Carpe Diem Haiku Kai is the place to be if you like to write and share Japanese poetry forms like haiku and tanka. It’s a warmhearted family of haiku poets created by Chèvrefeuille, a Dutch haiku poet. Japanese poetry is the poetry of nature and it gives an impression of a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. ++ ALL WORKS PUBLISHED ARE COPYRIGHTED AND THE RIGHTS BELONG TO THE AUTHORS ++ !!! Anonymous comments will be seen as SPAM !!!
Finally Summer has arrived at the Northern hemisphere and I am glad to find time to create a new episode in our wonderful Haiku Kai. It has been a strange time. The World is at stake and all around our wonderful planet we see still the results of the Covid-19 pandemic. Ofcourse there are several ideas according to this pandemic, but ... well that's not our business here at CDHK.
As you all know I am a healthcare worker and at the moment we have a small covid-19 outbreak again, not only our patients, but also a lot of my co-workers are suffering from it. So that's why I had again to less time to create a new episode. I had promised you to be back soon, but I don't think I can publish an every day episode of our Haiku Kai. Forgive please.
As you can "read" in our post-logo I have chosen the theme Summer 2022, Let The Sunshine In. That theme brought this wonderful song from the musical/movie "Hair" into my mind. A wonderful song that was created back in the sixties as the so called "Flower Power" was running. I really love this song it gives me a feeling of joy. And that ... JOY ... we need!
I remember that we had a "Light Retreat" back in 2014, a period of 30 days to create haiku or tanka themed "The Joy Of Light". One of the haiku I wrote for that retreat fits this episode so well I think.
thousand orange leaves counting my blessings every day - I light a candle
Well ... I hope I have inspired you to create haiku, tanka or another Japanese poetry form. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 13th 10:00 PM (CEST). Have fun!
You can add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below.
Love is the ultimate emotion. I think we all agree on that. Love is positive energy and uplifts our hearts. The ultimate energy of love is ... "two hearts become one". We see that in our children for example, but there is another "thing" that can do that ... dancing ... especially the Tango.
So to inspire you I love to share a wonderful piece of music:
Isn't it wonderful?
dance of deep love she, my lovely wife, sways dancing the Tango passionate couple of youngsters - dance of deep love
What a wonderful spring day we had here in The Netherlands. It felt almost like early summer, I even could stay a while outside in the garden enjoying the warmth of the sun on my face. Yes ... it was an awesome spring day.
This month we are exploring classical and non-classical kigo for spring and today I have another wonderful classical kigo extracted from the Shiki saijiki for you all to work with. Our classical kigo for today is Hibari (Skylark).
!! open for your submissions next Sunday January 27th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!
Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
Time flies ... we say that very often and it's true. This is our last weekend meditation of January and I have chosen for a special feature from our rich history ... As you know I love to share wonderful music to inspire you. Especially the music of Karunesh I love to share here to inspire you. Karunesh
has created a wonderful kind of music that he calls "fusion". He integrates several kinds of music to one wonderful piece of music.
I once had the opportunity to have an interview with him and he has ... what we call charisma and he really creates wonderful music. For this weekend I love to challenge you to create a haiku inspired on the music of Karunesh and to create a Troiku with that haiku.
This track is titled "Returning To Now" and it's created in 2001. ("Returning To Now" is part of the album "Zen Breakfast")
Listen to the music, let it inspire you. Meditate and contemplate on it and share your Troiku with us all here at our wonderful Haiku Kai.
This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday January 27th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 3rd at noon (CET). Have a wonderful inspirational weekend.
Welcome at a new episode of our "countdown" to Christmas. Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year not only through the Christmas story, but also through the Christmas decorations, candles and the most wonderful Christmas music.
For this episode of "Seven Days Before Christmas" I have a wonderful piece of music to inspire you. This piece of music is one of my all time favorites ... Feliz Navidad. It was released in 1970 by José Feliciano and it really is a joy to listen to it.
