Monthly Poem and Pictograph in Earth Language (November, 2000)
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This is an EL experimental page with English and Japanese.

I found that many Western people think making a poem is a special kind of difficult thing. But in Japan, traditionally general people in any fields enjoy it sketching a view or a feeling in their daily life. I think it's a good custom to spread worldwide by helping to build each individual's peace even if in a moment. Please enjoy creating or finding a poem and share your pleasure with us.

  I just came back from WA state. When I went through the Oregon desert, an image came up to me by the landscape. And as soon as I got back home, accidentally I found this haiku which expressed just like my image in the desert. So the haiku was chosen for this month, although I don't know the real season when and where the author had this image. I like the feeling of the space where the silent relation between the heaven and the earth is going on. Actually the sand grains are not moving but look like moving because of the quiet movement of each shadow by the moonlight.

The author of this haiku: Charles Rossiter
From the web page in Brooks Books:
( Charles Rossiter of Oak Park, IL, recipient of a 1997 NEA Fellowship poetry, has been writing haiku since the 1970's. Also this haiku was previously published by Dragonfly, High/Coo Quarterly, Mayfly, and Modern Haiku.)
今月は、Charles Rossiterさんの俳句を取り上げてみました。ちょうどオレゴン内陸の砂漠地帯でこんな光景を味わってきたばかりなので、帰宅後偶然見つけてひかれました。彼がイメージした季節とは違うかもしれませんが,天地の間に黙って響き合う空間がいいなぁと感じました。砂が実際に動くわけではありませんが、一粒ずつの影が月の動きとともに音もなく動いて。それにしても、5・7・5に減量する翻訳は私にはむつかしい…
{33,49}: the moon
{35(eternally),24(hard),37(nature)}: rock(s)
{{35,24,37},16(granular)}: sand


Original:
silent moon-filled night,
a thousand sand grains move
to make this footprint

Japanese translation:
月しずか 千の砂をうごかして

EL translation:

 
{05(denied),{36,42}(sound)}: silent(静か)
{33,49}: occasionally a circle/a half circle thing: the moon(月)
{gc,ge}( an e-verb as a modifier of the front word ) {33(full circle),47(container)}(filled) 31: filled (something)(~を満たしている~)
31 {,44(the sun is),18(under (the ground)),36(time)}: night (as the thing which actually becomes the e-verb situation ) (「夜」を)
02 {69(zero),n3}: 1000 (see the numeral section for why)
{{35,24,37}(rock),16(granular)}: sand(顆粒状の岩:砂)
gd 41: move (vi. 動く)
{gc,gd}( d-verb as a modifier of the front word) {13(same),21(heading to)}: following(~にしたがって)
{gc,21}(preposition, 'to') {33,49}(moon) : to the moon(月に)
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Similar concepts:
{continuous thing}: soil, earth( not as the planet, as the material on the ground of this planet; a fundamental C-c )
(as the round shapes): pebble(s) or thing(s) like pebble(s)
{continuously hard natural thing}: rock(s)
(as granular rocks): sand / sand grains
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