Teacup CafÃ© XXXVII

katya · 04-01-2009, 09:38 PM

I spent a good chunk of the hour looking up the original Japanese. I think I found it. Here's both:

The falling flower
I saw drift back to the branch
Was a butterfly

Rakka eda ni kaeru to mireba kochou kana

It comes from a Buddhist proverb, "A fallen flower never returns to the branch", so it would sound something like, "When I thought the fallen flower would return to the branch, oh! it was a butterfly".

Of course, the teacher doesn't know Japanese so it wouldn't have helped her. Anyway, I mean, studying translated poetry is fine, not ideal, but it's ok...as long as you remember that it's a translation. I think the class needs to practice trying to decide what the author really intended. To remember that authors are human and try to imagine the writing process.

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04-01-2009, 09:38 PM	#11
katya Elven Maiden Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 3,309	I spent a good chunk of the hour looking up the original Japanese. I think I found it. Here's both: The falling flower I saw drift back to the branch Was a butterfly Rakka eda ni kaeru to mireba kochou kana It comes from a Buddhist proverb, "A fallen flower never returns to the branch", so it would sound something like, "When I thought the fallen flower would return to the branch, oh! it was a butterfly". Of course, the teacher doesn't know Japanese so it wouldn't have helped her. Anyway, I mean, studying translated poetry is fine, not ideal, but it's ok...as long as you remember that it's a translation. I think the class needs to practice trying to decide what the author really intended. To remember that authors are human and try to imagine the writing process.