I hope this Christmas song has given you the same joy as it gives me every year again.
wonderful trees covered with fresh snow crystalizing sunlight the backyard covered with snow finally a white Christmas
We are on a "haiku-ing" journey along the Pan American Highway and we have arrived at Mexico, the "entrance" to Middle America. Here in Mexico we will visit the rich history of this country and while going on on the Pan American Highway we will make trip back into time ... to for example the Mayan culture.
Today we visit Mazatlan and I found a wonderful litho by Seemann (1858):
Let me tell you a little bit about Mazatlan. Mazatlán is a city in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The city serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipio, known as the Mazatlán Municipality. It is located at 23°13′N 106°25′W on the Pacific coast, across from the southernmost tip of the Baja California Peninsula.
Mazatlán is a Nahuatl word meaning "place of deer." The city was founded in 1531 by an army of Spaniards and indigenous settlers. By the mid-19th century, a large group of immigrants arrived from Germany. Together, with the hard work of the Natives, they were able to develop Mazatlán into a thriving commercial seaport, importing equipment for the nearby gold and silver mines. It served as the capital of Sinaloa from 1859 to 1873. The German settlers also influenced the local music, banda, with some genres being an alteration of Bavarian folk music. The settlers also established the Pacifico Brewery on March 14, 1900.
Mazatlán is also known for being the hometown and center of Banda sinaloense, a musical genre which began to develop in the XIX century and is now one of the most popular music genres in Mexico.
The above music-video is of Mexico's renown female singer of Banda, Jenni Rivera. Listen to the music and let it take you into Mazatlan's history and let the music inspire you.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until December 24th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our next episode later on.
I am happy to prepare another CDHK episode for you all. Today I have chosen Exile as our theme to work with. As I started preparing this episode the first thing which came in mind was the Exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt lead by Moses, but it also brought a pop group in mind with the name Exile and that pop group made a wonderful song back in 1974 here it is:
I remember that I was completely mad with this song ...
gone in exile without the one who kissed me all over - broken sunflower
Pick one of the two given haiku and add your 2nd stanza to make a Tan Renga or you can take both haiku to create a "fusion"-haiku as we do in our "crossroads" feature. Well ... feel free to make your choice and be creative ... awaken your muse!
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 10th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.
Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai were we are celebrating our sixth anniversary with themes that follow the alphabet. Today I have the letter D for you and the theme I have chosen is "dream".
I once had a dream to write and publish my first novel. That dream became true back in 2007 and a second novel was published in 2009, but I had another dream ... to promote haiku, my passion since the late eighties, through a daily meme. That dream I realized in 2012 ... in 2012 I created Carpe Diem Haiku Kai and this month we are celebrating the sixth anniversary of that dream. Do I have other dreams? Yes I have. One of my other dreams is to visit Japan, but I think that dream will not be come true in the upcoming, say ten years, because of a busy job and an awesome family and of course because of CDHK. In CDHK I lay all my love and passion for Japanese poetry form especially haiku (and tanka) and that gives me the feeling that I am really are visiting Japan.
Am I a dreamer? Yes I am and I love it. To inspire you I have a wonderful music video by Supertramp titled "dreamer" (video taken from You Tube, channel of Roger Hodgson, former leadsinger of Supertramp):
Here is a haiku taken from my archive:
fly like an eagle as free as a bird in the sky living my dream
We started our journey around the world on a quest for folkmusic in Italy and to make the circle complete (or closed) like a renga we will end our journey in Italy.
Italian folk music has a deep and complex history. Because national unification came late to the Italian peninsula, the traditional music of its many hundreds of cultures exhibit no homogeneous national character. Rather, each region and community possesses a unique musical tradition that reflects the history, language, and ethnic composition of that particular locale. These traditions reflect Italy's geographic position in southern Europe and in the centre of the Mediterranean; Celtic, Roma, and Slavic influences, as well as rough geography and the historic dominance of small city states, have all combined to allow diverse musical styles to coexist in close proximity.
