Random Number Lit

“Japanese poetry has the human heart as seed and myriads of words as leaves. It comes into being when men use the seen and the heard to give voice to feelings aroused by the innumerable events in their lives” (Tsurayuki 3).   I don’t usually include long quotes in this newsletter but I really love this quote and think about it often as I reflect on reading this text. It is not often the case that when I pull a work a name off the Small Works list that someone I know has intimate knowledge of their work. I know someone through a friend who grew up in Japan, and interacted with Ki No Tsurayuki in their education in high school. I have still connect at a deeper level about this work but they pointed me in the right direction with this author, and I set out to read some of the Kokin Wakashu which Tsurayuki was responsible for compiling. In addition to beginning the work of compiling all of the requisite Japanese poetry at the time, in the ‘waka’ style of poetry, Tsurayuki also wrote the p

Henri Michaux represents a particular type of problem that is woven into the fabric of this project. What is essentially at stake here in a project like this is that I will have a passing understanding of a lot of things and try as hard as I can to bring within myself the ability to know very little about a lot of things. This works for Abelard's letters which are as they state themselves to be. This works for the Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong which is a straight forward retelling of the history of her country from a very speciifc experience. This approach does not work for Faulkner or what we have in front us now, Henri Michaux.  First the problem was what to read. As I may state often in this project, the effort itself took and continues to take a great deal of forethought to make sure what I am doing is even remotely worthwhile. So far I think that it is, but that isn't to say that there are no wrinkles in the rug so to speak. When I put together the big book list, I realized tha