marie’s birthday

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again! i am posting on the last day of this month.

october really flew by.

we had perfect (indian) summer’s days and a bit of wintery weather.

  

today is marie’s birthday. marie who?

marie laurencin.

she painted and wrote poems in “la belle époque” paris.

here is le carnet des nuits,

which has been my most precious book since i was so young.

e-books seem to be taking on, but favourite books will remain p-books.

papers yellow with age, while printed colours fade away.

even the written words now sound obsolete a little, maybe.

still, i love my old p-books like this one.

do you think i’ve forgotten all about halloween?

no. but, i just enjoy checking what fun-loving people do, not part of it.

i’ve cooked gnocchi di zucca for dinner, though.

happy birthday to marie!

happy halloween to everyone!

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the pedant in the kitchen

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after a period of grief, something should cheer me up.
in fact, i’ve got some happy news to tell.

the japanese version of the pedant in the kitchen, 文士厨房に入る,
came out last week.
i know that the book wouldn’t interest you, though.
unfortunately, it’s all in japanese.
no wonder i’m the translator.

its original book was written by very charming julian barnes.
it is a collection of his hilarious essays on cookbooks
from sort of a mr darcy type gentleman point of view.
i enjoyed being mr darcy-barnes when i was working on the book.
i really hope mr barnes likes my translation,
even though he can’t read japanese at all.

to my delight, my publisher managed to have mr joe berger,
who did the original book’s illustrations,
for my japanese version’s jacket.
its palette with olive green and teal reminded me of something…
something i have in my kitchen…
which turned out to be the same colours as my margaret howell’s tea towel.
what a match!

i judge a book by its cover, i always do.
and, i think this is quite charming, too.

happy weekend!
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viola, violet, violetta

hello my friends, thank you all for visiting my blog from time to time in far off in the distance.

spring came along while i was absent from blogging. a few weeks ago, when i felt tired of gloomy wintery days, i bought myself new cups and saucers, for a change and for a spring-like bright mood, so to speak. they are cheap, but still elegant, don’t you think?

meanwhile, i’ve been still working on my translation project since december. and, i am now finalizing it – checking, checking, checking! – with my editor working from tokyo prior to publication in may. he is always kind enough to send me copies of various books.

this time, two copies of two titles arrived. one was “radio-cuisine” (in japanese) written by edouard de pomiane, who is often mentioned in the book i’m working on. another was “elle” (in japanese) written by j. b. pontalis (in japanese), which was published by my publisher.

when i took its jacket off, the mauve colour, which is just the same as violas i’d picked from my park the previous day, appeared. i was charmed by the cover. of course, the content was charming and interesting enough to read at one sitting or two, though.

imagining you have beautiful spring colours in your home, too!

xxx

cornwall where colin and joy live

i learned that irving penn passed away on thursday, aged 92. he was one of my favourite photographers. and i am very fond of black and white photos like his and henri cartier-bresson’s, although i don’t take any black and white photos myself any longer. i only rely on digital camera now and my old canon eos has been laid to rest in my closet for years. i’m not good at portraits, but i used to take a few black and white ones, of colin wilson for example. he is an english author who is actually better known in japan and the usa than england.
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cool and fresh air of this glorious autumn morning brought me memories of my october trip to scenic cornwall where colin and joy wilson lived. i sort of befriended them when i made colin fly to tokyo for a special lecture as part of a symposium i organised along with my girl-colleagues. they were kindly saying to me i should visit them home in cornwall some time. so some months later, when i started my ma art course in london, i took a train from paddington. in advance of that, joy reminded me not to forget to bring a raincoat with me because the weather could be whimsical there.

