Tatkala berulam pucuk...

Inilah pucuk-pucuk yang digunakan dalam ulam dan salad untuk hidangan kami berdua.
Berbagai daun letus dan daun salad kami tanam di belakang rumah. Kalau perhatikan pohon di tengah itu ialah anak durian belanda.

Ini pucuk shungiku (corn marigold) atau sejenis bunga kek wa.

Ini pula daun mitsuba atau saya gelarkan sebagai daun pegaga Jepun.


Mitsuba atau pegaga Jepun setelah digoreng bersama daging kambing untuk menghilangkan bau. Kicap manis daging kambing bersama mitsuba dan kentang.
Yang di sebelah itu sop ubi keledek bersama sohoon dan kobis panjang.

Selepas 3 hari, 3 malam bermakan-makan petai sebanyak 5 papan, saya menerima satu bencana. Saya salahkan diri ini. Bukan petai yang tidak bersalah itu.

Bencana itu melanda dan menumbangkan diri ini selama 6 hari. Dalam keadaan melepek dan berpucat muka, saya membawa jasad yang longlai ini berjumpa seorang pakar kesihatan.

Alhamdulillah, saya tidak melepek lagi dan wajah ini kembali berwarna semula tapi seumur hidup yang berbaki ini, saya akan menikmati petai hanya dari jauh sahaja.

A Taste of Cherry tyme

Adakah penulis puisi ini tahu daripada pohon apakah datangnya buah ceri itu? Adakah penulis ini tahu daripada bunga apakah memutiknya buah ceri itu?

Panggilan orang Jepun pada buah ceri ialah sakuranbo. Sebenarnya buah ceri berasal dari bunga ini.

Since I'm on the topic of cherry, this is a movie about cherry.

A Taste of Cherry.

This movie by Abbas Kiarostami, 1997. It's the winner of the Golden Palm at the 1997 Cannes film festival.

The hero in the movie contemplate suicide 3 times. He tried without success 2 times. Then he met a university professor who is willing to help the hero to kill himself but while driving, the prof. tells a story about a cherry tree that help him years ago from killing himself.
After hearing story about the cherry tree, do you think the hero still want to kill himself?

Find out yourself.

My Burning heart/Bittersweet

Jalaludin Rumi


My Burning Heart

My heart is burning with love
All can see this flame
My heart is pulsing with passion
like waves on an ocean.

My friends have become strangers
and I’m surrounded by enemies.
But I’m free as the wind
no longer hurt by those who reproach me.

I’m at home wherever I am
And in the room of lovers
I can see with closed eyes
the beauty that dances.

Behind the veils
intoxicated with love
I too dance the rhythm
of this moving world.
I have lost my senses
in my world of lovers...

Bittersweet-Rumi
(edited by Deepak Chopra, reading by Madonna)

In my hallucination
I saw my beloved's flower garden
In my vertigo, in my dizziness
In my drunken haze
Whirling and dancing like a spinning wheel
I saw myself as the source of existence

I was there in the beginning
And I was the spirit of love
Now I am sober
There is only the hangover
And the memory of love
And only the sorrow

I yearn for happiness
I ask for help
I want mercy
And my love says:

Look at me and hear me
Because I am here
Just for that

I am your moon and your moonlight too
I am your flower garden and your water too
I have come all this way, eager for you
Without shoes or shawl

I want you to laugh
To kill all your worries
To love you
To nourish you

Oh sweet bitterness
I will soothe you and heal you
I will bring you roses
I, too, have been covered with thorns

Back mirror tyme

image courtesy of nifty2
Yesterday we had a brain-storming haiku session. The leader of the session, due to unavoidable circumstances could not make it for the session. So we conduct the whole procedure ourselves.
There is one particular haiku that I was attracted and I vote my point to it.
Since I voted for this haiku, I have to make my reason for the vote.

This is the haiku by Mr. Oyadomari, who is a building architect full-time but choose painting and haiku writing as his hobby.

This is the original haiku.

バックミラーに　君の顔やら　桜やら

Or Cermin belakang/ wajahmu di antara/ bunga sakura (in Bahasa Malaysia)

or From the back mirror/ I can see you among the/ blooms of sakura

The season word or kigo for this haiku is sakura.

This is what I translate from this haiku to the session yesterday.

Eventhough the writer see her (the word "kimi" is normally addressed for a younger lady) in the back mirror amongst the sakura blooms, he feels a certain loneliness, a certain sadness.

Why do I say this?
The word "back mirror" points to the fact that she is not sitting next to him. She is sitting at the back, behind him. He is alone sitting in front, by himself. He is driving her through the sakura blooms and watching her face blooms while watching the sakura along the roads. He feels happy to see the face blooms into happiness but yet inside him, he is alone, lonely and sad.

Another member opposed my narration by adding that the fact that he is seeing her among the sakura blooms is enough to make him happy. Watching the blooms of her face among the blooms of the sakura from the back mirror. By this, he is not a lonely person, sad and alone.

But the fact is he is still seeing her from the back mirror. He sees her face blooms into beauty from the back mirror and not next to him. He still feels the loneliness and singleness in the front seat.

Some members in the session make a conclusion that I am in the state of loneliness and singleness with my narration.

I say..."get a life!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(We asked the writer himself about the haiku. He said he was driving his aged mother who has sitting problem in the front seat of the car. The writer was driving her to see the sakura blooms while she was seated behind. See how right I am.

I can feel the writer's emotion. I was in that situation for all the years when my own mother was slowly dying.)

Oppai ga ippai

When my children were small, we watched this song being played on the children's programme every morning on television. This is a children's song. There is no bad image attached to it in Japan. This song is a song of respect for a woman's body.

I don't want any man, muslim or otherwise to say that I've gone overboard with this video. If you think so, don't come to my page anymore. (I will not publish such comments)
Think of our mother when we see this song. There is nothing abusive in this video.
In Japan, all children grow up singing this song. Just think of the different culture in Japan, when you see this video.
The translation is my work.

I drink it, my sister drink it too.
My mama's boob will not become small.
When taking bath, she let me touch it.
Looks like round rubber without enough air.

I drink it, my sister drink it too.
Nothing comes out of my mama's boob.
Is it sweet? I can't remember.
It is weird when I want to drink more of it.
So many boobs, so many boobs, so many boobs.
So happy, feels like touching it.

I drink it, my sister drink it too.
My mama's boob is always big.
If I press lightly, pointing with one finger.
The softness surprise me.

I drink it, my sister drinks it too.
Nothing flows out from my mama's boob.
Strangely, when another baby is born,
it will flow again.
So many boobs, so many boobs, so many boobs.
So beautiful, I like it so much.
So many boobs, so many boobs, so many boobs.
So beautiful, I like it so much.