しんとして暗い早朝夜明け待つ
しん として くらい そうちょう よあけ まつ
まだ静か暗い早朝日の出待つ
まだ しずか くらい そうちょう ひので まつ
All is quite still
dark silence pervades patiently
await coming dawn.
In the early morning it is quite dark and still. Yet, right before the sun rises, you can still sense the approach of dawn.
早朝は、暗くて静かです。それでも、太陽が昇る直前は、夜明けが近付いて来る感覚があります。
Ben （べん）
魂は死後の存在宇宙まで
たましい は しご の そんざい うちゅう まで
Our existence
Marvelous universe death
Constant expanding.
This will be another strange haiku.
I am basing it on a particulary favorite Japanese Animation, Akira.
I am going to try to express what I feel happens in the end.
A character dies and became a universe?
Or, are human beings already a universe?
又、もう一つ変な俳句を作ります。
私の特に好きな漫画について書きます。
アキラと云う漫画です。説明をしてみます。
一人のキャラクターは死にます。宇宙になりましたか？
しかし、生きている人間の魂は、もう宇宙にいるのでしょうか？
私は混乱しました。
みんなはもう宇宙にいますか？
あるいは、人間は死んだ後、宇宙になりますか？
ロドニー
I love going home for the holidays because I know I will be eating a lot of tamales. A tamale is a Mexican dish made of corn dough sometimes spicy or plain that is stuffed with beans or meat and wrapped in a corn husk. They are then steamed for hours until cooked. They seem simple enough to make but take a very long time to prepare and cook. And you have to get the dough just right or else they may taste too bland or too salty. It could also come out too watery or too stiff. I hope to one day be able to make them as great as my mom does but in the meantime I’m happy just eating them when I can.
Yesterday, I decided to go watch the Sony Open professional golf tournament. The tournament was held at a golf course by the Kahala Hotel. The golf course itself was gorgeous with greens and fairways that were immaculate. The golfers were amazing and displayed consummate skill. I was amazed at the spectacle because it is rare to see such beauty together with such a display of athletic prowess. The weather was perfect with clear, blue skies, and lots of sun. The scenery was a panorama that included Diamond Head, the ocean, and green, swaying palms. Perhaps the best thing was that it was a very intimate setting because the crowds weren’t too bad. Consequently, I even saw some famous players up close and personal like Vijay Singh.
It was recently impressed on me that my biggest problem with speaking Japanese lay in the fluctuation of my speech. Americans who learn Japanese, it would seem, typically have the bad habit of raising and lowering their voices at inappropriate times. It struck me then that Japanese people, likewise, do carry a strange sort of monotone when speaking English. This is in spite of the fact that their country is among the most mountainous on Earth. It would seem that they possess too many actual hills and valleys in their country to tolerate any of the figurative ones we attempt to create in their language. But can you really blame us for our vacillating speech, what with our endless stretches of flat land? Perhaps we should all just switch countries.
最近、私は、婚約者のジャネルと一緒に本土へ旅行しました。私の家族が、彼女と会うのは初めてでした。私の家族が好感を持ってくれたので嬉しかったです。又、「前の人」より素晴らしいと言ってくれたので嬉しかったです。先ず、フロリダ州へ行って、祖父母と会いました。いつもより寒かったですが、楽しみました。次に、両親の住んでいるウェストヴァジニア州へ行きました。ハワイに住み慣れている私達にとって、ものすごく寒かったです。しかし、家族の気持ちは、やっぱり熱かったです。色々なゲームを楽しんだり、一緒に雪の道を散歩したりしました。しかし、残念ながら、二人共風邪を引きました。本土では、大変楽しむことが出来ましたが、暖かいハワイに戻って、ほっとしました。
６年前から、心臓専門医のもとにかよっています。始めは２ヶ月毎に、それが年に４回になり、昨年からは年に３回と定期診察の回数は減ってきていますので、まあまあ満足すべき状態なのでしょう。２０１３年初めの今日の診察では、これまでになかった事がありました。それはクリニックに来院のすべての患者の顔写真がとられることです。診察室にクリニックのスタッフがやってきて、iPadで撮影するのでごく簡単にすみました。あまりに簡単なのでうっかりと理由を聞かなかったのですが、おそらく国中の患者データをコンピューターシステム化する動きに関係あるようです。国中の患者を集めるとなると、必然的に同姓同名の問題がおきますから、写真撮影はその問題解決の一助となりますが、それも遠からず無効になり、個人同定は最終的には分子レベルつまりＤＮＡ解析に依る、とはサイエンスフィクションの読み過ぎですね。
冬の蝉エンジン蒸かす隣人
ふゆ の せみ エンジン ふかす となりびと
Cicadas hum
snow drifting past porch
neighbor’s old car.
