柔らかく
海霧守る
考えを

yawarakaku
umigiri mamoru
kangae o

softly, a sea fog shelters my thoughts



...this is what you could see of my house last late evening, about 20:00 - a slow, light-greyblue, teary-wet, misty-mooded
low wadding cloud mounting from the sea up to the hills...believe me, this is the VERY FIRST TIME in my whole life I've seen
such a thing: that's why, luckily having with me my camera, I hurried to take some images...here for you to get amazed and
enjoy - yes, even in some "paese del sole", even in the full of a springtime, we can be taken back to our MISTY PAST of nice
memories and calm sad moments, when we happened to sit and DESIRE a soft fog to come cover and protect and shelter our
mind, our soul from that struggling life outside...

(see more in the comments' page)

...I'm very glad and grateful to add, some days later, a version of my 俳句 coming by my excellent Maestro and Friend
sakuo3903, for which I used one of the images that you'll find inside the comments' page....:



海の霧
優しく包む
我が思い

umi no kiri
yasashiku tsutsumu
waga omoi

sea fog, softly hugging my thoughts

(this text © nakamura sakuo sensei - 中村作雄先生)

a few days ago, it was my splendid friend wicapis' birthday....shame on me, I have a very bad memory about the dates,
anniversaries and so on - so I decided to try and be forgiven by making her the too belated gift of a song that I love so much:
it just took me the shortest download time to realize WHAT A BEAUTY I had chosen from the chaotic catalog of my musical
memories....I do sincerely hope that wic won't get upset with me if HER gift is now presented to all my as well splendid Ladies
friends on LiveJournal - I'm perhaps too a big "romantic"...but my whole heart was yelling at me "HEY YOU, SUCH A JEWEL
MUST BE SENT IN THE SKIES MORE, AND MORE, AND MOREOVER, TO FALL DOWN LIKE A SILVER MOON RAIN
ON THE FIRST STARRY SPRING NIGHT, TO CUDDLE ALL THE WOMEN IN THIS WORLD, TO TELL THEM ALL AGAIN,
AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN, WHAT JEWELS THEY ARE"...so please, you all Beauties in your Heart and Eyes and Mind,
accept my now even poorest gift, forgive me all of you, stop whatever you may be doing at the moment to sit and enjoy:
for once, one of us gratuitously feels as to offer you back the sweetness that you gratuitously, endlessly, caressingly give
along your whole life, for once one of us gratuitously feels as to seriously witness you HOW POOR WOULD THIS WORLD
BE, WITHOUT "SHE"....:



gabbiano・夜かもめ・鴎庵

(ps: to tell the whole truth, I was posting the mere, simple, unforgettable video version by the IMMENSE Charles Aznavour:
please forgive me once again, if I allowed myself to be hopelessly captured by the STUPENDOUS Julia Roberts' smile....)

...love - and a SOLID dose of "mediterranean diet": a new clean warm spring sun, repeated showers of
no-chlore clean fresh water (straight from the hill above), half a kilogram of good fertile hearth (from the
feet of the most beautiful lemon tree up above the garden), and three days of patience, sweat, "DAMN!s",
hands dirty up to the elbows...AAATCHOOOO!!!...and my neverending fluuuOOOOTTCHOOO!!!...
some of you friends will remember my grumpiest mood six months ago, when my green little elder brothers
caught a bad illness in a very unexpected and unusual way: the OIDIO, a vine parasite, had reduced them all
there to die...then, patience, spring, diet - and rythmical periodical constant sprays of the most ancient and
common medication known around here, sulphur alternate with verdigris once a week (I mean, for instance,
monday > friday, two coffespoonful in a 1.1/2 lt. water, mixed in a spray-bottle of glass-cleansing...obviously,
emptied!) all along the end of this past horrible winter - and this time I won't repeat my too often said word,
"presumption", for I'M TOTALLY PROUD OF MYSELF...here they are:




ACER PALMATUM JAPONICUM, 28 cms.