Italian folk styles are very diverse, and include monophonic, polyphonic, and responsorial song, choral, instrumental and vocal music, and other styles. Choral singing and polyphonic song forms are primarily found in northern Italy, while south of Naples, solo singing is more common, and groups usually use unison singing in two or three parts carried by a single performer. Northern ballad-singing is syllabic, with a strict tempo and intelligible lyrics, while southern styles use a rubato tempo, and a strained, tense vocal style. Folk musicians use the dialect of their own regional tradition; this rejection of the standard Italian language in folk song is nearly universal. There is little perception of a common Italian folk tradition, and the country's folk music never became a national symbol.
Italian folk songs include ballads, lyrical songs, lullabies and children's songs, seasonal songs based around holidays such as Christmas, life-cycle songs that celebrate weddings, baptisms and other important events, dance songs, cattle calls and occupational songs, tied to professions such as fishermen, shepherds and soldiers. Ballads (canti epico-lirici) and lyric songs (canti lirico-monostrofici) are two important categories. Ballads are most common in northern Italy, while lyric songs prevail further south. Ballads are closely tied to the English form, with some British ballads existing in exact correspondence with an Italian song. Other Italian ballads are more closely based on French models. Lyric songs are a diverse category that consist of lullabies, serenades and work songs, and are frequently improvised though based on a traditional repertoire.
Other Italian folk song traditions are less common than ballads and lyric songs. Strophic, religious laude, sometimes in Latin, are still occasionally performed, and epic songs are also known, especially those of the maggio celebration. Professional female singers perform dirges similar in style to those elsewhere in Europe. Yodeling exists in northern Italy, though it is most commonly associated with the folk musics of other Alpine nations. The Italian Carnival is associated with several song types, especially the Carnival of Bagolino, Brescia. Choirs and brass bands are a part of the mid-Lenten holiday, while the begging song tradition extends through many holidays throughout the year.
To end our journey around the world on our quest for folk music I have chosen the Carnival of Venice, as the above image shows. There is a wonderful piece of music titled "Carnival of Venice" by Paganini (1782-1840). And ... however this isn't really folkmusic ... it's a nice way to close this wonderful month.
But to give you all the opportunity to create your Japanese poetry based on folk music I also have a nice Italian folksong for your inspiration.
Make your choice, or maybe you dare to use both pieces of music ... it's up to you.
I ran through my archives and ran into a nice cascading haiku that fits this theme in a nice, but extraordinary way. I wrote this cascading haiku back in 2016 in response on a CDHK episode written by Hamish Managua Gunn.
Well ... this was the last episode of our wonderful journey around the world on a quest for folkmusic. I hope you all enjoyed this wonderful month, this journey ... thank you all for participating in this journey.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 6th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on. For now ... have fun!
Do you know Easter Island? That island with its hundreds of stone carved heads on pedastals? Welcome at the penultimate episode of this wonderful month in which we were on a journey around the world on a quest for folkmusic.
I am intrigued by Easter Island and its inhabitants that are Polynesian by origine, but have created their own culture on Easter Island. I love to tell you a little bit more about Easter Island's inhabitants, the Rapa Nui (people).
The Rapa Nui are the aboriginal Polynesian inhabitants of Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean. The easternmost Polynesian culture, the descendants of the original people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) make up about 60% of the current Rapa Nui population and have a significant portion of their population residing in mainland Chile. They speak both the traditional Rapa Nui language and the primary language of Chile, Spanish. At the 2002 census there were 3,304 island inhabitants—almost all living in the village of Hanga Roa. Hanga Roa is the main town, harbour and capital of Easter Island, a province of Chile. It is located in the southern part of the island's west coast, in the lowlands between the extinct volcanoes of Terevaka and Rano Kau.
What kind of music they have on Easter Island? Are their songs all about Easter? Or are their songs more Polynesian of nature. Let us explore that a little bit.
