Friends:
I didn’t expect to write this summer about our tall Gekka Bijin cactus plant, whose blossoms burst to life at midnight and die at sunrise. I’ve written extensively about it before. But the succulent exploded last night with five times more blossoms than we have ever seen, so I got out my camera and put on my writing cap. "Glory" is attached. Yoshi is especially proud of this flowery outburst. She tends the plant, watering it, feeding it and worrying if it gets the right amount of shade and sun. Respond to Yoshi if you respond at all. I’ll print out the responses and give them to her.
She’ll like it.
Jackson
夜半に咲き明け方にはしぼんでしまう月下美人の数奇な運命についての説明、昨年の数倍の花をつけたこと、奥さんの苦労をねぎらい賛美する言葉がならびます。宇佐美さんが和歌を１句いかがですか？ということなので画像の使用許可をとってください、と返事しました。和歌はすぐ頭に浮かびました。
これにたいしてジャックソンさんは世界の友人に次のようなメールを送ったそうです。
Hello Again:
Our friends in Japan were amazed by the number of blossoms that Yoshi’s Gekka Bijin cactus produced on the night of August 30. Two or three, yes. A half dozen, sometimes. But more than 40? Never. Tokyo humanities professor Shozo Usami sent my illustrated “Glory” essay to Ansei Yokota, an award-winning TV director who nowadays writes Waka poetry and puts it on his website. The following URL, if executed anywhere in the world, will call up Yoshi’s Gekka Bijin and Mr. Yokota’s poetry in Japanese and English, just as it appo Ansei Yokota, an award-winning TV director who nowadays writes Waka poetry and puts it on his website. The following URL, if executed anywhere in the world, will call up Yoshi’s Gekka Bijin and Mr. Yokota’s poetry in Japanese and English, just as it appears at the top of this email.
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Bookend-Yasunari/3058/waka_tarezoshiru.html
Waka is similar to Tanka, both using five lines in 5-7-5-7-7 syllabic format. Haiku, more famous among Westerners, uses three lines in 5-7-5 format. Waka, however, requires the poet to employ Japanese words in use before Japan’s Edo Period. That means before the 17th century. It’s analogous to writing poetry in old
ジャクソンさんは和歌と短歌の違いなど一生懸命説明しています。作品の出来は別として、和歌の伝統を持つ日本人の面目を何とか果たしたかな、という満足感を私は感じています。こんなわけで世界をめぐった月下美人騒動でした。