CRYPTOMERIA JAPONICA, 29 cms.




(them both, for you to compare)




ULMUS PARVIFOLIA SINENSIS, 19 cms - 14 cms


I like to add a photo of these last two, my "micro-zen garden": please come sit herein and enjoy!




PS, one more mini-comment...be quite sure that EVERY bonsai gardener will SHAMELESSLY LIE if you naïvely ask
him "how old are your plants?" - I can only say that I have my ULMUS since 1978, and it was already far more than
adult (been told then that it was about 60 years old...as well as my MOMIJI, sharing my life since 1980, which knocked
at my balcony around his 40s - can't say much about the CRYPTOMERIA, which seems to be the youngest one...with
me since 1998, but I'd say it is a NICELY AGED SIGNORINA, ne?

...how often I can't withstand my so many unjustified, silly and out-of-time sudden-born wishes - no, "desires"
is far more correct : here's one, quickestly "blossomed" as I was making some order at home, WRECKED
in my oldEST things...a white photo-copier paper sheet, stolen don't remember where, along one of my past
rainy winter working days (oh, must be CENTURIES ago!...) with the simplest and most childish drawing you
all could ever imagine - although I remember it as a real life moment: well, briefly - a haiku (this one too, silly,
easy, wrong and/or whatever) jumped off my mind by itself - so I hope you'll forgive me once more the extreme
presumption (and fun) of posting EVEN SUCH THINGS on my LJ:

春月見
海を聞いても
完全な

「haru getsumi ・ umi o kiite mo ・ kanzen na」

watching the moon,
listening to the sea,
perfect.



"yomoon" - BIC pen on extra strong copy paper, size A4 - around 1987


(ps: I "invented" the expression GETSUMI on the model of HANAMI, 「花見」...)

longest silence and absence, I know...due to a bad flu, overdone by such a bad weather carrying bad will and grumpy
mood - WHAT an Easter time, we'd better say "merry Xmas"!...but I thank the Kami for I can't endure in a too long time
inactivity, so here you are my last (and, to my "mean" eyes, SERIOUSLY little worth this time) "newborn" works...little
to say as well, I'll just keep waiting for your comments:



(STORMY NIGHT CLOUDS - oil on rough handwoven canvas, cms. 48 x 71)

春夜更け
決闘続く
風と窓

「haru yofuke ・ kettou tsuzuku ・ kaze to mado」

full of a spring night – windows duelling with wind.




(CLIFFS AND WAVES - watercolours on Amalfi handmade paper, cms 21 x 33)

大しけの
窓を開けるや
平手打ち

「ooshike no ・ mado o akeru ya ・ hira te uchi」

seastorm slaps my face, as I open the window.


(ps: OBVIOUSLY, as usual, thanks to the kindest corrections by sakuo3903 先生)

a personal and due "HOMMAGE À" my dearest friend and splendid photographer a__ya,
whose magic I poorly tried to imitate by adding some words to two of her later pics...the child
you can see in the first photograph is Masha, one of her more than splendid daughters; the hand
"guesting" the titmouse in the second photograph is Arinka's, her other "jewel" - to my very bad
luck, I don't know personally them neither the other bird...but I like to welcome them to my nest:



ALLA'S SPRINGTIME - http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/a__ya/post67068039/

小鳥二羽
雪を変えたり
甘い春

「kotori ni wa ・ yuki o kaetari ・ amai haru」

two little birds
make the snow change
to sweet spring　



ALLA'S SPRINGTIME - http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/a__ya/post67068039/

春笑い、
子を信じると
シジュウガラ

「haru warai, ・ ko o shinjiru to ・ shijyuugara」

a titmouse
being trusty to a child,
smile of this spring


(ps: finally now, the definitive photos, after the always precious sakuo3903 Sensei's corrections to my bad japanese)

