Perasmian kigo

Dua kali setahun, kami terima senarai kata musim baharu daripada Ketua Persatuan Haiku Jepun. Kami telitikan istilah-istilah baharu yang telah diluluskan dan menjadi rasmi untuk pembentukan haiku. Lelaki yang duduk di kanan itu guru pesara yang baru terima anugerah penulis Haiku di Okinawa dan telah terbitkan 8 buku himpunan haiku. Lelaki duduk tengah juga telah menerima beberapa anugerah haiku selama 35 thn berkecimpung menulis haiku. Perempuan itu mengajar haiku di balai raya. Dan saya mengajar haiku online kepada peminat berbahasa Melayu. Kami sama-sama telah terbitkan beberapa antologi haiku bahasa Jepun. Gambar Kumpulan Haiku Sagaribana di Balai Raya Nishihara (22 Ogos 2017).

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Pandanus

(Picture) Pandan leaves in our garden

This morning, hubby and I went to the Garden Center to get some baby spring onions. We bought some spring onions and celery sprouts to grow at home.

Then we saw two pots of pandan leaves. This is the first time I saw pandan leaves sold in Okinawa.
The local name for it is "niou adan" (say : ni-oh-oo + a-dang) or fragrant pandanus.

Picture from Google

There are lots of pandanus fascicularis grown on the beach on the northern side of Okinawa main island.
Pandan is the name of the plant in the Malay language, taken from its original Pandanus source.
The local name for this plant is Adan (say : a-dang). This is why they call the kitchen pandan as niou adan because of the plant physical similarities and niou or fragrant is stronger in the kitchen variety.

That's all folks.

Morning Momiji

The call of translating one's work into another language kept on hitting my mind after receiving an award for the novel PAGI SEMERAH DAUN MOMIJI. I told myself that I need to make the book known to non-Malay readers. I started translating the book into English from 6 May 2014. It took me more than two years and it was completed on 23 June 2016.

The manuscript went to DBP on 10 March 2017. At last, I signed the letter of acceptance from the publisher on 30 Sept. 2017.

I needed to write a blurb for the book. It would make the task a lot easier for me just by translating the blurb from the first book which is in Malay, but I thought since the readers in English come from all races, all backgrounds and all countries, it would be better to write from a different angle.
The idea came suddenly while I was resting on the bed from a sudden cold. I grabbed a paper wrapper from the trash bin beside my bed and started the scribbling.

It went under the editor's scanning on 18 Dec. 2017.
Hopefully, the blurb will attract reader's interest in the book.

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