The music of Easter Island has a most distinctive Tahitian influence and comprises traditional singing and chanting. In this sense, every family forms a choir. Each of these groups views in imagination with the others in relating the life of the community and thus perpetuating the memory of the Rongorongo. In the past, these groups had come together each year to take part in the contest. Supposedly judged in an unbiased manner, the contest results in disputations and quarrels which can go on until the following year and the next contest.
In the early days, these groups were accompanied by the conch-shell trumpet with rhythm being provided by a dancer leaping on a thin stone slab set over a pit containing a large calabash resonator. It is also believed that in the early days stone castanets were also used. Unfortunately, none of these instruments remain in use today and singers are now accompanied by guitars. In common with other Polynesians, the traditional music also forms the basis for the dance.
Contemporary Easter Island music tells stories about the arrival and departure of loved ones, the story of the new bride which praises marriage, the villages, the sunrise and the wind blowing on the island. There are also songs which are concerned with the past, the Rongorongo tradition which traces the history of the family from the very earliest times along with the song of the moai sculptures in which the rhythm is provided by the striking together of two stones, representing the sound of the sculptors of the giant statues at work in the quarries.
What a wonderful story this was. It felt almost as being there on that strange Easter Island with those nice Moai statues. A mysterious island, but the music of this island is really gorgeous and I hoe you will like it as much as I did.
Well ... did you like the song? Did the music inspire you? It inspired me ...
Rapa Nui mysterious land of the Moai a new day rises
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 5th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our last episode of this month later on.
Yesterday we visited Argentina and listened to their wonderful Tango music and it was a joy. Today we will go further on our journey around the world on a quest for folkmusic. What will be our new destination? Well ... we will visit the Faroe Islands and one of their renown musicians is Eivor Palsdottir. I think we have had one of her songs earlier in our rich history. I think it was in a CD Special written by our Hamish Managua Gunn about Shaman Haiku, a kind of haiku inspired on the ancient rituals of the shaman. A nice CD Special to read again with a lot of wonderful "shaman"-haiku.
Awesome music from the Faroe Islands by renown singer Eivor. Enjoy listening and watching this beautiful music video.
Here is a "shaman"-haiku from my archives:
sound of the earth an eagle points the path of the shaman finally free
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 4th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our penultimate episode later on.
Don't forget our 2nd edition of the Troiku Kukai. You can find the link to it at the left of our Kai. This Troiku Kukai runs until September 15th at 10:00 PM (CEST).
What a journey this month is. We have visited wonderful places and listened to wonderful folkmusic. I remember that we had a few of these folkmusic episodes in our rich history and maybe you can remember this episode: Tango (Argentina) (published on February 6th 2013)
And as the title of this episode already reveals that's the country we are going to visit today. I am not a great dancer and for sure I am not a Tango dancer, but I love the dance and the music used for it. It sounds great and the Tango looks so sensual, romantic and passionate that I just have to listen and enjoy Tango dancers.
passionate the love of my life seduces me I am on fire
Well ... maybe you are into Tango now ... I hope it will inspire you to create haiku, tanka or other form of Japanese poetry.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 3rd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our next episode later on.
Welcome at the first episode of the last week of August, the month in which we were on a journey around the world on a quest for folk music. We have visited all regions of the world, but today we will visit Hawaii, a wonderful state of the US, and a wonderful island I think. I have never been there, but I have seen wonderful images of this unique island.
Hawaiian folk music includes several varieties of chanting (mele) and music meant for highly ritualized dance (hula). Traditional Hawaiian music and dance was functional, used to express praise, communicate genealogy and mythology, and accompany games, festivals and other secular events. The Hawaiian language has no word that translates precisely as music, but a diverse vocabulary exists to describe rhythms, instruments, styles and elements of voice production. Hawaiian folk music is simple in melody and rhythm, but is "complex and rich" in the "poetry, accompanying mimetic dance (hula), and subtleties of vocal styles... even in the attenuated forms in which they survive today".