...I'm sorry for deleting all your kindest previous replies and comments to this entry: I just realized how these two things were
born like twins, in my mind, to be seen/read in sequence and maybe compared in their peculiar "growth-through-movement"...
I moved therefore the whole previous one to its original place, in order to create the right sequence with its naturally related
"following step":





たんぽぽは
私の夢の
翼哉

「tanpopo ha ・ watashi no yume no ・ tsubasa kana」

dandelion, amazing wings to my dreams


yes, something springy: dandelions are fully flowering at my door, they don't matter the coldest wind - they only
know the cleanest sunlight we're having since a whole week, and their bright yellow seems to invite Spring to hurry
towards me, and me to hurry towards Her...so, a little haiku was suddenly born - oh, I also need to thank by deepest
heart the unknown author of this splendid photograph, such a lucky web "trouvaille", which I'd be totally glad to gift
Him/Her back now - and pleased even more if He/She liked my presumptuous "additions"...





...and more - more and more springy, although my mood isn't still all that breezy...





枝踊り
その影壁で
春風に

「eda odori ・ sono kage kabe de ・ harukaze ni」

dance of a branch, its shade on a wall through the spring breeze

...I can finally add these images, after italian and japanese Post Offices have rightly
accomplished their work: I wanted to express my gratitude in a personal way with
these two little thoughts - the first one to Sakuo Sensei for his friendship and his
endless kindness with this poor goofy student and soi-disant haijin, the second one
to Furutani Sensei, who by extreme courtesy created my seal, and sent me as a
Christmas present one of his precious writing/printings...I wrote two of my haiku,
added some words to thank them both, mounted the shodou papers on two crude
silk scarves, at all similar to the one you could see in my previous post, and lastly
on two wooden boards...
...I hope you will comfort me by saying they are done in at least acceptable way:
you know, it's truly shameful to "invade" someone else's domain, more than all in
my case, for these Persons are two absolute MAESTRI in it...

...it all began with the ugly yellow box of an elegant wallet I was gifted for Xmas - and that's all what I was
able to "give birth" to, along these bad times: sincerely, I'm realizing more and more (and more than all NOW)
that it's not a too well done work: I understand by myself the reasons, not too much time left to achieve the
two works to send to London - not accuracy neither novelties, only four old haikus that I wrote back in time,
one for each season, simply repeated and badly written here...yes, the level is LOW LOW LOW, although the
work was hard and often seriously binding for my fingers (I made it all by myself, the sewing the cutting the
leather covering etc)...oh well, briefly, I hope you friends can find in such a strange object some "curiosity
pleasure" at least - anyway, here you are the final outcome of my depressing attempts: I named it, like that
next-to-come book of mine, 「俳句の一年・HAIKU NO ICHINEN」, "haiku for one year".



BOX: cms 4 x 14 x 11;
INSIDE COVER: plain silk, deep brown; Amalfi watercolor ivory paper 100% cotton, 340 g/mq;
OUTSIDE COVER: thin suede leather, nut brown;
OUTSIDE LACE: violet suede leather, crossed thru an ancient samurai's helmet clasp;



BOOKLET: Fabriano 80% cotton deep green paper 260 g/mq, Amalfi handmade light ivory paper 60 g/mq;
BOOKLET TIE: natural corn straw;



FABRIC SUPPORT: pure cotton and rough silk in two different beige colour tones, cms 12 x 54;
VELLUM: ram, appr. end XIX century, each one sized cms 6.01 x 9.02;
INKS: japanese and chinese originals;
BRUSHES: japanese originals - swan, marten;

SEALS: these last ones deserve a special comment - the biggest one was carved expressly for
me by a friend of Sakuo Sensei's, Furutani Sensei, who is a real Maestro of this Art: it shows,
written with the chinese-like reverse order and in the original "tensho" style, the two kanji for
「鴎庵・OU AN」 (SEAGULL ・ HERMITAGE); I myself carved years ago the second one with the
「鴎・OU」 and the two small lozenges: these last ones show my full name's capitals 「FLDP」
and the Amalfi's symbol 「the Malta cross」as they appear in the ancient monograms/seals
of my mother's family.

