2007年 05月 13日
Mother's Day Proclamation of 1870 by Julia Ward Howe, an anti-slavery and peace movement activist
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As all my friends come out to be more noble than me, today
I bought and loved a bunch of flowers together with my wife.
Takuboku Ishikawa once wrote this thirty-one syllabled verse, when he felt a little despair of himself. But what could one do like me who even has no wives nearby? Then I'd like to post a poem written centuries ago and tribute it to my wives far apart purportedly struggling to feed the kids.
BTW do you know that you have even Parent's Day designated by your congress and the worse is that that disturbing day is for celebrating True Father and Mother, i.e., Sun Myung Moon and one of his wives!
Mother's Day Proclamation of 1870
Mother's Peace Day
from Chiff.com
Julia Ward Howe - The History of Mother's DayThe first person to fight for an official Mother's Day celebration in the United States was Julia Ward Howe. You may be more familiar with her name as the writer who wrote the words to the Civil War song, The Battle Hymn of the Republic:
"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.
Howe was born in New York City on May 27, 1819. Her family was well respected and wealthy. She was a published poet and abolitionist. She and her husband, Samuel Gridley Howe, co-published the anti-slavery newspaper The Commonwealth. She was active in the peace movement and the women's suffrage movement. In 1870 she penned the Mother's Day Proclamation. In 1872 the Mothers' Peace Day Observance on the second Sunday in June was held and the meetings continued for several years. Her idea was widely accepted, but she was never able to get the day recognized as an official holiday. The Mothers' Peace Day was the beginning of the Mothers' Day holiday in the United States now celebrated in May.
The modern commercialized celebration of gifts, flowers and candy bears little resemblance to Howe's original idea. Here is the Proclamation that explains, in her own powerful words, the goals of the original Mother's Day in the United States...
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the bosum of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if on some distant Mother's Day, the wishes of Julia Ward Howe could be fulfilled and the human race could celebrate a day when, all over the world, no mother would have to mourn the death of her child lost in war or terrorist attacks...
To all of the mothers whose children are fighting in wars - and to mothers whose children are growing up with wars raging around them or with terrorism threatening their safety... Wishes of strength, peace and hope for this Mother's Day...
[UPDATE, 2007-05-15] I posted this entry to another blog where improvisational limerick (five line poem) is prevailing currently. It is impossible for me to set rhymes properly but I had posted a few of my poems like. Haiku is very popular in the West now but Tanka is not. I suppose that it might be possible for our Tanka to compete with limerick as they are both five line verses. A sample of limerick by Cuervobrillante:
There were three little owls in a wood
Who sang hymns whenever they could.
What the words were about
One could never make out
But one felt it was doing them good.
I've got an ambition to translate the Manyo-Syu, the oldest anthology of verses in the world, in English, though it seems nearly impossible...
Well below is my comment there.
# babalabo said...
As you may know Haiku is our shortest verse with 5-7-5 syllables.
31-Syllables verse in my previous post must have 5-7-5-7-7 syllables.
So I elaborated it a bit.
To-day, all my friends
Seem to be great-er than me,
I went out to buy
A bunch of flow-ers and loved
Them to-geth-er with my wife.
Here another one.
At the sil-ver sand
Of the beach of an is-let
Of the east o-cean
I dal-ly with a crab, while
I am giv-ing way to tears.
Both written by Takuboku, a famous poet.
In this form you need not to go to rhyme.
13 May 2007 13:04
[UPDATE, 2007-05-19] Another "Takuboku" posted at the blog, where a desperate psychological battle has taken place between susan and Currvobrillante. Somehow I myself was involved in there.
babalabo said...
Thanks, Cuervobrillante:
I could correct my typo in "Mother's Day Proclamation of 1870 by Julia Ward Howe, an anti-slavery and peace movement activist" at my blog.
http://exodus.exblog.jp/5662742/
a bunch of flower ---> a banch of flower
In return, I'll offer you one more "Takuboku".
There ex-ists no false
in my words I used to talk
to my-self say-ing
"I be-lieve in com-ing up
to-mor-row", ne-ver-the-less..
Barely able to sit in 5-7-5-7-7-syllables.
17 May 2007 10:37
babalabo said...
One more "Takuboku" by my translation. Ishikawa Takuboku is a Japanese fixed and non-fixed verse poet in 1996-1912.
For a change to-day,
I was curs-ing bit-ter-ly
At the cong-ress, when
Waves of tears splashed down my cheeks.
Thrilled me to bits for noth-ing.
18 May 2007 09:37
Mother's Day Proclamation of 1870 Mother's Peace Day [Chiff.com]
Great Gift for Mother's Day: Japan's first 'baby hatch' opens to controversy (EXODUS-2005, 2007-05-11)
HONOR THY PARENTS: (Washington City Paper, Septermber 1995)
Blog Ranking Thanks in Advance.