The chant (mele) is typically accompanied by an ipu heke (a double gourd) and/or pahu (sharkskin covered drum). Some dances require dancers to utilize hula implements such as an ipu (single gourd), ʻiliʻili (waterworn lava stone castanets),ʻuliʻuli (feathered gourd rattles), pu`ʻli (split bamboo sticks) or kalaʻau (rhythm sticks). The older, formal kind of hula is called kahiko, while the modern version is ʻauana. There are also religious chants called ʻoli; when accompanied by dancing and drums, it is called mele hula pahu.
In the pre-contact Hawaiian language, the word mele referred to any kind of poetic expression, though it now translates as song. The two kinds of Hawaiian chanting were mele oli and mele hula. The first were a cappella individual songs, while the latter were accompanied dance music performed by a group. The chanters were known as haku mele and were highly trained composers and performers. Some kinds of chants express emotions like angst and affection, or request a favor from another person. Other chants are for specific purposes like naming, (mele inoa), prayer (mele pule), surfing (mele he'e nalu) and genealogical recitations (mele koihonua). Mele chants were governed by strict rules, and were performed in a number of styles include the rapid kepakepa and the enunciate koihonua. (Source: wikipedia)
Wow ...! What a wonderful music this is. I could easily imagine Hawaii and being there. Really I enjoyed this music.
This will be again a small episode I think, but it's a nice one too I think. Today I have a nice piece of folkmusic from the Inuit, a race living in the Northern parts of Canada and Greenland. I am late with this episode because I had a very busy evening shift at work. So my excuses for being this late with publishing.
The above Inuit song is titled "Sedna". Sedna is the Inuit Goddess of the Sea. Listen to this beautiful music with respect for Sedna.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 29th at noon (CEST). I hope to publish our next episode later on if work isn't to busy I hope.
I have a short episode for you today, just because I have not a lot of time today. We are leaving Iceland and travel on to Canada. To make it myself a bit easy I will give you only a music video.
It's a Canadian folksong titled "The Star of Logy Bay", that's why this episode has that title.
I hope you did enjoy this Canadian folksong. And that it will inspire you to create haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 28th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!
Today we arrive at Iceland on our quest around the world for folkmusic. The music of Iceland can be traced back to the 14th century. The "oldest" known folkmusic of Iceland is the so called Rimur. What is Rimur? Let me tell you a little about it.
Rímur is a type of epic vocal poem, with fixed diatonic melodies. Rímur melodies (rímnalög, kvæðalög, stemmur) are often standard, and found throughout the country. These epic poems are written in a narrative style, using elements of Icelandic literature and folklore. The performers were lauded for their ability to tell a story in verses. A rímur verse is made up of trochaic lines which use literary techniques such as rhyme and alliteration. There are between two and four lines with a pattern of syllabic stress and alliteration. Music author Hreinn Steingrímsson describes rímur this way:
[...] "The four-line metres are a combination of two couplets with four stressed syllables in the first line of each, and two such syllables (first and third, second and third, or third and fourth) alliterate with the first stressed syllable of the second line."[...]
The earliest known text of a rímur dates to the 14th century; for the subsequent six hundred years, the rímur texts were the most prolifically produced form of Icelandic literature. Rímur melodies date back to publications by folklorist Ólafur Davíðsson and were then collected in the first Icelandic folk music collection, Íslenzk þjóðlög, by Bjarni Þorsteinsson.
Rímur, specially the short four-line metres form "ferskeytla", is still very popular today in Iceland in most social groups. It is common to put together a ríma (setja saman stöku) about current events usually in the form of a joke or ridicule. These short rhymes tend to proliferate via email. It is also common during parties that a guest may say a ríma that he has learned or composed as a form of a joke, often an insult. Skill at composing rímur is often an admired skill.
A common game is to tell the first part ("fyrri partur", the first two lines) of a ríma, and for others to complete the third and fourth lines (to "botna"), each in their own way. The one whose "botn" is the cleverest wins. This game can become a serious competition (known as "kveðast á") when two or more who are particularly skilled at composing rímur come together. It is an informal rule that if one is ridiculed or even insulted with a ríma he must answer back in kind; any other form of answer is invalid.
