23 May 2005: Looks like I may be starting a Basho pond competition. Yesterday, Karl Kempton sent me his version "in American":
Karl questioned my imagination, which led me to pontificate once more on my own version, which follows:
"Mine focuses on the sound of the splash, which I consider crucial. In
yours, we can imagine the sound of the splash but it's not necessarily
central. Also, in mine it's just the pond and the sound of the splash;
Yours has a frog in the middle, which I consider distracting. That is,
yours is three scenes: pond, frog and splash; mine just the comparison of
the pond with the sound. Yours also short-changes the stillness of the
pond. I have a colon and white space for that--and my use of the word,
"sound" greatly increases the likelihood that the reader will immediately
imagine the absence of sound preceding the sound.
"To each his own."
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