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Go Back   AikiWeb Aikido Forums > AikiWeb AikiBlogs > moon in the water

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moon in the water Blog Tools Rating: Rate This Blog
Creation Date: 04-26-2010 10:46 PM
niall
Offline
rss2
the water does not try
to reflect the moon
and the moon has no desire
to be reflected
but when the clouds clear
there is the moon in the water
Blog Info
Status: Public
Entries: 155
Comments: 1,111
Views: 1,865,354

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In Miscellaneous Ever green Entry Tools Rating: 5 Stars!
  #35 New 12-24-2010 02:00 AM
Ever green The pine tree lives for a thousand years
The morning-glory for but a single day
Yet both have fulfilled their destiny

quoted in D T Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture


Change your Christmas trees into Kadomatsu!
When I heard my doorbell and opened my door
There stood Santa
With a pistol in his hand

Kurisumasu Tsurii O Kiritaose!


Kadomatsu means gate pine. In Japan kadomatsu arrangements of pine and bamboo and plum are placed in front of doors for the new year. Pine means long life and good luck, bamboo means prosperity and plum means strength or courage. There are different layers of meaning too. Pine can also mean youth or happiness. Bamboo can mean resilience. Or honesty - when bamboo is cut it is hollow and hides nothing. The plum in Asian culture symbolizes winter but also that the spring will come. There was a discussion about some of the meanings after they appeared in one of the poems of O Sensei, the founder of aikido: http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19040.

The kadomatsu in the snow is almost like a Christmas tree. The evergreen pine tree is a universal symbol of renewal. It's a good thing to remember. To be ever green. Always fresh. Always young.

I wish you happiness for the season and for the year ahead. And may you stay forever young.

Great version of Bob Dylan's song Forever Young by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-eyS6FFF_M

Kadomatsu on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadomatsu


cool winter photo: Kadomatsu in Snow by Timothy Takemoto http://www.flickr.com/photos/nihonbunka/4229777880/ photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/nihonbu...th/4229777880/ used under creative commons licence and with his very kind permission

© niall matthews 2010
Views: 6141 | Comments: 24


RSS Feed 24 Responses to "Ever green"
#24 01-17-2011 02:01 AM
niall Says:
Carina as you are trilingual you can maybe relate to doing things not in your own language.
#23 01-16-2011 08:54 AM
guest1234567 Says:
Thanks for your deep thought
#22 01-16-2011 07:47 AM
niall Says:
Yes, you are right. I wonder why he didn't write it in Spanish. It shows he was familiar and comfortable with English. And of course his great poetic vision. Rhythms are different in English and Spanish. And in another language you can gain a distance and perhaps an objectivity you don't have in your own language.
#21 01-16-2011 07:14 AM
guest1234567 Says:
Niall I didn't translate it in spanish, because he did it in english, if he would have liked it in his own language he would have done so, I think it is not my thing to translate it in spanish, one must respect that
#20 01-16-2011 07:08 AM
niall Says:
That's very cool, Carina. It's beautiful and impressive in any language.
#19 01-16-2011 05:09 AM
guest1234567 Says:
#18 01-16-2011 04:57 AM
niall Says:
I'm glad you liked it.
#17 01-11-2011 07:18 AM
guest1234567 Says:
Niall thank for sharing it, it was the first time I read Neruda in english, it is so beautiful. Niall in the spanish oda in my blog you can almost see the history of that beautiful place of the world, how mapuches collect the fruits of the pine and make flour and how conquerors gallop to get them..He paints with his words
#16 01-11-2011 07:09 AM
niall Says:
I like this poem a lot. You can feel the texture of the trunk and the translucent stone. And the agate cornelian gemstone reflects the redness of the berries.
#15 01-11-2011 06:40 AM
guest1234567 Says:
The tree is here, still, in pure stone, in deep evidence, in solid beauty, layered, through a hundred million years. Agate, cornelian, gemstone transmuted the timber and sap until damp corruptions fissured the giant's trunk fusing a parallel being: the living leaves unmade themselves and when the pillar was overthrown fire in the forest, blaze of the dust-cloud, celestial ashes mantled it round, until time, and the lava, created this gift, of translucent stone. P Neruda
#14 12-30-2010 06:58 PM
niall Says:
Thanks, Diana! I'll be looking forward to reading your blog.
#13 12-30-2010 04:19 PM
Diana Frese Says:
Great words and photo. I just got a blog and intended to add thoughts about nature, then I read your entry and the comments . I'm inspired, you have an additional fan. I'll look for your past entries and the future ones too.
#12 12-28-2010 03:47 AM
niall Says:
Thanks Carina! I'm sure you would do a great job.
#11 12-27-2010 07:39 AM
guest1234567 Says:
If you do I would like to translate it NIall
#10 12-27-2010 05:45 AM
niall Says:
Thanks Billy. Maybe I'll publish a book one of these days! Happy New Year to you and your family.
 




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