The above explanation of the game with rima sounds great and in a way looks similar with Tan Renga or Renga. Two nice Japanese poetry forms created by two (or more) haiku poets.
I hoped to find an example of this rami, but I didn't succeed. Therefore I love to share a nice Icelandic poem by Jonas Hallgrimmson:
Serene and warm, now southern winds come streaming to waken all the billows on the ocean, who crowd toward Iceland with an urgent motion — isle of my birth! where sand and surf are gleaming. Oh waves and winds! embrace with bold caresses the bluffs of home with all their seabirds calling! Lovingly, waves, salute the boats out trawling! Lightly, oh winds, kiss glowing cheeks and tresses! Herald of spring! oh faithful thrush, who flies fathomless heaven to reach our valleys, bearing cargoes of song to sing the hills above: there, if you meet an angel with bright eyes under the neat, red-tasseled cap she's wearing, greet her devoutly! That's the girl I love.
What a wonderful poem this is, but not really my "cup of tea". I am not a big fan of creating this kind of poetry, but I love reading poetry in all its wonderful ways.
seabirds cry without tears waves caressing the shore a warm embrace
We are staying in Asia for a while, because of the richness of the music of Asia. Recently I took care of a very ill patient from Afghanistan. He listened almost every evening to music from is motherland and I can say without a doubt that Afghan music is really beautiful. So today I love to challenge you to listen to an Afghan piece of music for your inspiration, but first I will give you a little bit background on this music from Afghanistan.
The Afghan concept of music is closely associated with instruments, and thus unaccompanied religious singing is not considered music. Koran recitation is an important kind of unaccompanied religious performance, as is the ecstatic Zikr ritual of the Sufis which uses songs called na't, and the Shi'a solo and group singing styles like mursia, manqasat, nowheh and rowzeh. The Chishti Sufi sect of Kabul is an exception in that they use instruments like the rubab, tabla and harmonium in their worship; this music is called tatti ("food for the soul").
I have chosen an example of Afghan folkmusic to inspire you.
A wonderful song I think. I loved listening to it and I hope you can appreciate it too. Of course I hope you will be inspired too by this song. This song inspired me to the following tanka:
along the river I walk barefoot and listen the voice of water telling me stories from faraway cherishing my tearful soul
As you all know tanka isn't really my "cup of tea", but I think this one has become beautiful (how immodest).
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 23rd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend-meditation later on. For now ... have fun!
We are on a journey around the world on a quest for folkmusic. Yesterday we visited Tibet and listened to the throat singing monks of Tibet. Today we are going further and we will arrive in Mongolia.
Back in our history we have visited Mongolia a few times and today we are doing that again, because in Mongolia we also find what is called "throat singing". (More about throat-singing in Mongolia you can find HERE.)
Because of lack of time this will be a short episode with only a video of Throat singing from Mongolia.
Isn't it wonderful how this throat singing sounds great? It's really a joy to listen to it. Enjoy the music.
This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until August 22nd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.
Welcome at our new stage in our journey around the world on a quest for folkmusic. Yesterday and the day before yesterday we visited India and today we are going further on our journey to Tibet. Tibet was once a free country, but was annexated by China back in the fifties of the 20th century. I am still praying that Tibet will become a free country again and that the Dalai Lama can return to His home.
Tibet is a wonderful country in the Himalayan Mountains and in one of my new novels part of the story takes place in the Himalayan Mountains, because of legendary Shamballa, a heavenly place on earth, but that's not the issue today.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
Tibet has a rich history in music. The music of Tibet is (in my opinion) the most religious music on earth and it was "created" by the Tibetan Buddhist monks, known as Lamas. Let me tell you a little bit more about Tibetan music.
