crazy haiku

[tsukikage]

I managed to find the Fafner character singles online, but I have to say Soushi's voice sounds uncharacteristically deep. Maybe I just don't remember what he sounds like accurately, since the last time I watched it it was dubbed? I'll prep the files for incorporation in to my iTunes library sometime this week.
I'm trying to help aikachi find some haiku to paint on her wall (we were thinking something fall-themed, since she wants it in green and gold), but the problem is I can't understand . ^^; Crazy-ass literary grammar. Actually, even the not-so-literary grammar gave me trouble.
me: laughs
you're welcome
so, i kind of like the middle one in the fourth box
1:26 AM actually, i kind of like all but the second one in that box
aikachi02: what does it mean?
me: or excuse me, the fourth one in that box
yeah, that's the thing
all i really know is some of the things they mention
the grammar is hard for me
1:27 AM aikachi02: okay, what is it talking about basically
life? trees? clouds?
1:28 AM me: so, the first is something about "people read (crazy grammar) their various books, something about moonlight night, ka na"
1:29 AM the second i think means "rather than the stone from a stony mountain, a white autumn wind"
1:30 AM the third is something about night school and progressing and the teacher's voice and "remaining small"
aikachi02: hehe
1:31 AM I think I need to pass out now @.@
me: the fourth is "imo's (a type of potato) dew , shadow of he mountain range, something about correctness

Comments

[akaneko.livejournal.com]

石山の石より白し秋の風

This one is much more straightforward, actually: "Whiter than the stony mountain's stone: the autumn wind."

Also, there's nothing particularly archaic about the grammar of the one about people reading stuff, just the orthography. The verb is just "yonde iru".

[akaneko.livejournal.com]

(Besides the obligatory haiku "kana", of course.)

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

What about the 白し bit?

[akaneko.livejournal.com]

The "shi" ending of "shiroshi" in that one is just an older sentence-final conjugation for adjectives. Just think of it as "shiroi", with the understanding that it is NOT a dependent clause directly modifying the last noun phrase. (Modern standard Japanese would have a grammatical ambiguity there, but the classical conjugation doesn't .)

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I totally can't read. I thought you left out the "white" entirely in your translation.

[akaneko.livejournal.com]

I don't really get that particular website's author's taste; the Basho one is the only one of the bunch I particularly like. But maybe I'm just old-fashioned.

[akaneko.livejournal.com]

*reads some of the other sections*

There's some pretty cute ones for some of the other seasons, though...

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

Well, I also haven't read much haiku at all, so my taste isn't exactly refined.

[akaneko.livejournal.com]

I'm reasonably familiar with the more famous poets from the genesis of the haiku form up through the Meiji era, but I don't really know what to look for aesthetically in more modern ones if they don't go after the same stuff as some of the older poets I'm more familiar with.