Book Reviews:

New:

David G Lanoue: Haiku Guy: Michael McClintock

Ikumi (Ikuyo) Yoshimura, elephant's eyes

David G Lanoue, Laughing Buddha:Michael McClintock

Dušan Vidaković, S prebolene obale/From the Forsaken Shore: Jadran Zalokar

Milenko D. Ćirović Ljutički, U zagrljaju sjenki/The Embrace of Shadows: Verica Živković

Stefanović Tatjana; Zoran D. Živković: Haiku cvet/ A Haiku Flower: Moma Dimić

Jianqing Zheng, The Porch, Deltascape, & Found Haiku from Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding: Charles Trumbull

===

Classic Haiku, A Master's Selection: From the Preface by Yuzuru Miura

Slavica Blagojević, The Turtledove's Necklace: Vladimir Krasić and Zoran Raonić

Saša Važić, muddy shoes candy heart: Dimitar Anakiev

Gwiazda za Gwiazda, antologia haiku europejskiego: Foreword by Max Verhart 

From the Forword by Vasile Moldovan

 

The Sacred Tree of the Romanian Poetry

Flori de tei; Lime-tree flowers: anthology of haiku, anthologists: Ana Ruse, Alexandra Flora Munteanu, Laura Vaceanu, trans: Alexandra Flora Munteanu; Constanta, Edutura Boldas, 2006; ISBN (10) 973-87600-7-0; ISBN (13) 978-973-87600-7-3.

Lime as a kigo. In this context Ana Ruse's idea to realize an anthology on lime flowers theme is due to all our consideration. The lime, imposed by Eminesco to the role of national poetic symbol, worths to be known either in the country or abroad as a seasonal (kigo) term for haiku. One term with a powerful Romanian specific able to represent us and among the haiku admirers from other places, in this miraculous tree is less known and in any case it has not the same appreciation as on our culture. It will represent us beginning with this anthology due to the passion which the translator and poet Alexandra Flora Munteanu approaches the papers. The anthology authors, from the well known ones as Laura Vaceanu, Radu Patrichi, Martin Nicolae Tomi to simple beginners as Magdalena Dale, Dana Maria Onica, Constantin Stroe wrote poems full of sensitivity, about lime, as about Eminescu's lime. The sacred tree of the Romanian poetry is seen from different points and in different styles which makes the reading agreeable and ignores the monotony, because we refer to a strictly thematic anthology. Lime flower can have a curative effect as in the case of dr. Jules Cohn Botea – «Put to dry / For the winter cough / Lime flowers.» Or aphrodisiac as in Magdalena Dale's poems: «Waste night / The wave perfumed by the lime / Over the heart

The ecological aspects are present as in one of Isabela Apostu's poems: «Tall towers / In the purple horizon / Chokes the limes.» Without using the personification, figure of style improper to haiku, the lime often appears in the humile hypothesis of the beings in Issa's poetry, as in this haiku, written in free meter by Radu Patrichi: »The old lime - / The branch torn / With unflourished flowers.» To some authors Eminescu and the lime are the same:«Looking for / Eminescu's lime / In every lime.» (Mircea Teculescu) But even in the absence the lime reminds us about the one that gave noble significance in the Romanian language soil: »Without lime - / The poet's statue / At the sea shore.» (Laura Vaceanu)

 

Entirely the anthology Lime Flowers constitutes an interesting and insolate editorial appearance, in spite of some axiological circuit, haiku, the authors had in mind that they write in Romanian and they included organically, Romanian specific elements which ensure real personality of the anthology.

 

Translated by Alexandra Flora Munteanu

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1