夜かもめ ・ 鴎庵

I have little to say - or better, I could say lots, but I'm not in the right mood, as you can read and
easily imagine by the folio below: I'm here just to post something and to tell friends that I'm still
alive...nothing but a little (yes, and big sized) work I have achieved thru this last week, sort of
previous training to one of the two I'm sending to this year's SSI Lay Members Day Exhibition in
London - yes, I decided that one of them will be a shodou, although not all that big...oh well,
comments are open, and friends welcome, LOL!





「冬の風」・ fuyu no kaze ・ winter wind


...adding two days later one more, smaller but same-mooded shodou:





海雲に
見張かもめは
冬の超え

umigumo ni
mihari kamome ha
fuyu no koe

watchful gulls through the seaclouds, voice of this winter


(NdH: "mihari" would better be literally translated as "GUARDIAN, SENTINEL", which IS one specific role in a
gulls flock's social organization...I truly loved the idea and image of such a minimal and extreme attention,
"WATCHFULNESS" - like a RON'IN ("wave-man") samurai left alone on that misty cliff and paying his closest
"senses' attention" to the world around him...deep mind clearness and total self-defense.)


かもめ筆 ・ 鴎庵

so once again, and I truly can't figure myself out the reasons of such a bad luck around
every Christmas time, this is a very unpleasant moment for me...once more, I won’t speak
of my troubles here and now, there's a place and a time for such things - but, as always,
I’m once again not sure as well that I’ll be able and in time to achieve the whole sending
of my billions Christmas gifts and cards...
...what I won't miss instead is my traditional habit of this Christmas post: this year, I have
chosen to write only one Word - although my too poor japanese doesn't allow me to know
the correct expression exactly saying what I'm meant... the Word (whose writing I found
in two and apparently both right forms, 「感謝 ・ kansha」 and 「謝恩 ・ shaon 」on all my
dictionaries) is simple, deep, truly felt and sincere: therefore, I hope that my dearest
friends and the whole LJ community will believe and accept this so little, so insufficient
expression of my heart and feelings...
...you all gave me the strenght and the Beauty of your presence, allowed me to grow and
become some little better than I was, supported my funny dreams, applauded to my little
unworthy things, sheltered all my uneasinesses...so I really couldn't choose but this Word,
to express my thankful heart and mind, to wish you and your beloved ones the most beautiful
Christmas of your life - the Word I have chosen and written by my whole heart is GRATITUDE.



「感謝 ・ kansha」



「謝恩 ・ shaon 」

(for sakuo 先生 and all my japanese Maestri and friends: どうぞ御免なさい, if my Words
are wrong in their writing...be quite sure that they are strongly right in my soul.)

夜かもめ ・ 鴎庵 ・ gabbiano

well, I seem to be missing herein since Jurassic!...paying today a due honour to the new-graduated Architect
("technical and creative designer of fashion and accessories"), my daughter Gaia, wearing here the dress that
she herself created for the occasion...followed by a funny micro-collection I sketched years ago, which she's
now "reducing" to technically suitable/correct designs...YUK!, isn't it a good collaboration? so, all the charming
Ladies whose friendship honour me as well are invited: some details about the fabrics, décors, accessories and
realization can be read below each image:





"SILVER RAIN"
grande soirée dress, PaynesGrey silk satin edged in Anthracite silk satin and plotted with silver threads; the
stole has a long silver/grey binge; "ballerina" shoes, also edged by a subtle anthracite line, are made of the
same fabric, with a flat lacelet strictly tied to the ankle; all accessories and jewels are pearls tied with silver.



"WATERS"
grande soirée, a transparent multilayered satin dress in all the lightest colors of seawaters; the high-chest ending
top with its "rose-like knot" and the bolero jacket are both composed by hundreds braids of NavyBlue velvet and
silver round-section lacelets, applied for both the items on a NavyBlue silk satin base.




