I chose to write three senryu for my katakana literary work.
The first senryu discusses the origin of the word バイキング, which in Japanese means buffet. I discovered that this katakana word derives from the fact that the first restaurant in Japan to serve a Western style buffet was the Imperial Viking, and so buffets were known as バイキング in Japan from then on. I wrote シンコドバ in katakana because it is not really a word to my knowledge, but a combination of しん, a prefix usually used to mean new, and ことば, which means word. I created this word to fit the confines of the senryu's mora-timed length, and so I wrote it in katakana to emphasize its implicit foreignness and creation by a non-Japanese person.
The second senryu deals with the subject headings that I saw in the Asahi Shimbun online edition. To describe the different sections of the paper, they use the katakana English words トラベル (Travel)、シネマ (Cinema), and カルチャー (Culture) although perfectly good words for these topics exist in Japanese. My intention through the use of katakana in this senry is to ask whether simply using these apparently cosmopolitan foreign loanwords actually makes a person more cultured or whether it is a little shallow. I am using the word カルチャー both in the sense of Culture, the topic heading, and also in the sense of whether a person is cultured or refined.
The last senryu is simply a use of onomatopeia to describe the loud and powerful wind that has been blowing outside my 13th floor window the last few days. I thought that ザーツ was a decent way of describing the way the wind whips around buildings and makes an almost snapping sound.
I think you did really learn katakana by your heart. I mean, I needed quite a time to read your senryu especially before I read your comment on the first senryu. I had no idea why you are mentioning something about Viking and the last words as well. I get it now that you even excelled in that you created a katakana word that suits purpose and adds some foreign effect to your poem.
I think what you did with シンゴトバ is really ingenious. I'm sure that to a native Japanese speaker it is even more impacting. There is so little hiragana in your work that it really does emphasize the point you're making about the effects of using katakana. I really liked this :)
I chose to write three senryu for my katakana literary work.
ReplyDeleteThe first senryu discusses the origin of the word バイキング, which in Japanese means buffet. I discovered that this katakana word derives from the fact that the first restaurant in Japan to serve a Western style buffet was the Imperial Viking, and so buffets were known as バイキング in Japan from then on. I wrote シンコドバ in katakana because it is not really a word to my knowledge, but a combination of しん, a prefix usually used to mean new, and ことば, which means word. I created this word to fit the confines of the senryu's mora-timed length, and so I wrote it in katakana to emphasize its implicit foreignness and creation by a non-Japanese person.
The second senryu deals with the subject headings that I saw in the Asahi Shimbun online edition. To describe the different sections of the paper, they use the katakana English words トラベル (Travel)、シネマ (Cinema), and カルチャー (Culture) although perfectly good words for these topics exist in Japanese. My intention through the use of katakana in this senry is to ask whether simply using these apparently cosmopolitan foreign loanwords actually makes a person more cultured or whether it is a little shallow. I am using the word カルチャー both in the sense of Culture, the topic heading, and also in the sense of whether a person is cultured or refined.
The last senryu is simply a use of onomatopeia to describe the loud and powerful wind that has been blowing outside my 13th floor window the last few days. I thought that ザーツ was a decent way of describing the way the wind whips around buildings and makes an almost snapping sound.
I think you did really learn katakana by your heart.
ReplyDeleteI mean, I needed quite a time to read your senryu especially before I read your comment on the first senryu.
I had no idea why you are mentioning something about Viking and the last words as well.
I get it now that you even excelled in that you created a katakana word that suits purpose and adds some foreign effect to your poem.
By the way, I love your last senryu,
I think what you did with シンゴトバ is really ingenious. I'm sure that to a native Japanese speaker it is even more impacting. There is so little hiragana in your work that it really does emphasize the point you're making about the effects of using katakana. I really liked this :)
ReplyDeleteおもしろいですね。Your first senryu was really interesting. especially the explanation. I did not know that that was the derivation for the word buffet.
ReplyDeleteいいせんりゅうです。I like the use of ザーツ in your last senryu. I live on jj 11 and know about that powerful wind.
ReplyDelete