WKD - Leap Second - Leap Day - Leap Year

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leap day -
the haiku frogs jump
to new heights





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leap day 閏日 uroobi, junjitsu （うるうび、じゅんじつ）
kigo for early spring

February 29
2012年2月29日

Schalttag, Schaltjahr

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A leap year (or intercalary year)
is a year containing one or more extra days (or, in the case of lunisolar calendars, an extra month) in order to keep the calendar year synchronised with the astronomical or seasonal year.

For example, in the Gregorian calendar, February would have 29 days in a leap year instead of the usual 28. Because seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of full days, a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would, over time, drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track.

By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. A year which is not a leap year is called a common year.

Leap Day
February 29 is a date that occurs only every four years, and is called leap day. This day is added to the calendar in leap years as a corrective measure, because the earth does not orbit around the sun in precisely 365.000 days.

A person born on February 29 may be called a "leapling" or "leaper". In common years they usually celebrate their birthdays on 28 February or 1 March.

Chinese calendar
The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, so a leap year has an extra month, often called an embolismic month after the Greek word for it. In the Chinese calendar the leap month is added according to a complicated rule, which ensures that month 11 is always the month that contains the northern winter solstice. The intercalary month takes the same number as the preceding month; for example, if it follows the second month (二月) then it is simply called "leap second month" (traditional Chinese: 閏二月).

Folk traditions
In the English speaking world, it is a tradition that women may propose marriage only on leap years. While it has been argued that the tradition was initiated by Saint Patrick or Brigid of Kildare in 5th century Ireland, it is dubious as the tradition has not been attested before the 19th century.

Supposedly, a 1288 law by Queen Margaret of Scotland (then age five and living in Norway), required that fines be levied if a marriage proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from a kiss to £1 to a silk gown, in order to soften the blow. Because men felt that put them at too great a risk, the tradition was in some places tightened to restricting female proposals to the modern leap day, 29 February, or to the medieval leap day, 24 February.

According to Felten: "A play from the turn of the 17th century, 'The Maydes Metamorphosis,' has it that 'this is leape year/women wear breeches.' A few hundred years later, breeches wouldn't do at all: Women looking to take advantage of their opportunity to pitch woo were expected to wear a scarlet petticoat -- fair warning, if you will."



In Denmark, the tradition is that women may propose on leap day 24 February and that refusal must be compensated with 12 pairs of gloves.

In Greece, it is believed that getting married in a leap year is bad luck for the couple[citation needed]. Thus, mainly in the middle of the past century, couples avoided setting a marriage date in a leap year.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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2008 - a LEAP year ...

The 2008 Year of the Frog Global campaign will achieve its goal of helping keep threatened amphibians afloat through the amazing and dedicated efforts of individuals, institutions and regional zoo associations from all around the planet.
http://www.amphibianark.org/YOTFnews.htm



WKD : Basho and his Frog
Hundred Frogs and The Sound of Water
(Mizu no Oto)
.. READ : one hundred frogs


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leap year --
working one day longer
for my pay

Isabelle Prondzynski, 2008


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2012 - a LEAP year ...



. original at illust-library.com


Daruma jumps
to new hights -
this leap day

. Haiku and Daruma san .


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Click on the image to join the fun on facebook !


this leap day -
let's all jump
in the Haiku Pond



source :　webclipart.about.com



leap year
an ol' frog
sleeps in 　

Don Baird





Leap Day... I wonder if Bashou knew?!　

Dennis Chibi




leap year . . .
a last baby step
before march　

Elaine Andre




leap year day . . .
an immigrant asks directions
to his childhood home　

Sandip Sital Chauhan


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a rainbow leaps!
swatting yellow jackets
on Kern River

Jimmy ThePeach


Rainbow Trout - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

Kern River - More in the WIKIPEDIA !


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leap year ---
a Bronx Zoo tree kangaroo
doesn't know what all the fuss about　


a rain storm---
makes a leap day feel
much longer

Fred Masarani


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Vieillir... mais pas trop vite
son anniversaire
tous les quatre ans.


Aging... but not too fast
her birthday
every four years.

Patrick Fetu


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Uniqlo UK sent out a special advertisement on Leap Day,
with what I take to be a haiku :

take a leap
into our lucky dip --
only today
~Uniqlo ad

And another haiku of mine, same day :

leap day --
walking down the stairs
with an extra bounce

~ Isabelle Prondzynski

May we all have an extra bounce in our step this leap year!



