Minamoto no Yoritomo releasing Cranes

THE PELICAN CHORUS

King and Queen of the Pelicans we;
No other Birds so grand we see!
None but we have feet like fins!
With lovely leathery throats and chins!
Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!
We think no Birds so happy as we!
Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!
We think so then, and we thought so still!

We live on the Nile. The Nile we love.
By night we sleep on the cliffs above;
By day we fish, and at eve we stand
On long bare islands of yellow sand.
And when the sun sinks slowly down
And the great rock walls grow dark and brown,
When the purple river rolls fast and dim
And the Ivory Ibis starlike skim,
Wing to wing we dance around,—
Stamping our feet with a flumpy sound,—
Opening our mouths as Pelicans ought,
And this is the song we nightly snort;—
Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!
We think no Birds so happy as we!
Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!
We think so then, and we thought so still!

Last year came out our Daughter, Dell;
And all the Birds received her well.
To do her honour, a feast we made
For every bird that can swim or wade.
Herons and Gulls, and Cormorants black,
Cranes, and Flamingos with scarlet back,
Plovers and Storks, and Geese in clouds,
Swans and Dilberry Ducks in crowds.
Thousands of Birds in wondrous flight!
They ate and drank and danced all night,
And echoing back from the rocks you heard
Multitude-echoes from Bird and Bird,—
Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!
We think no Birds so happy as we!
Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!
We think so then, and we thought so still!

Yes, they came; and among the rest,
The King of the Cranes all grandly dressed.
Such a lovely tail! Its feathers float
Between the ends of his blue dress-coat;
With pea-green trowsers all so neat,
And a delicate frill to hide his feet,—
(For though no one speaks of it, every one knows,
He has got no webs between his toes!)

As soon as he saw our Daughter Dell,
In violent love that Crane King fell,—
On seeing her waddling form so fair,
With a wreath of shrimps in her short white hair.
And before the end of the next long day,
Our Dell had given her heart away;
For the King of the Cranes had won that heart,
With a Crocodile's egg and a large fish-tart.
She vowed to marry the King of the Cranes,
Leaving the Nile for stranger plains;
And away they flew in a gathering crowd
Of endless birds in a lengthening cloud.
Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!
We think no Birds so happy as we!
Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!
We think so then, and we thought so still!

And far away in the twilight sky,
We heard them singing a lessening cry,—
Farther and farther till out of sight,
And we stood alone in the silent night!
Often since, in the nights of June,
We sit on the sand and watch the moon;—
She has gone to the great Gromboolian plain,
And we probably never shall meet again!
Oft, in the long still nights of June,
We sit on the rocks and watch the moon;—
—She dwells by the streams of the Chankly Bore,
And we probably never shall see her more.
Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!
We think no Birds so happy as we!
Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!
We think so then, and we thought so still!

Edward Lear

Lear, Edward. "Pelican Chorus, The." The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry.

these last two images are called 'parodies.' likely meant by this is either the reworking of commonly known themes, or the capture of a reenactment. in 1927, barbara hall wrote that the first shogun, yoritomo, as a form of his own amusement, and as a way to earn buddhist merit points, 'freed the cranes.'

"for this event the people brought cranes from all directions as longevity offerings to express their felicitations. but before the shogun liberated them, date-bearing metal tags were attached to their feet to act as an aid in determining their age should they be recaptured. it is claimed that some of these birds were found several centuries after yoritomo's death, proving them to be capable of attaining great length of life."

In some depictions of this scene, "yoritomo is shown under a great umbrella, held by a female attendant. the substitution of women figures for those of men was white common to most of the ukiyo-e designers in order to please the courtesans who were the principal buyers of the coloured prints."

animal motifs in asian art

problems with blogger

here's the designer label for the sisters floge clothing, or at least the shop. for those who didn't read this post, emilie floge was muse to gustav klimt (and not his lover) for many years. i just got bunches of books on the subject out of the library this afternoon, so i'll report on them later.

for some reason images from the last two days are not opening properly to show at a larger size. blogger is aware of this, and is working on it. i hope they figure it out fast! (this label actually is small, but when they fix this, i'll post my real post.)

(UPDATE: i learned a manual fix from the blogger help group, so i'll go back and fix the last two days.)

the chronicling poet

thanks to the work of a handful of poets, trans- lators, and publishers, we have become aware of a number of poets and novelists, women in early japan. now, though, the voices of the diarists are coming through as well.

in Bettina Gramlich-Oka's fas- cinating essay, Tokugawa Women and Spacing the Self , we are introduced to the lives and work of three such women, Rai Shizuko (or Baishi) (1760-1842), Tadano Makuzu(1763-1825), and Iseki Takako (1785-1844). in excerp- ting (dramatically) the essay, i will let each woman speak for herself.

shizuku:












Omou koto ........................ Without a thought,
nakute mimashiya ........................... for a while, I only
to bakari ni ....................................... observe,
nochi no koyohi zo .................... but later this evening
tsuki ni nakinuru ................... I will shed tears under
the moon. (1800/9/13)

o no naka ni ................... Whatever in the world
michi yori soto wa .................................. lies outside
nanigoto mo ................................ the Way,
supporapon no........................................ throw
pon ni shite oke ........................................ away!

makuzu:

My father Heisuke had five daughters. He wished to marry one of them to a retainer [of the Date house], but none of my sisters said she would go. While they feigned ignorance of our father’s hope, one by one their life courses were decided. I realized that if I did not act, my father’s wish would go unfulfilled, so I set aside my own desires and moved to this place.