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joy picked me up from the st. austell station. after a heavy shower, the sun appeared on the way to gorran haven. the day turned out to be a beautiful indian summer day, which seemed as if it’d last forever in cornwall. fuchsias were still in full bloom here and there in the village. in their big garden, there were a bungalow and several sheds that all stored some 30, 000 titles of books. i stayed at the bungalow comfortably but in fact i slept being surrounded by their bookshelves. during my stay, between sightseeing, joy took me to various places such as an archaeology workshop and a local library for her research, namely, to help colin out.

colin would work on a book in his basement study from early in the morning to 5pm every day. supper would start around 6pm when colin opened a bottle of wine. they had no dinning table. we gathered in the lounge instead, using a tray on our each lap. colin kept talking (almost nonsense) to rowan, his younger son who lived with them, while joy kept just smiling quietly. although i forgot why, i happened, and sure was certainly honoured, to meet all his family members at the weekend as his daughter came back home from south africa for some reason where she lived at the time and his elder son drove home from london to join.

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as time went by, i lost contact with them. but i am glad to find via some net news they are both well. especially these black and white photographs make me feel appreciative of the precious time in cornwall colin and joy offered me.

pic 1.
his house is built on the hill overlooking the sea, while the parrot perching on a branch overlooking me in his lounge.
pic 2.
small room next to the entrance hall. i found the young colin on an old poster quite cute.
pic 3.
idylic view out of the bungalow window where i stayed. there were flocks of sheep and goats behind the wire fence.
pic 4.
bungalow interior.
pic 5.

lounge with colin’s creative clutter.
pic 6.
their cat fell asleep on joy’s lap while their dog yawning. i often walked the dog down to the nearby shore during the stay.
pic 7.
joy told me that all the animals in the house belonged to her daughter. whenever she came home she left joy and colin her pets one by one.
pic 8.
entrance hall. no cornish country life could exist with no wellingtons!
pic 9.
in the bungalow. i picked nasturtium from the garden and placed on the windowsill.
pic 10.
mr colin wilson, smiling.
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how are you enjoying this sunday?
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a quiet week, exhilarating emails

the first half of 2009 went by and the new month began. it’s been a quiet week, but quite an extraordinary week at the same time. in fact, i received two exhilarating emails -- well, technically speaking, i was supposed to find one of them on 13th june, though; i just didn’t check it inadvertently. at any rate, the internet is incredible. i find a comment or two only once in a while if i am lucky. but, i never know who visit my blog all the way or what he or she makes of my post mostly, right? even if it is serendipitous or accidental, i have visitors without knowing. that's what i've now learned.

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someone who visited my blog was kind enough to get in touch with me via the net. martin zweiback, the sender’s name, seemed surely not familiar to me, while its subject was “me, natalie”, a film i really love. then i found that the email was, actually, from the screenwriter of the film. i was lost for wards. he felt compelled to tell me he was appreciative of my favourite films list in which he found his “me, natalie”. unbelievable. i’m just a fan of the film. it is i who is very appreciative of receiving such an email from such a great screenwriter like him! nevertheless, what brought him to this blog and made him feel like checking my profile?
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when i was fourteen, the film, which i hadn't seen yet, was a regular topic of chat among my girlfriends. so i asked my brother to take me to the cinema where “me, natalie” was on. i became a natalie, who should leave the nest and move to greenwich village, as i walked out of the cinema. i also bought myself a copy of screenplay of “me, natalie” a few years later. the impact those film and book had on me was huge and deep. almost miraculously, i still have the book. so i can tell how much natalie’s story meant to me. she was my hero throughout adolescence, while i was not able to live a life of natalie’s at the time.
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centuries later i saw the film and read the book written by martin zwieback, i am living a life of Independence just like natalie, anyhow. even though this is not bohemian greenwich village, i can’t complain, i am comfortable about myself. oh, and, another email? sorry if i sound like a braggadocio again, but i couldn't keep this to myself. so...another email i received it on friday was from a publisher whom i sent my book proposal at the end of june. a quick reply is always good news in this kind of case. he got back to me right after he found my translated book potentially readable. no matter what kind of snag i would hit, i am thrilled with my new project.