I bought and loved a bunch of flowers together with my wife.
Takuboku Ishikawa once wrote this thirty-one syllabled verse, when he felt a little despair of himself. But what could one do like me who even has no wives nearby? Then I'd like to post a poem written centuries ago and tribute it to my wives far apart purportedly struggling to feed the kids.
BTW do you know that you have even Parent's Day designated by your congress and the worse is that that disturbing day is for celebrating True Father and Mother, i.e., Sun Myung Moon and one of his wives!
Mother's Peace Day
from Chiff.com
Julia Ward Howe - The History of Mother's DayThe first person to fight for an official Mother's Day celebration in the United States was Julia Ward Howe. You may be more familiar with her name as the writer who wrote the words to the Civil War song, The Battle Hymn of the Republic:
"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.
Howe was born in New York City on May 27, 1819. Her family was well respected and wealthy. She was a published poet and abolitionist. She and her husband, Samuel Gridley Howe, co-published the anti-slavery newspaper The Commonwealth. She was active in the peace movement and the women's suffrage movement. In 1870 she penned the Mother's Day Proclamation. In 1872 the Mothers' Peace Day Observance on the second Sunday in June was held and the meetings continued for several years. Her idea was widely accepted, but she was never able to get the day recognized as an official holiday. The Mothers' Peace Day was the beginning of the Mothers' Day holiday in the United States now celebrated in May.
The modern commercialized celebration of gifts, flowers and candy bears little resemblance to Howe's original idea. Here is the Proclamation that explains, in her own powerful words, the goals of the original Mother's Day in the United States...
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the bosum of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if on some distant Mother's Day, the wishes of Julia Ward Howe could be fulfilled and the human race could celebrate a day when, all over the world, no mother would have to mourn the death of her child lost in war or terrorist attacks...
To all of the mothers whose children are fighting in wars - and to mothers whose children are growing up with wars raging around them or with terrorism threatening their safety... Wishes of strength, peace and hope for this Mother's Day...
[UPDATE, 2007-05-15] I posted this entry to another blog where improvisational limerick (five line poem) is prevailing currently. It is impossible for me to set rhymes properly but I had posted a few of my poems like. Haiku is very popular in the West now but Tanka is not. I suppose that it might be possible for our Tanka to compete with limerick as they are both five line verses. A sample of limerick by Cuervobrillante:
There were three little owls in a wood
Who sang hymns whenever they could.
What the words were about
One could never make out
But one felt it was doing them good.
I've got an ambition to translate the Manyo-Syu, the oldest anthology of verses in the world, in English, though it seems nearly impossible...
Well below is my comment there.
# babalabo said...
As you may know Haiku is our shortest verse with 5-7-5 syllables.
31-Syllables verse in my previous post must have 5-7-5-7-7 syllables.
So I elaborated it a bit.
To-day, all my friends
Seem to be great-er than me,
I went out to buy
A bunch of flow-ers and loved
Them to-geth-er with my wife.
Here another one.
At the sil-ver sand
Of the beach of an is-let
Of the east o-cean
I dal-ly with a crab, while
I am giv-ing way to tears.
Both written by Takuboku, a famous poet.
In this form you need not to go to rhyme.
13 May 2007 13:04
[UPDATE, 2007-05-19] Another "Takuboku" posted at the blog, where a desperate psychological battle has taken place between susan and Currvobrillante. Somehow I myself was involved in there.
babalabo said...
Thanks, Cuervobrillante:
I could correct my typo in "Mother's Day Proclamation of 1870 by Julia Ward Howe, an anti-slavery and peace movement activist" at my blog.
http://exodus.exblog.jp/5662742/
a bunch of flower ---> a banch of flower
In return, I'll offer you one more "Takuboku".
There ex-ists no false
in my words I used to talk
to my-self say-ing
"I be-lieve in com-ing up
to-mor-row", ne-ver-the-less..
Barely able to sit in 5-7-5-7-7-syllables.
17 May 2007 10:37
babalabo said...
One more "Takuboku" by my translation. Ishikawa Takuboku is a Japanese fixed and non-fixed verse poet in 1996-1912.
For a change to-day,
I was curs-ing bit-ter-ly
At the cong-ress, when
Waves of tears splashed down my cheeks.
Thrilled me to bits for noth-ing.
18 May 2007 09:37
Mother's Day Proclamation of 1870 Mother's Peace Day [Chiff.com]
Great Gift for Mother's Day: Japan's first 'baby hatch' opens to controversy (EXODUS-2005, 2007-05-11)
HONOR THY PARENTS: (Washington City Paper, Septermber 1995)
Blog Ranking Thanks in Advance.
by exod-US
| 2007-05-13 19:38
| 我が命運の尽きる日まで