Having made up my mind, I resolved to return to my father the body he had given me and, resigning myself to my life being over at the age of thirty-five, set out on a journey of no return. There was little to it, I thought, since it was better than the road to death. Whatever hardships I encountered after arriving here, I endured, thinking them better than the tortures of hell. But ever since [my brother] Motosuke left this world, my mind has not been at ease. I wrote this book [Hitori kangae] thinking that unless I pursued my father’s goals, he would have developed his ideas in vain.

As for half-baked scholars, their thinking is full of errors; the more they gather together, the more they argue without producing wisdom. This is the general situation among scholars. In what way do they differ from frogs?

Since I am a woman lacking in knowledge, I have stated whatever I wanted to without a second thought. Please correct my writings according to your judgment.

I have written this entire text without any sense of modesty or concern about being unduly outspoken…With this in mind, I feel neither pain nor irritation at being criticized by others.

takako:

What I am now writing, with my inadequate intelligence and clumsy brush, is not intended to be broadcasted to the world. I am writing this in order to let the young people of my family and their children in future generations know a little of how our family lives today and what our world is like. No doubt these scraps of paper will become the haunt of bookworms or be dragged off by mice for their nests, but even if that happens, it will make a wonderful diversion. (1840/2/12)

book as haiku

KIMONOS

Sophie Milenovich
9.5 x 7, 236 pp.
fully illustrated in color
Harry N. Abrams Books

(sold with different covers)


like a haiku, this book is deceptively simple, revealing layer upon layer of insight and poetry with every page. in addition to patterns for making one's own kimono (teaching about it's history at the same time), it gives you follow-ups like, for example, images and patterns for vionnet's beautiful, kimono-inspired gowns.

the very simplicity of the kimono, with its straight sleeves and stiff bearing emphasized by the very flat band of the obi, gives the impression that it is never quite three-dimensional. it exists, on the contrary, in a zone that is

seemingly halfway between surface and volume, that is two-and-a-half dimensional. this impression of a garment with a hint of flatness is rendered in many a japanese print.

the book is filled with kimono, kimono fabric, and antique photos from milenovich's personal collection; you'll covet every one. most of the images you see here in this review are similar but not identical to those in the book. the book's are better.

during the heian period (794-1185), the women of the japanese court wore multiple kimonos, one on top of the other. this fashion was known as juni-hitoe, meaning 'twelve- thick- nesses,' but the number of kimonos could go as high as twenty-five, making movement virtually impossible. the use of colors was rigidly codified, some being the privilege of an exclusive imperial circle.

within this framework, the association of colors became an extremely sophisticated art that despite the tight constraints subtly reflected seasons, virtues, or sentiments, in addition to a taste or talent for demonstrating one's personal sensitivity.

this art was known as iromi no ka- sani. all the liter- ature of the time, and especially the poetry of sei shonagon, reflects a careful attention to chromatic blends and their significance. this sensibility to colors, which remains very much alive today, is the legacy of a very rich period in japan's history.

though the greatest per- centage of the book's focus is clearly kimono in japan, including instructions on how to tie an obi, a generous nod is given to japonisme, finding examples of some that are new to me. from these, the obvious becomes even more clear: western women wear their kimono in very different ways than japanese women do.

in all, a
rich and
delight-
ful gift,
one that
comes
with its
own
instruc-
tions for
wrap-
ping.

twilight time

the three suns

Heavenly shades of night are falling
It's twilight time
Out of the mist your voice is calling
It's twilight time
When purple colored curtains
Mark the end of the day
I hear you my dear at twilight time

Deepening shadows gather splendor
As day is done
Fingers of night will soon surrender
The setting sun
I count the moments darling
Till you're here with me
Together at last at twilight time

Here in the after-glow of day
We keep our rendez-vous beneath the blue
Here in the sweet and same old way
I fall in love again as I did then

Deep in the dark your kiss will thrill me
Like days of old
Lighting the spark of love that fills me
With dreams untold
Each day I pray for evening just
To be with you
Together at last at twilight time

Together at last at twilight time

The words and music of "Twilight Time" were originally written in 1944 by Buck Ram, Marty Nevens, Al Nevens and Artie Dunn. It has been recorded by numerous acts over the years. However, the best known version of the song was recorded by The Platters and became a hit for them in 1958 and became a #1 hit for them in the United States.

willow weep for me

cab calloway and his orchestra

Willow weep for me
Willow weep for me
Bend your branches green along
the stream that runs to sea
Listen to my plea
Hear me willow and weep for me


Gone my lovers dream
Lovely sum- mer dream
Gone and left me here to
weep my tears into the stream
Sad as I can be
Hear me willow and weep for me

Whisper to the wind and say that love has sinned
Left my heart a-breaking, and making a moan
Murmur to the night to hide its starry light
So none will see me sighing and crying all alone

Weeping willow tree
Weep in sympathy
Bend your branches down
along the ground and cover me
When the shadows fall,
hear me willow and weep for me

Oh, Weeping willow tree
Weep in sympathy
Bend your branches down
along the ground and cover me
When the shadows fall,
hear me willow and weep for me


Ann Ronell was an American composer and lyricist best known for the jazz standard "Willow Weep for Me" (1932). Ronell was, along with Dorothy Fields, Dana Suesse, and Kay Swift, one of the first successful Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley female composers or librettists. She cowrote Disney's first hit song, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" (1933) with Frank Churchill for the film of the same name. She was nominated for Best Song, "Linda." Ronell was romantically involved with George Gershwin at the time she wrote her most famous song, "Willow Weep for Me," and she dedicated it to him.