Landscapes, Haiku etc

Decided to merely waffle in a mood of complete self-indulgence. Love the little picture above. Not actually a landscape but certainly a haiku:-

Patient little snail

Slides across the morning dew

In the zen garden

Obviously, as far as the snail is concerned, it could well be an English Country Garden, how would it know?

I do think sometimes of the difference between Japanese Landscapes and those of a more "western" tradition and of Kipling's little ditty:- "East is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet"

 Here on the left, a forest scene by the Russian painter Shishkin.

Here, on the right, a typical Japanese Landscape.

Quite interesting, the difference between the two; and to reflect upon the significance. Certainly not simply a difference in style but grounded in two ways of "seeing" the world once we have been born into a particular culture. 

For me this brings to mind once again the art of translation. How each of us "translates" our world. We are all in the same world and yet there is obviously a sense in which we all experience it differently. Each creating our heavens and our hells. (Though often being able to impose them on others, for good or ill)

I am reading a biography of Wittgenstein at the moment. He was the guy who said "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent". He seemed to think that we cannot speak much about anything, including ethics. Yet he insisted that such could be shown. Alas, much of his philosophy goes right over my head, or perhaps, straight through it. But the idea that what has ultimate meaning is inexpressible has resonance, not least with certain "eastern" ways, as in the opening line of the Tao  Te Ching:-

The name that can be named is not the eternal name

Well, I might be misunderstanding Wittgenstein (and he seemed pretty insistent that no one understood him) but the idea that in the realm of ethics, of meaning itself, things can only be shown and not said, well, that is consistent with much in Zen and even Christian mysticism, particularly the apophatic tradition of Meister Eckhart and St John of the Cross. 

So we have a mothers love for her child and the verse from the Bible, "and a little child shall lead them" (while the "wise" are led away, empty)

Returning to Wittgenstein, he was a pretty intense person, suicidal at various times (two of his brothers did in fact take their own lives so it seems to have run in the family) Born into immense riches but upon his inheritance, gave it all away. But as far as not understanding him, how about his conviction that he had "found the point at which solipsism and realism meet"? 

Wittgenstein, looking just a little less intense than usual

Alas, I have drifted from my original theme. So back to haiku's and the very very famous one by Basho, concerning a frog. Anyone who googles can find perhaps seven or eight varied translations of this poem. Here are two, with illustrations:-

A moment is captured, perhaps a moment where "solipsism and realism" meet, but who would know? Not me. 

Once again returning to my theme, a couple of Japanese landscapes which I like. 

Here on the left we have the moon, often a symbol of Buddhist awakening.

Here on the right, Mount Fuji, often the subject of Japanese artists. 

Well, that's all for now folks.