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this leap year -
one day older
than last year　


the end of February
additional day for
salary

Gennady Nov


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I was inspired by the Leap Day Folk Traditions !



iThings -
the world grows
smaller each day


sunlight casts doubt...
will a warm february
leap into a cold march?　

Pat Geyer



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snow dances with limbs
turning fouettes and jétés
this leap year

Kit Nagamura






a cold leap day
it snows in Tokyo
rarely long boots

Hideo Suzuki



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nearly leap day--
the class teacher complains
about salary payment

Eric Mwange




Leap Day --
and where was I now
four years ago?

Catherine Njeri



drunken driver --
a young man was killed
this leap day

Isabelle Prondzynski


MORE

. WKD : Leap Daya in Kenya .



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haiku - leaping begins
first city
to see the light

Benita Kape




the old man takes
his first walk in months -
leap day

Bill Kenney


- Shared at WHC workshop -

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another day
covered in snow -
my leap day


every day
is haiku day -
this leap day



leap day trouble -
my server looses
the connection






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A leap second is a one-second adjustment that is occasionally applied
to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) in order to keep its time of day
close to the mean solar time.
The next leap second will be inserted on
June 30, 2012 at 23:59:60 UTC.

©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


leap second --
my shadow becomes
longer

Chen-ou Liu, Canada

Note:
At the earliest moment in the morning, a team of scientists at the Paris Observatory added a leap second "to make up for a gradual slowdown in the Earth's rotation."


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WKD Reference: Calendar Systems of the World


. ichinichi saijiki 一日歳時記 One Day Saijiki .


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WKD - Miyazawa Kenji

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暑さにも負けず遍路の道長き


atsusa ni mo
makezu henro no
michi nagaki


not even yielding
to the great heat ...
pilgrim on the road




Today I visited a temple in Yamaguchi ... online of course ...

. . . 龍蔵寺 . . . Ryuzo-Ji



My daily duty walk along our rural memorial pilgrimage of Shikoku was really HOT, 36 degrees in the shadow ... atsusa ni mo makezu ... kept ringing in my mind all the way ... :o)


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source :　Tomikichiro Tokuriki 1902-1999


Miyazawa Kenji wrote this famous poem ...

ame ni mo makezu

ame ni mo makezu
kaze ni mo makezu
yuki ni mo natsu no atsusa ni mo makenu

jōbu na karada wo mochi
yoku wa naku
kesshite ikarazu
itsu mo shizuka ni waratte iru
ichi nichi ni genmai yon gō to
miso to sukoshi no yasai wo tabe
arayuru koto wo
jibun wo kanjō ni irezu ni
yoku mikiki shi wakari
soshite wasurezu
nohara no matsu no hayashi no kage no
chiisa na kayabuki no koya ni ite
higashi ni byōki no kodomo areba
itte kanbyō shite yari
nishi ni tsukareta haha areba
itte sono ine no taba wo oi
minami ni shinisō na hito areba
itte kowagaranakute mo ii to ii
kita ni kenka ya soshō ga areba
tsumaranai kara yamero to ii
hidori no toki wa namida wo nagashi
samusa no natsu wa oro-oro aruki

minna ni deku-no-bō to yobare
homerare mo sezu
ku ni mo sarezu
sō iu mono ni
watashi wa naritai


not losing to the rain
not losing to the wind
not losing to the snow or to the heat of the summer
with a strong body
unfettered by desire
never losing temper
cultivating a quiet joy
every day four bowls of brown rice
miso and some vegetables to eat
in everything
count yourself last and put others before you
watching and listening, and understanding
and never forgetting
in the shade of the woods of the pines of the fields
being in a little thatched hut
if there is a sick child to the east
going and nursing over them
if there is a tired mother to the west
going and shouldering her sheaf of rice
if there is someone near death to the south
going and saying there's no need to be afraid
if there is a quarrel or a suit to the north
telling them to leave off with such waste
when there's drought, shedding tears of sympathy
when the summer's cold, walk in concern and empathy
called a blockhead by everyone
without being praised
without being blamed
such a person
I want to become

©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !




kokeshi with this poem

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Bending neither to the rain
Nor to the wind
Nor to snow nor to summer heat,
Firm in body, yet
Geoffrey Bownas and Anthony Thwaite,
The Penguin Book of Japanese Verse, 1964


Neither rain
nor wind
nor snow nor summer’s heat
will affect his robust body. . . .
Makoto Ueda,
Modern Japanese Writers and the Nature of Literature, 1982


Undaunted by the rain,
Undaunted by the wind,
Undaunted by the snow or the summer heat,
With a strong body
Donald Keene,
Dawn to the West, 1984


Strong in the rain
Strong in the wind
Strong against the summer heat and snow
He is healthy and robust
Roger Pulvers,
Kenji Miyazawa: Poems, 1997

source : 　japanfocus.org

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Kenji Miyazawa 宮沢 賢治, Miyazawa Kenji

27 August 1896 - 21 September 1933,
Hanamaki, Iwate, Japan
was a poet and author of children's literature in early Shōwa period Japan. He was also known as a devout Buddhist, vegetarian and social activist.

