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Saturday, July 16, 2005

Oh~ Cold and Fear !

merely the sight


David English
merely the sight
of wolf shit...
how cold it is!

-Issa, 1819
57 years old. wrote [ oraga haru-- my spring ]. On June first daughter died.

sakuo Japanese
狼の 糞見ただけで 寒くなる
oukami no kuso mita dake de samuku naru

Issa Original
狼は糞ばかりでも寒さかな
ôkami wa kuso bakari demo samu[sa] kana

David Comment
Shinji Ogawa paraphrases, "[when it comes to] wolves/ the mere sighting of shit/ chills me to death."
Seeing wolf dung, Issa suddenly feels down to his bones the winter cold--a marvelous expression of physical and psychological feeling.

sakuo remark
It is really cold; He is the father of naturalistic literature.

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