A Short Poem and the Pictograph in Earth Language (EL) - April '04 -

"Yellow Buterfly" by Reiko Nakagawa   短歌中川禮子作「もんきてふ」


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This is an EL (Earth Language) experimental page to enjoy

the image of a haiku/short poem originally in English/Japanese.

When you can't see the Japanese parts, please don't mind and just skip those parts.
地球語の文字や文字絵を用いて詩的表現や翻訳を試みる実験のページです。

Thank you very much, Ms. Akiko Sueyoshi in Tokyo. She has sent a donation for developing the  EL typing tool (it's coming very soon); also presented a Tanka book "A Spring of Thyme"(Publisher: Yume-kobo 2003) by Reiko Nakagawa , for this corner.  This book has a nice English translation by William  I. Elliott. I'm happy to share one of these Tanka with you.

Japanese usually doesn't make a clear distinction between single and plural as well as EL. Although the English verse took "a butterfly," I chose several butterflies in the pictograph, because the kind of butterfly wasn't alone in my old memory in Japan. I tried to imagine that "my" heart beating when waiting for "your letter" in the mid-spring with a full bloom tree. I hope girls still have this kind of excitement, even in the email era.

東京の末吉暁子さん が、地球語エディタ開発へのご寄付と、このコーナーのために 中川禮子さんの短歌集『麝香草』 (夢工房 2003)をお贈りくださいました。暁子さん、どうもありがとうございます!
William I. Elliott 氏による英訳つきのこの本から、今月は、中川さんの春爛漫の短歌をシェアさせていただきます。

もんきてふ、英訳では1頭になってるので、ちょっと迷いましたが、私の日本でのふるい記憶にしたがって、近づいたり離れたりしながら群れているもんきてふをイメージしました。満開の花の木に舞う蝶を見ながら「君が文」を待つときめきを、こんなふうに地球語にしてみましたが、いかがでしょうか。ピクトグラフの蝶、凧みたい?ケイタイ時代の少女たちも、こんなときめきを感じていますか?

Tanka by Reiko Nakagawa; Translated by  William I. Elliott:
A yellow butterfly
flutters
under the tree.
The postman
picks out your letter.


Japanese Original:
ひらりひらりもんきてふ来る木の下に郵便やさん君が文選る
  yellow butterfly   
EL Translation:
 
   

Symbols in this pictograph:
: butterfly 蝶
:  tree 木
: you/your あなた  (の)


{ color,out}(the color looked like coming out):  yellow 黄色
{ the main parts of insect, sheet}(as a picture-like-character): butterfly 蝶
: d-verb symbol to form a verb  動詞符
{ sky, }(the shape of wings in the sky;  a fundamental character): wing(s) 翼
: move 動き
(move and move with the wings of the subject of the sentence): flatter (vi.)  (Plural symbols for a movement shows repeating the movement) I expressed this way using only fundamental symbols to show the feeling of the original expression, "Hirari-Hirari" : 翼でひらひら動く (なんらかの動きを表す文字が複数並ぶときは、その動きのくり返しを意味する)ひらりひらりの感じをだそうと、あえて基礎的な文字のみで表現しました。 For  more detail of verb, please refer to the verb section.
{ preposition, down/below}: under (preposition) 〜の下に(で)
: that (in the topic) それ・その
{ , plant}:  tree 木
(as its single form): the grammatical symbol to show the following words are the subject of this sentence 後続語が主語だと示す文法記号
{ (see below), go}: mail (not email) 郵便
{ {receive and go} (carry), person}: postman/mail-carrier 運ぶ人・配達人
: e-verb symbol  to show that the subject makes something the following situation 何かを、これに次ぐ語の状態にする意味で動詞を構成
{ out from the bag in this case}: discharge/coming out from a kind of container 排出、出る状態
: the grammatical symbol to show the object that works as its e-verb shows 次の対象をE動詞が示す状態にすると示す文法記号
... : the subject take out ... (of his bag)  ... を取り出す
{{ to form a pronoun,front}}: you/your あなた (の)
{ { show, recognition} message, cover/covered}: envelope with  message/a letter  封書

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