Miyazawa was born in what is now Hanamaki city, Iwate Prefecture as the eldest son of a wealthy pawnbroker. From an early age, he was disturbed by what he perceived to be the social inequity between his well-to-do family, who lived by lending money to the impoverished farmers in the area. In 1918, he graduated from Morioka Agriculture and Forestry College. He was a bright student, so his academic advisor wanted him as an assistant professor. However, differences with his father over religion (he converted to the more activist Nichiren sect), and his repugnance for the family pawnshop business (he yielded his inheritance to his younger brother), created much unhappiness in his early life, and in 1921, he departed Hanamaki for Tokyo.

In Tokyo, while staying with a friend, he was introduced to the works of poet Sakutarō Hagiwara, and was encouraged to start writing. After eight months in Tokyo, during which time he began to write children's stories, he returned to Hanamaki due to the illness and subsequent death of his younger sister.

He found employment as a teacher in agricultural science at Hanamaki Agricultural High School (花巻農学校). Saving his meagre salary, he was able to finance the publication of his first collection of children's stories and fairy tales (Chūmon no Ōi Ryōriten - 注文の多い料理店 - The Restaurant of Many Orders) and a portion of a collection of free-verse poems (Haru to Shura - 春と修羅 - Spring and Asura) in 1924. Although neither work was a commercial success, his writings came to the attention of poets Kotaro Takamura and Shimpei Kusano, who admired his writing greatly and introduced it to the literary world.

...

Miyazawa's works were influenced by contemporary trends of romanticism and the proletarian literature movement, but above all were influenced by his devotion to the Lotus Sutra in particular.
Miyazawa struggled with pleurisy for many years, and was often incapacitated for months at a time. He died in 1933 of pneumonia.

It may also be noted that Miyazawa had at least a passing interest in Esperanto. He loved his native province, and Ihatov (or Ihatovo), the name of the fictional location that appeared in his works, was constructed from the name Iwate (Ihate in the older spelling) in a manner similar to Esperanto.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !



Gingatetsudō no Yoru
Night on the Galactic Railroad

1996 marked the 100th anniversary year of the birth of Kenji Miyazawa.



Miyazawa's mix of East and West begins with the names of the two young characters of the story: Jovanni (Giovanni) and Kanpanera (Campanella). The story takes place during the imaginary "Centaurus" Festival, a time when lanterns are lit to show deceased ancestors the way home. This imaginary festival occurs in August, and in the story, Miyazawa images children running and scampering, yelling that Centaurus is "dropping dew" [no doubt, a somewhat misplaced reference to the Perseids].

The Milky Way Train: Celebrating Kenji Miyazawa
By: Steve Renshaw and Saori Ihara, 1999


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Miyazawa Kenji wrote a famous book about a bear hunter

なめとこ山の熊 Nametoko yama no kuma
The bears of Nametoko Mountain



It's interesting, that business of the bears on Mt. Nametoko. Nametoko is a large mountain, and the Fuchizawa River starts somewhere inside it. On most days of the year, the mountain breathes in and breathes out cold mists and clouds. The peaks all around it, too, are like blackish green slugs or bald sea goblins..........

Read more here:
WKD : Bears as Kigo


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落し文宛名は風の又三郎
otoshibumi atena wa Kaze no Matasaburoo

a lost letter -
the address is
Kaze no Matasaburo

Satoo Hirokazu 佐藤博一

This needs some explanation.
otoshibumi is the name of the leaf-cut weevil. The pun in Japanese does not go well if I use the name of the animal for the first line.



quote
Kaze no Matasaburô - A Wind Boy
Miyazawa's collection of stories for children, published after his death in 1933, Kaze no Matasaburô contains six stories. This book is in fine binding with illustrations by Koana Ryûichi, and an introduction by Tsubota Jôji, who had already established his position in the world of children's literature. This book was recommended by the Ministry of Education and well read. With Kaze no Matasaburô, Miyazawa became famous as an author for children.

