We will soon update our activities after February. Please Wait for a while.
--2002--
2.4(Mon.)
"Itogoyomi", the Japanese version of "Strings - The Lives of Two Yakama Indian Women in the 1800s" written by Paul Brooke was published today. This book is only in Japanese.
1.26(Sat.)
Our new chapbooks were published today! They are "Moyayama - Russian haiku: a diary" written by Alexey V. Andreyev and "Step into Sky" written by John Sandbach.
1.19(Sat.)
We have updated a new haiku collection "Step into Sky" written by John Sandbach on our website. Here is a summary of the work.
"Step into Sky"
(complete bilingual version of English and Japanese)
Written by John Sandbach
Translated into Japanese by Kazue Daikoku
Background pictures of Missouri by Ann Franke
Introduction "Cosmic Haiku" by Ban'ya Natsuishi
This is Sandbach's first haiku collection. He contributed 200 haiku to Happa-no-Kofu last spring. His haiku have a new and unique sense, and the landscapes in them are very spacious and cosmic. He has written about woods, clouds, rivers, crows, the moon, rain, and crystals in Missouri where he lives.
We have selected and edited 100 of his haiku, and translated them into Japanese, and let flow them in the order of the four seasons in a gentleness.
Readers make a circuit of one year in Missouri as they move through the haiku. The introduction was written by Ban'ya Natsuishi who is a well-known haiku poet in Japan and also the Balkans. We hope you will enjoy reading these haiku, and we will be happy to hear your comments about them.
--2001--
12.01(Sat.)
We have updated two Fragments peoms on our website.Here is briefs about the peoms.
Ongoing Anthology Program - - F r a g m e n t s - -
#22 Hi there, evening bird - nursery rhyme from Miyakojima island - (translated from the Japanese)
This nursery rhyme was collected in Hirara city, Miyakoshima island, Okinawa prefecture. Okinawa is a group of islands in the southwest ofJapan, and the climate is subtropical. This song has a lot of Okinawadialect in the original text, so the translator included some dialect treenames to keep the native sounds. It is sung in an Okinawa music scale, which is peculiar and attractive. We put the score with the poem.
#23 Twenty Days on Route 20
Michael Czarnecki (English/Japanese translation)
This is the extract from Michael's published book on his solo journey across America taken in autumn of 1996. He drove on Route 20 in his '83 Honda Wagon from Boston to the Pacific Ocean at Newport, OR, and wrote haiku and haibun(prose) about it. The picture on this page was taken by the author in the rain - in Ohio - on his way to Minnesota this week. Yes, he took this picture for our Fragments story about his way of traveling.
10.22(Mon.)
We are very happy to inform you that our chapbook edition was published today! The first publication is "New York, apaato gurashi (tenementlandscapes/bilingual version), written by Paul David Mena, translated into Japanese by Kazue Daikoku. Here is some information about the book and how you can order it on our website directly.
5.5(Sat.)
We have not updated this page for a long time. Here is a brief report of our recent activities:
About Fragments: We will publish the poems of Ryo Kisaka who is a Japanese female poet in the near future. The English translation is now being done by Ruth Foley, who is the author of Skylark(Fragments#16) and our editor Kazue Daikoku. The author replied to our letter requesting her permission for publishing and enclosed her poetry book in it(phtoto above). It includes all her poetry books and other writings. Her poems are evoked from daily occurrences and small events in her life. Her writing is simple, frank, warm and open-minded. We believe her poems will be attractive to and easily understood by English speakers. At the same time her poems have touched many Japanese, too.
Fragments #20 "When kid was kid" written by Peter Handke. We are asking the author's agent for his permission to publish. Peter Handke is a famous writer and poet in Germany. He also wrote scenarios for the movies of Wim Wenders. The poem "When kid was kid" was used at the opening of the movie "Wings of Desire (German title, Der Himmel Uber Berlin)"directed by Wim Wenders. The original text is German.
* * *
We are translating a new haiku collection "Step into Sky" written by John Sandbach. This work was contributed to Happano Kofu in March. He wrote about desert and forest landscapes, crows, stars, moon, snow, insects, ores, and sky which is included in the title. Both the original text and Japanese translation are included.
