AN APOLOGY

I am sorry

Sometimes,

I forget.

 

I forget the color

The color of love

 

Sorry,

Sometimes I see blurry

I am in a dream

I see colors

Still blurry

 

I wake up

It was a dream

And I realize

I need you, my love

To see it all Clearly.

                                  _Farzana A.

 

THE DREAM

Once I was a Diamond

The Precious & The Beautiful

I was the one that you kept close to your heart.

 

Once you cherished me.

But, I wasn’t the diamond you chased

So you left.

You left for the Brighter, the Shinier.

 

My heart aches.

I thought I was your diamond.

But, then you left me.

 

Now, I’m nothing,

Nothing but a piece of dusty stone.

 

You dreamt,

Brighter-shinier

Brighter-shinier

 

And you lost

Every piece of brightness I gave you.

 

Then It was dark

You were lost in your dream

 

Then,

You woke up

And it all made sense

But I was gone.

 

And you realized

It was just a Dream.

 

                                       Farzana A.

The author Djuna Barnes takes her time to describe women as she reveals their sexual and psychological state. Barnes says “the woman who presents herself to the spectator as a “picture” forever arranged is, for the contemplative mind, the chiefest danger.(p41)” This is pretty hard to understand since the meaning of picture is not made clear. However, she describes woman as most dangerous in this sentence in order give a sense of women going out of control. Also the arrangement of this sentence requires a lot of connection with the use of comma. It is also critical to understand what Djuna means by “racial memory” in the sentence “such a person’s every movement will reduce to an image of a forgotten experience; a mi— rage of an eternal wedding cast on the racial memory; ” In order to make sense out of this sentence I connected it to the previous line because women who are dangerous and goes out of their comfort zone are just a mirage meaning that they do not live in the reality where women are supposed to be with husband and family. Also the line ”as insupportable a joy as would be the vision of an eland coming down an aisle of trees, chapleted with orange blossoms and bridal veil, a hoof raised in the economy of fear” helped me to create a connection between women who are dangerous and women who are in a “bridal veil.” This sort of gave me the idea that society expects to see women in a veil rather than being challenging and outgoing.

-Farzana Akther

Andrew Zawacki’s translation was an insightful event which gave me an idea of how translation can sometimes change meaning of the original piece. Zawacki presents translation as a form of great art work. His experience on meeting the original French authors and getting the real taste of these poems is amazing. The most significant lesson was for me that no matter how closely he worked with the authors and the poems themselves, translation will never be the same as the original poems. For instance, Zawaki mentioned that the French version of the poems are read really fast however with the English version he was reading it slowly. This gives me an insight that even in reading it out loud has a big difference in tone due to the differences of two languages. Also another great thing I learned since there are not always the exact words available the translators different literary tools to cope with the meaning of the poem in order to keep the meaning as authentic as possible. Although it is not possible to keep the meaning of the poem word by word in all of his poem Zawacki kept the meaning alive as well as its poetic vibe.

Although literature can lose meaning during the process of translation, ultimately, I think that translation of literature beautiful because it opens doors for diversity as people of different languages and cultures can get ideas about each other. This is a great way to learn about the different cultures around the world.

— Farzana

 

The opening of Mizoguchi’s film Ugetsu asserts that Akinari’s stories continue to “enchant modern readers with its mysterious fantasies.” How are the stories included in the film and in Akinari’s short story enchanting to us today? What relevance of these stories does the film for our world today?

   The stories included in the film Ugetsu and Akinari’s short story “Bewitched” present female characters like Mango and Lady Wakasa as the witch who are deceiving and mysterious. They deceive men with their physical beauty and with words that praise men. Both in the film and story, the representation of women as deceiving witches implement that women are misleading. In the story, we also see that Toyo is concerned about his financial stability when Mango proposed to marry him. Akinari says, “still, dependent on his father and older brother for his livelihood; he realized he was in no position to make a hasty promise on his own…” Toyo’s concern shows that if he gets married, he has to support his wife which reveals that Toyo’s view of women as dependent on men. The film also presents men as protection for women. For example, Ohama was raped when her husband left her to join the Samurai and Miyagi was killed by the soldiers. Terrible things happen to both Ohama and Miyagi as soon as their husbands leave them for something else. The movie shows men as a shield for women’s respect and honor. The movie also emphasizes the fact that women are almost nothing without men. For example, as Omaha had to become a prostitute after her husband left and she was raped. The movie shows that there is no other way women can earn for themselves except by selling their body.

These stories present modern day problems such as women in different cultures who are still seen as less than men. It is amazing to see social issues presented by mysterious fantasies.

In Basho’s travel note book most of the journey is described in prose while significant symbols are described in poetry in order to present the deeper meaning of those symbols. In most of the prose Basho describes his journey as if he is walking. However, when he comes across of something heart touching he writes a poem about it in order to respect it and remember it. The separation of prose and poetry works as signifiers. For example, as he describes “27th day of  Yayoi,” he describes his day and gathering of his friends in the prose. However, he reserves a poem in order to describe the pain of departure as he says “birds cry, in the fishes’ eyes are tears.” These emotional words carry a heavy and deep meaning for him. As he separates his emotional words from the prose, his emotions about his journey stands out to the readers. Moreover, in his text, Basho uses lengthy prose to create a sense of long journey throughout the day. As the traveller stops and rests he remembers the most important part of his journey and writes a poem as he reflects upon his journey. Through his poetry he appreciates the beauty of nature and he personifies those beauty to keep a lively vibe in his literature. For example, he says, “black hair mountain was hung with haze, still white with some snow. Head shaven, at black hair mountain changing clothes.” As he describes the beauty of mountain and its seasonal change, he creates connection between daily human life and a mountain when he says “changing clothes.” To express his feeling of attachment to mountain, he compares it to the daily life in his poetry. Again, he expresses his attachment to nature in poetry to create space where he can express the emotional significance of his journey.