The music of Tibet reflects the cultural heritage of the trans-Himalayan region, centered in Tibet but also known wherever ethnic Tibetan groups are found in Nepal, Bhutan, India and further abroad. First and foremost Tibetan music is religious music, reflecting the profound influence of Tibetan Buddhism on the culture.
The Lama Mani tradition – the telling of Buddhist parables through song — dates back to the 12th century. The songs were performed by wandering storytellers, who travelled from village to village, drawing on their own often humble origins to relate to people from all backgrounds. Vividly illustrated Buddhist thangka paintings depicted the narrative and helped the audience understand what was essentially a teaching.
Tibetan "street songs" were a traditional form of expression particularly popular as a means of political and other commentary in a country that was previously without newspapers or other means of mass communication. They provided political and social commentary and satire and are a good example of a bardic tradition, akin to that in medieval Europe or, more recently, the role calypsos played in the West Indies. As song lyrics in Tibet usually contained stanzas of 4 lines of 6 syllables each, the lyrics could be easily adapted to almost any melody.
Secular Tibetan music has been promoted by organizations like the Dalai Lama's Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts. This organization specialized in the lhamo, an operatic style, before branching out into other styles, including dance music like toeshey and nangma. Nangma is especially popular in the karaoke bars of the urban center of Tibet, Lhasa. Another form of popular music is the classical gar style, which is performed at rituals and ceremonies. Lu are a type of songs that feature glottal vibrations and high pitches. There are also epic bards who sing of Tibet's national hero Gesar.
I got goose-bumps as I listened to this wonderful OM mantra chant by Tibetan monks. It gave me a feeling of happiness and relaxation. I hope you will have that same experience.
deep throat sounds resonate through the Himalayan Mountains tears of monks
Maybe the above haiku/senryu has somewhat political "tones", but I am still praying for a free Tibet. I hope that there will become a day that China decides to give Tibet back to their rightful owners. If that's happening than finally the Dalai Lama can return home.
This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until August 21st at noon (CEST). For now ... be inspired and share your inspired Japanese poetry with us all.
Yesterday we started our trip through India and today we will stay in India too. Today we will visit the region known as Bengal (Bangladesh and India). In this region there is a kind of music that has only words written by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) this music is known as Rabindra Sangeet.
Let me tell you first a little bit more about Rabindranath Tagore:
Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali polymath, a poet, musician and artist who reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became in 1913 the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Tagore's poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. He is sometimes referred to as "the Bard of Bengal".
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Tagore has written wonderful poems and I love to give you one to read before we are going to listen to the music known as Rabindra Sangeet, the music of Bengal.
In the
morning I cast my net into the sea.
I dragged up from the dark abyss things of strange aspect and strange beauty --
some shone like a smile, some glistened like tears, and some were flushed like
the cheeks of a bride.
When with the day's burden I went home, my love was sitting in the garden idly
tearing the leaves of a flower.
I hesitated for a moment, and then placed at her feet all that I had dragged
up, and stood silent.
She glanced at them and said, 'What strange things are these? I know not of
what use they are!'
I bowed my head in shame and thought, 'I have not fought for these, I did not
buy them in the market; they are not fit gifts for her.'
Then the whole night through I flung them one by one into the street.
In the morning travelers came; they picked them up and carried them into far
countries.
Awesome poem I would say, but I am a big fan of Tagore's prose and poetry, so maybe I am prejudiced. He has written wonderful poems. (Maybe we can do a whole month about Tagaore's prose and poetry?)
Rabindra Sangeet also known as Tagore Songs, are songs written and composed by Tagore. He wrote more than 2000 songs. The songs have distinctive characteristics in the music of Bengal, popular in India and Bangladesh. It is characterised by its distinctive rendition while singing which includes a significant amount of ornamentation like meend, murki, etc. and is filled with expressions of romanticism. The music is mostly based on Hindustani classical music, Carnatic Classical Music, Western tunes and the inherent Folkmusic of Bengal.
What a nice beautiful song. I hope it will inspire you to create haiku, tanka or other form of Japanese poetry.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 20th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our next episode later on.
