Dear friends,
I am doing 10 km today. I leave you with three more haiku from Basho, as I embark on another training session. Placing 2km weights on my ankles so let’s see how hard I find it. Bill is about to leave the US to start his pilgrimage and I am rooting for its success. I will talk to him soon for the podcast. I am not sure if we are doing it before or after he leaves the US, but either way I am very curious about his long months of preparation for his 1250 km to the Vatican. If you want to participate here is another chance to check out his project. At this stage it does not look like I can see him off, but I will be keeping you posted. Here is the last message he exchanged with me. He is travelling with Wilby. And you can follow them with the link bellow.
My character - Wilby - will travel with me on the trek. I plan to pose him at famous as well as random places. For example - Stanford University (Perhaps you know of this school) has a garden of Rodin Statues. I posed Wilby there - https://www.facebook.com/reel/1311628796183291/?s=fb_shorts_tab&stack_idx=0 These are practice shoots at this point.
Wishing you a wonderful Sunday.
31 [1685] Secluded in Second Month Hall mizutori ya / kori no so no / kutsu no oto NOTE [water-dripping! / ice's monk's / clog's sound] water being drawn - in the frozen night NOTE clopping of monks' clogs NOTE: Basho's original text presents a 5/5/5 syllabic pattern, rather than 5/7/5. This variation is followed in the translation. The adjective 'frozen' could also be applied to the monks, as well as to the implied "night'. 32 [1685] Crossing the mountains on the road to Ötsu yamaji kite / naniyara yukashi / sumiregusa [mountain-path come / somehow appealing / wild-violet] on a mountain path it was somehow so moving - a wild violet 33 [1605] At Minakuchi I met a friend I had not seen for twenty years inochi futatsu no / naka ni ikitaru / sakura kana [life two's / between in lived / cherry-blossom!] the lives of us two - between them has grown up this blossoming cherry
Until next time,
Bee well,
Xanda
The last one is priceless!