"FIRST NIGHT"
PearlIridescentWhite and Black silk satin for this grande soirée dress: stole and rose are in the same fabric,
as well as the shoes; the "nest" starting over the rose and completing the dress on the back, edged in the
same satin, is composed by micro-tubes of aemathite on elastic, to suit the body at its best.




"LHASA"
grande soirée dress in heavy velvet DeepMauve and DarkOrangeYellow: an extremely simple composition,
where the most glamorous item is the longest wig, done with Raven Black silk entertwined with gold threads
and decorated with semi-precious stones as turquoise, oxidiane, jade, coral, ending with small gold ferrules.

I'm not in a good mood - well, easy to see, this folio is horrible...but something sounds to
my ear not too bad in the haiku itself: must be after my "japanese nature", whose whispers
always intrude in a very non-japanese-like way in my generally clear enough lecture of my
time and life...anyway, it's the only thing comin' out of this longest tunnel of silence and
grumpiness - still grumpy, but I suppose it is time to give it a move and work again...





秋夜間
今日の哀れの
満々や

「aki yakan ・ kyou no aware no ・ manman ya」

autumn nighttime – brimming with the AWARE of today

(PS: obviously waiting for endless corrections by my japanese Maestri...and
maybe there's no nedd at all to add this - oh, anyway: MONO NO AWARE)

(PPS:...oops!, I realize only some later that there was one more appreciated
correction by sakuo3903 先生, which I'm glad to add now to this post:

秋の夜に
今日の哀れの
満ちにけり

「aki no yo ni ・ kyou no aware no ・ michi ni keri」)

待ちに待つ
我が本当の
春を待つ

machi ni matsu ・ waga hontou no ・ haru o matsu
waiting and waiting - for my own true spring




...I know, I know - this image was already posted, years ago I seem to remember, so the question comes natural:
"why, gab?" - well, I was seriously mumbleing since months about a book of my haiku, when our common friend and
haijin himself andreochka told me about the chance of publishing online and have the book printed, sold and sent
to buyers in a very simple way...therefore I made up my mind: this is the cover, I'm still not sure about the title - your
suggestions are welcome, and please consider this as an advertising, LOL! - here you are the cover, as it is in my mind
at the moment:

is what I thought as I opened my window this early morn...actually, even if I am accustomed to my coast’s thousands
faces ad colours, I had never seen in my whole life such a TRUE BLUE! so I thought I HAD TO share with my friends, and
(while walking step after step downtown to the beach) I also tried to put together some words (understandable, these
could only be poor if compared to THAT!) to underline this breathtaking, eyespiercing, heartsoothing, unique experience
of Pure Beauty...:



晴れた朝
九月の一気は
紺碧の



hareta asa
kugatsu no ikki wa
kanpeki no



clear sunny morn',
such a breath of september
in its perfection

some new 俳句, the bad result of bad-mooded days...of my too lonely, too lazy, too many afternoons spent
doing nothing concrete, just sitting and watching suns change to moons, bright summer lights change to shiny
starry nights: poor as well, the "poetry" that comes out from such a stupid behavior - but, do you know that
awful feeling? head, arms, legs, tongue, ears being like prisoners of a wadding cloud...my eyes only are alive,
but I can't give any spoken shape to what I see...



