Remembering a Poet from My Birthplace
On the 100th anniversary of his death, let us remember #Bocho #Yamamura ( #山村暮鳥 ), a poet from my birthplace.
He was a poet of solitude, touring around remote places as a missionary later in his life and wrote seemingly naive yet insightful poems. Although he was a figure much celebrated today in my hometown, the rural community in those days was not benign to him and possibly forced him to lead a vagabond life.
It is a bit similar to the ambivalent relationship between #Heinrich #Heine and his birthplace, #D üsseldorf.
Born to a peasant family, he had to fight for his education. He is a self-made man but never lost his tender heart and magical tongue to admire nature and humankind.
Every school kid in Japan must have read the following poem at one time or other – ICHIMEN NO NANOHANA いちめんのなのはな “A Field of Turnip Flowers” (菜の花).
Here you can read my free-style translation of this poem.
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Wispy Whistling Sound
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Larks’ Chirping Sound
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Endless Rapeseed Field
Sadly Pale Spring Moon
Endless Rapeseed Field
Published for the first time in 1915, copyright expired.
https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000136/files/52348_42039.html
The novelty of this poem is a visual effect of letters mimicking expansive fields of rapeseed blossoms. It works better in Japanese, of course. The original poem is uniquely written only in syllable letters (#Hiragana) producing a block-text effect.
Bocho’s words are still very much alive a century after his death.
#山村暮鳥没後100周年