I hear what sounds like cicadas, humming outside.
But I realize its winter. Cicadas only come out in the summer.
Finally, I understand it’s my neighbor starting up their car.
There’s something wrong with their car so it makes a sound like cicadas.
外から、セミの鳴き声のような音が聞こえてきます。
しかし、今は冬です。セミは夏しか出てきません。
結局、隣の人がエンジンを蒸かしていることがわかりました。
車の調子が悪くて、セミのような音がしていたのです。
キャリー
On the windward side of Oahu, in Haiku valley, there is a set of stairs reaching to the top of a mountain. Hikers have named it the stairway to heaven. It has become a thing of rumors and boasting, of stories and adventure, largely because ascending them is illegal according to state law.
The stairway has its origins with the military. Before the advent of orbital satellites, there was a need to maintain high elevation outposts for communications and surveillance. There were many such outposts on Oahu which mostly survive intact to this day. The stairway to heaven was sturdily built, but vandalism caused one of the segments to break, the fixing of which cost the state thousands of dollars. Not finding it within its budget to make sure the stairway remained in good condition, and also in response to complaints about hiking traffic in a residential area, the state closed off the stairway indefinitely. It now lies behind chain link fence and a full-time guard.
Be that as it may, I have climbed the stairway twice. One must arrive early in the morning, before the guard, and know exactly the right route to use in sneaking over the fence. After this criminalesque beginning, one faces a seemingly never-ending trudge up a pitch black nether world. Light begins to shine halfway through the sojourn, and if one is proactive and athletic, one makes it to the top of the mountain in time to admire the brilliant colors of the dawn. If one is in the company of a cunning leader, as I was, one may also benefit from cold beer and freshly roasted meat at the top of the mountain. That memory will be with me for the rest of my life.
Although the Stairway is thrilling, it requires the right preparation and knowledge, and the same beauty can also be seen in many of Oahu’s legal hikes. Particularly, I would recommend Konahuanui on a clear day. In spite of the stairway’s name, this hike actually reaches a higher elevation. The history and lore is also deeper, but I’ll leave that for you to explore.
目は見ても 全部見てない 見ていない
め は みても ぜんぶ みてない みていない
見ていても 全部見てない 見ていない
みていても ぜんぶ みてない みていない
Even with open eyes
Brain does not see therefore
We don’t see!
When did our brain start to censure all the
things we actually see from day to day?
When did it decide that we didn’t need any of that？
So much so that we limit our day to day learning and seeing.
Open our eyes and E N J O Y more.
毎日、実際に見ているものが、いつ見えなくなりますか？
どんな時に排除していると思いますか？
そんなことがあまりにも沢山起こります。
学んだり見たりしていくことに、自分で限界を作ります。
心と目の窓を開いて、もっと楽しく生きましょう。
Perfect example:
My mother lost her glasses when she fell at Punchbowl Cemetery.
People around helped to look for it but couldn’t find it. So the next
day I went to help her find her glasses. Showing me exactly where
she had fallen and taking into account, the distance her glasses flew when she fell. We began to search through the shrubbery. All of a sudden I saw her glasses, but when I looked again, there was no glasses there. I knew I definitely saw it ( in my brain I could still picture it). I looked again and there it was sitting flat with glass down clear showing the shrubbery under it. That position made it hard to see the thin metal rims around the glasses. Here I was looking straight at it and not seeing it at all. But making my brain, instant replay, made me see something that was overlooked.
Karen
