Friday, March 12, 2004
konna ume o mita.
Hello again friends! I want to talk about of a couple things that I am doing to kill time between working twice a day and going to school! (it’s amazing I have any free time at all!)
I have been (slowly) translating chapters from Natsume Soseki’s “Ten Nights of Dreams.” This is a collection of Japanese short stories, and a masterpiece. The first chapter is the one that I am on, and it is about a man who loves a woman who is dying, Her last request is for him to bury her, and wait 100 years for her to “come back” for him. It is a fantastic love story. It even has made me have some strange dreams about falling in love, and about forsaking the world for the heart of a mystery dream woman. It has really effected me.
I started translating it because doing so really helps me to learn kanji (my dictionary is always near-by). I chose this book (and Rashomon/In a Grove) because of their ties to Kurosawa's movies. In the edition I have, there are English translations as well, so I can read the story to compare how good I translated.
The love story really touched me, and it made me again address my own life. In the last few years, my heart has become very tender. I think it has to do it being shattered, and the long processes of healing that I went through. I went through hard-hearted times, and a lot of bitterness and anger. All of those things still exist as ghosts within me, but for the most part I am at peace in my life.
I find myself falling in love easily, but not only in the romantic sense, but also in sentimental ways. I’m embarrassed to admit that I cry at the end of movies almost without fail, sometimes before the end. I recently bought a box set of Hayao Miyazaki’s movies. I can hardly watch Grave of the Fireflies, or Spirited Away without it effecting me. The same goes for the movies The Royal Tennenbaums, Rocky, and The Grapes of Wrath.
The few friends that I have I cherish dearly, and I spend a lot of time thinking about them. The heart is a weird thing. Woody Allen once said, “The heart wants what the heart wants.” I sort of understand what he means now. At times, its like I become very attached to things for no real reason at all. What can I say?
When I am not struggling with kanji and old-style Japanese grammar, I am killing my brain cells with manga and video games. My favorite manga right now are Rurouni Kenshin (which is about Japan’s Meiji era, and a samurai who becomes a pacifist, and wants to only fight to increase good in the world) and .Hack// (about an online role playing game that 20 million people play, but somehow it effects reality in mysterious ways). The games I am playing are also .hack// (there are anime too… it is a pretty immersive experience to be a fan of ‘dot hack sign’), and Final Fantasy. There is a word that gets used from time to time about people like me… otaku. It has to do with someone who will never grow up, and is so into manga comics, anime, and video games that it hinders them in real life. I may not be too much of an otaku, but I definitely don’t seem to be outgrowing these things anytime soon.
Have a great weekend and remember, I love you all! :)
I have been (slowly) translating chapters from Natsume Soseki’s “Ten Nights of Dreams.” This is a collection of Japanese short stories, and a masterpiece. The first chapter is the one that I am on, and it is about a man who loves a woman who is dying, Her last request is for him to bury her, and wait 100 years for her to “come back” for him. It is a fantastic love story. It even has made me have some strange dreams about falling in love, and about forsaking the world for the heart of a mystery dream woman. It has really effected me.
I started translating it because doing so really helps me to learn kanji (my dictionary is always near-by). I chose this book (and Rashomon/In a Grove) because of their ties to Kurosawa's movies. In the edition I have, there are English translations as well, so I can read the story to compare how good I translated.
The love story really touched me, and it made me again address my own life. In the last few years, my heart has become very tender. I think it has to do it being shattered, and the long processes of healing that I went through. I went through hard-hearted times, and a lot of bitterness and anger. All of those things still exist as ghosts within me, but for the most part I am at peace in my life.
I find myself falling in love easily, but not only in the romantic sense, but also in sentimental ways. I’m embarrassed to admit that I cry at the end of movies almost without fail, sometimes before the end. I recently bought a box set of Hayao Miyazaki’s movies. I can hardly watch Grave of the Fireflies, or Spirited Away without it effecting me. The same goes for the movies The Royal Tennenbaums, Rocky, and The Grapes of Wrath.
The few friends that I have I cherish dearly, and I spend a lot of time thinking about them. The heart is a weird thing. Woody Allen once said, “The heart wants what the heart wants.” I sort of understand what he means now. At times, its like I become very attached to things for no real reason at all. What can I say?
When I am not struggling with kanji and old-style Japanese grammar, I am killing my brain cells with manga and video games. My favorite manga right now are Rurouni Kenshin (which is about Japan’s Meiji era, and a samurai who becomes a pacifist, and wants to only fight to increase good in the world) and .Hack// (about an online role playing game that 20 million people play, but somehow it effects reality in mysterious ways). The games I am playing are also .hack// (there are anime too… it is a pretty immersive experience to be a fan of ‘dot hack sign’), and Final Fantasy. There is a word that gets used from time to time about people like me… otaku. It has to do with someone who will never grow up, and is so into manga comics, anime, and video games that it hinders them in real life. I may not be too much of an otaku, but I definitely don’t seem to be outgrowing these things anytime soon.
Have a great weekend and remember, I love you all! :)
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