Kanji in the Foreigner's Mouth
Before I lived in Japan, my brother once tried to explain to me what the Chinese characters for 天草市 or "Amakusa" meant.
“Kanji in the Foreigner’s Mouth”
“Kanji is based on pictures and ideas not sounds”
– the poet’s brother in his first explanation of C
hinese characters for 天草市
Say
“amakusa,”
and a conjurer
will bring forth
a black pearl
tied around the neck of
a woman diver
that leads her
to the bottom of the ocean.
Meanwhile as she follows,
the seaweed has been
stretching its fingers,
trawling the currents in
syncopated sway, for a
fine catch.
And because to them
a dark corona in darker
blue waters falling
is a signal,
they take her, and
they keep her.
Place a wet hand over her mouth to
hush her. Close around her
making the sunlight seem like
slivers between their
black weeds—
or to her do they now seem white?
Without a guide, how can
she explain which forest
encases her? A
globe of beribboned
black or white?
The pearl might know
now rolling loose among
the divine grasses, and
if picked up might
retell the story of a pearl
tied around the neck of a
woman, which, she
followed faithfully to
the bottom of the sea.
—by Sarah Dzida (February 2, 2004)
Author’s Note: I ended up living in Japan for several years, following my brother to have my own experience. Over time, I ended up learning over 200 Chinese characters or kanji and being able to read and write in the two phonetic alphabets. If you’re interesting in more of that kind of play, I have a book!