed last week), but I think it's getting better. Anyway, I don't normally do consecutive words because if I ever hope to get through the letter A, much less the OED entirely, I can't get bogged down. This needs to … Continue reading It’s a Gene Wolfe Word!
Weekly Basho Haiku #33
from a treetopemptiness dropped downin a cicada shellkozue yoriadami ochi kerisemi no kara~BashoTranslated by Jane Reichhold
Weekly Basho Haiku #32
a weird dark nighta fox crawls on the groundfor a beautiful melonyami no yo to sugokukitsune shita bautama makuwa~BashoTranslated by Jane Reichhold
An Archaic Form
Ancient poetic forms seem to have had more rigorous rules to follow. I sure wouldn't be able to write a poem worth anything following these rules.Alcaic, n. and adj.Prosody. A. n.A poem, strophe (stanza), or line written in Alcaic metre (see sense B.). Usually in plural.B. adj.Written or composed in a metre traditionally attributed to Alcaeus; relating to or characteristic … Continue reading An Archaic Form
Not Shooting the Messenger
It's kinda nice to know there's a word out there that means the opposite of blaming someone who brings bad news.albricia, n.Compare Catalan albixena (late 13th cent.), albíxera (14th cent. or earlier), etc. (often in plural; compare albricies (plural), Portuguese alvissara (13th cent.).Arabic bišāra (in Spanish Arabic usually bušāra) is ultimately < bašara to rejoice, … Continue reading Not Shooting the Messenger
Neh 