"Kaze no Matasaburô" is about a strange boy named Takada Saburô. On a windy day, he appears in an elementary school at a mountainside. He says he has come from Hokkaido with his father. His new classmates think he might be Matasaburô, a wind boy. He spent twelve days there, studying and playing with the village children. As wind blows when he does something, the boys come to believe he is really Matasaburô. Then, on a windy day, he is gone. Although it is an unfinished work, it is regarded as the best work of Miyazawa, as well as one of the masterpieces in the history of Japanese children's literature. It is widely read today.

Kaze no Matasaburô was dramatized by Gekidan Tôdô, and made into a movie in 1940. The song at the beginning of this story became very popular. A reprint of the original edition was published by Holp Shuppan in 1971.
source : www.iiclo.or.jp


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. Hagiwara Sakutaro 萩原朔太郎 .


I wrote the above haiku whilst researching for this

Shikoku Fudo Pilgrimage

Shikoku Henro Pilgrimage to 88 Temples


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- #miyazawakenji -
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cherry shade

staying in the shade - waiting for a haiku to be born

Photo album
. START the walk from HERE . 　


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. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2011

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autumn butterflies

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autumn butterflies -
a final dance from
light to shadow





光から陰へのダンス　秋の蝶



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It was amazing to see the two little yellow ones suddenly disappear, when a cloud covered the late autumn sun and the valley fell into deep darkness ... all of a sudden.

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................. DUTCH translation:


herfstvlinders -
een finale dans van
licht naar schaduw

Geert Verbeke


................. Scots translation:

hairst butteries -
a hinmaist jig frae
licht tae sheddae

John McDonald


................. Romanian translation:

fluturi in octombrie-
dansul final dintre
lumina si umbra

Vasile Moldovan


................. French Translation:

des papillons d'automne---
dans une dernière danse
la lumière devient ombre

Keith A. Simmonds



Thanks to all my friends from WonderHaikuWorlds for the translations !


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Some friends thought the use of FINAL was too much of a personification here, leading to the death of the butterflies ...

I used it to mean the final moment for myself,
when I could not see them any more, after watching them for about two minutes, they simply vanished in mid-air when the late sunshine stopped to fall on them and they were ... gone, invisible, it was final for me ...


If you extend the meaning of FINAL as seen of the life of the butterfly, this is a different way of interpretation
(I might have intended or not ;) ).


This is a scene I can only observe in late autumn sunshine and enjoy every year to the fullest !

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Issa and world fellows Display in Tokyo
Nakamura Sakuo Special Exhibition
February 2008



Butterflies (choochoo) KIGO

Read my Haiku Archives 2007


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shiawase happiness

幸せは足元にあり俳句みち shiawase wa ashimoto ni aru Haiku michi happiness is right at our footsteps - haiku walk ................................................................................. sunshine grows into shadows - symphony in yellow ................................................................................. ................................................................................. 幸せは青空にある俳句みち shiawase wa aozora ni aru haiku michi happiness is right up in the sky - haiku walk

. START the walk from HERE 　



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. happiness, bliss (shiawase) and HAIKU 　　


. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2010

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WKD - Apricot Blossoms

reaching for the sky - the apricot blossoms but not I

daybreak - -
light and shadow
on the apricot blossoms
Spring 2010



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kigo for late spring

apricot blossoms - anzu no hana 杏の花

..... hana anzu 花杏（はなあんず）
(Prunus ansu)
karamomo no hana からももの花（からもものはな）
anzu chiru 杏散る（あんずちる）Anzu blossoms scatter

kyookason 杏花村（きょうかそん）village with Anzu blossoms




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apricot, the fruit, anzu　杏
..... "Chinese Peach", karamomo 唐桃, からもも

The land of origin is Nepal and the tree reached Japan via China.
The fruit is prepared as jam, dry fruit or sweet pickles in sirup.

kigo for mid-summer


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. Plants in Spring .


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Spider in Blossom

war in Iraq - the spider hides in a cherry blossom

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When I walked toward the cherry tree, the spider must have sensed my shadow and started running to hide. So the photo was first. And the war on Irak is something very much on my mind all the time these days ... it was simply the first thing that came to my mind when seeing the spider run ...

I consicered this version later, but then decided to stick with my first mind flash


war on my mind -
a spider hides
in the cherry blossom



Krieg im Irak -
die Spinne versteckt sich
in einer Kirschblüte


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Comments from H. H.

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More of my Cherry Blossoms

more . SPIDERS in my Paradise !


Peace and War and Haiku


Read my Haiku Archives 2007


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