12.12(Tues.)
We uploaded the site of "Ongoing Anthology Program - - F r a g m e n t s - -".
12.02(Sat.)
I received a letter from Mrs. Aspenstrom, who's husband was the deceased Swedish poet, Werner Aspenstrom. It is a very short letter from that northern country, but a warm reply. She wrote that she was very glad that we would translate her husband's poem, and she gave us permission to publish it.
11.26(Sun.)
We uploaded the preview page of "Ongoing Anthology Program - - F r a g m e n t s - -".
11.12(Sun.)
We are now working on our new project, "fragments", which will start at the end of November, and are asking authors and publishers for their approvals. We have received 7 approvals now, and are waiting for 5 replys and searching for 2 or 3 addresses to contact. Generally speaking, it is more difficult to contact authors and publishers in Europe(non-English area) and Asian countries. One reason is because of my language ability (but Jeff, our member, helps me with German), and another reason is difficulty in searching their addresses on the Internet, and sometimes there is no e-mail, fax or address on the page when I find a pertinent website. I'm corresponding with people who live in Poland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, India, various parts of the USA, and Kyoto, Osaka and Tottori in Japan. Last week, I received a rough sketch of the site design for "fragments" section from our webdesigner, Yoshimi, and we will upload the preview page to the Happano site in the near future.
10.21(sat.) 2:30p.m. - 8:00p.m.
Tokyo Wemen's Plaza in Shibuya, Tokyo. I was invited to Japan Webgrrls' Fourth Anniversary event and made a speech about Web Press Happa-no-Kofu. The theme of the event was "e-lifestyle", there are several demonstrations concerning Online investing, Shared Websites and Women's Health, and presentations about an internet auction, a schedule service, our Web Press Happa-no-Kofu, and finally, a keynote presentation. Though it was a small scale conference, the members and attendees of many countries, ages, and occupations came together, lively and full of energy.
The languages which were used in the conference were both Japanese and English. I prepared two drafts (English and Japanese) for my speech, and I asked the attendees which language was best. Most of the Japanese attendees were bilingual persons and other people spopke English(some understand Japanese). But as the attendees agreed with my desire(it is told in my speech), I made my main speech in Japanese with English subtitles on the projector. I brought my Powerbook 2400 which was installed for the conference, so I could show them the English version of my speech and our webpage.
After my speech, several attendees came to my place, and they told me their impressions about my speech and Happa-no-Kofu. I'm very happy. It seemed to me they felt sympathy with my speech and our press. Some people were interested in presenting their writings and art works to our press.
If you are interested in my speech, please read it. And I would be very glad if you would send your impressions and opinions to me,(Kazue Daikoku).
About JAPAN Webgrrls:
Japan Webgrrls is part of Webgrrls International - a worldwide women's organization, started in New York City by Aliza Sherman in 1995. The Japan Chapter was born in September 1996. Their organization is dedicated to promoting women's understanding of computers and digital information technology for professional and personal use - empowerment. More details are Japan Webgrrls(http://www.webgrrls.gol.com/).
10.17(tue.)
The editor of Japanese eco-magazine "SOTOKOTO" replied me to my e-mail. They decided to print an information about our translation work "Indian Tales(The Basket Woman)" in the information page called "Escape Route" on their January 2001 issue.
The magazine "SOTOKOTO" is a very unique and polished magazine about thinking of the earth and human beings in the future. You can read(but only Japanese) a part of the print version here(http://www.nifty.com/SOTOKOTO/), and November issue includes an articles of Ryuich Sakamoto's Kenya travle and an interview of Yoyo ma.
10.4(wed.)
We subscribed our four works("tenement landscapes", "Moyayama-Russian haiku",
"The Basket Woman", "Strings") on Possible Online Book Store.
They are an online "electronic book" store which distributes both pay and free works on the internet website. They have several categories of literature, art, hobby, comics, photograph, etc. but only available Japanese language.
Possible Online Book Store
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