Monthly Poem and Pictograph in EL, [the pond in myhome town] 「古里の池
by Tian Yuan - November 2008 -


. . . .

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, or see here to view Japanese.
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。

I've continued this section for nearly 10 years; but had no Chinese and Korean poet yet. So I searched and saw this poem by a Chinese poet, Tian Yuan living in Japan since 1991.
This poem was made as a part of Space Poem Chain (Vol. 2-05) in the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) site.
Yes I agree with this poem. The warmness of the light I met in my early life is special coming back anytime I need it, too, even if I'm in the global era using Earth Language.

まもなく10年近くもこのコーナーを続けていて、
アジアからは日本、インド、モンゴル人しか登場してないなと探してみました。
そして宇宙航空研究開発機構(JAXA)の「宇宙連詩」のサイト2期目の05で
90 年代から在日の中国人詩人、田 原(ティアン・ユアン)さんの詩に出合いました。
去年私も連句を初体験しましたが、連詩も自由でおもしろそうですね。
グローバル時代になっても地球語を使ってても、
人生の出発点で出合った光のやさしさは、私にとっても何かにつけ照らしてくれます。
原詩も一緒に載せたかったのですが、中の1字が読み取れませんでした。元のサイトでご覧ください。

Original Chinese by Tian Yuan

The Japanese verse
by the author

銀河より海、海より川
川より古里の池の中の星光は
私に一番近いなじみのある光
どんなに離れても、
どんなに暗い日々に陥っても
その光は照らしてくれる

(提供JAXA)

The English translation by Janine Beichman (Professor, Daito Bunka University)

Closer than the Milky Way is the ocean,
than the ocean is the river
than the river is the pond in my hometown and its starlight
that light which is a part of me
No matter where I roam, how dark the days I know
that light shines for me

(Courtesy of JAXA)
The EL translation by hoo







Symbols in the pictograph
: I/my/me (私), : light (光)

Symbols in the EL translation
{place, always with wave}: the sea, ocean (海)
{preposition, {much (than)the same} more}: rather than/more than what follows next (~よりもっと・・)
{ group of suns}: the Galaxy (銀河(系)

(galaxy-river): Milky Way (天の川)
: (conjunction mark); it works like a comma or and in English by itself (接続符そして)
{place, {, } water flowing}: river (河川)
: period of a sentence (文章の終止符)
{the sun, {, }the same kind}: star (太陽の同類として:恒星)
{,} (spreading straight lines from one dot, looking like light ): light (noun), shine (vi. with gd, vt. with ge) (光、D動詞:照る、E動詞:照らす)
{preposition, inner direction}: in, inside of (~の中の/に)
: I/my/me (私),
{place, life)}: home, (家庭、故里)
{place, holding, water}: water pool, pond (池)
: the verb mark to show being in the following condition (状態を表す動詞符)
{ polar, limit}: ultimate (最も)
{less, outward}: close (近い)
{heart, going through}: friendly (親しい)
{preposition mark, tentative, stresses situation}: even if + a phrase (たとえ~でさえ)
: wonder/how (どんなに)
{much, outward}: far (遠い)
preposition mark to show the following words modify the front or the predicate of the sentence
(後続後が前または述語を修飾することを示す前置符)
:{all, whole (全),time}: always (いつも)
 : the body in the definition brackets is an inner sentence to modify the front word
(表意カッコ内は前の語を修飾する文中文)
{downward, space}: sinking, sink with (沈)
: the or that pointing something in a topic (話題のそれ、その)
{light, plural mark}: sparkle (輝き)
: shine someone after (以下を照らす)

to the top