詩の時間
ほとんど秋の
僕の午後

「shi no jikan ・ hotondo aki ya ・ boku no gogo」
time for poetry - nearly autumn, my afternoons



暑い砂
寒く成ってや
青の晩

「atsui suna ・ samukunatte ya, ・ ao no ban」
warm sands getting cold now, through this blue evening



九月午後
今夜の月を
一人待つ

「kugatsu gogo ・ konya no tsuki o ・ hitori matsu」
september afternoon - alone, waiting for the moon to come

I've been very silent, I know - well, I'm going to have lots to post and say (hopefully, new works as well) and autumn is
probably the rightest time to...for now, here you are some 「海辺俳句」, "beach haiku": the first one, after the kindest
gift of an excellent green tea coming from the hands of the even more excellent sakuo sensei:




唇や
月夜に甘き
とものお茶

「kuchibiru ya ・ tsukiyo ni amaki ・ tomo no o cha」
my friend’s tea, sweet to my mouth under this moonlight　


as for the other ones, well...I don't know exactly the reason for I wrote them in such a mood - maybe the simple summer ending, maybe
my new way of life begins to show its effects on my mind and soul - who can say?, I myself am still mumbleing about!...anyway, voilà:




夏の午後
盗んだ愛の
考えは

「natsu no gogo ・ nusunda ai no ・ kangae wa」
summer afternoon - a thought of stolen love




恋の夢
一つが終わる
夏夜毎

「koi no yume ・ hitotsu ga owaru ・ natsu yogoto」
every summer night, a dream of love gets to its end.




夏の夜の
最後の光
磯匂う

「natsu yoru no ・ saigo no hikari ・ iso niou」
...a summer night’s salt-scented last light...


夏光
笑いの時に
年を取って

「natsu hikari ・ warai no toki ni ・ toshi o totte」
summer light, gets older in the time of a smile.


obviously (as usual) my nihongo needed billions corrections and re-writings, so thanks once again to sakuo sensei for his sudden
and extremely kind help...anyway, this is how I felt to express myself and my world along these strange, lazy, thoughtful summer
days - this time, more than ever, your comments are absolutely, needingly, deepfriendly welcome.

("why ULYSSES, gab?", I can imagine your question...well, how would you all name such a FUNNY ENTRY?!?)


...something new, something fresh, something summery...it is time for a new post, so let's begin by some
"poetry" - I've always been a great lover of those MOLESKINE pocket notebooks, and I use to always take
one or two with me in my bags/pockets/etc, but it was some hard to fold its pages into the scanner, so
I only can type the following waka and the haiku - and, to make it summery, I'm adding a couple of pics
(ouch!, I can hear by now the comments...but I DARE do that!) to try and make lighter such a "culturally
overbinding lecture" - actually, the waka you can read below is my translation of a beautiful one freshly
and quickly written by a dearest friend of mine, alessandra/tsukiyo 「月夜様」 when she came here last
april to spend some days on the Coast, and I took her to see Ravello and "il balcone di Dio":

逃げて今
僕の目に成る
かもめに羽
青いの空で
ラベッロの金へ

「nigete ima ・ boku no me ni naru ・ kamome ni wa ・ aoi no sora de ・ Ravello no kin e」

"escaping now
my eyes change to seagulls
flying through the deep blue
towards the gold of Ravello"

...and here you are the first "ulysses", in his "poet's summery look", YUK! :



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...hee hee hee! on, now, with my latest "newborn Words", an all-personal morning impression:

夏の花、
彼女の目色
紫や

「natsu no hana, ・ kanojo no me iro ・murasaki ya 」

"a summer flower, her violet eyes"

...and ulysses' FULL IMMERSION, my daily "baptism" into fresh waters...YUK YUK"! :



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

...then a sudden stormy weather afternoon, poorly caught by my "hude" on the same beach:

寒気午後、
八月の冬
そのように

「kanki gogo, ・ hachigatsu no fuyu ・ sono you ni」

"stormy afternoon, just like a winter in august"

...and the "real ulysses" - wouldn't you take me for the Copenhagen Mermaid?, YUK YUK YUK! :

...oh well, I haven't been ONLY "touristically lazying around"...



the Franciscan Friar you can see in this pic created here in my homecountry a big "cappella choir" and
has been its director for 40 years: I was asked to realize an important HOMMAGE À in the occasion of
this anniversary...I am sorry for the bad quality of the photos, but I stupidly forgot to take as usual
some pics myself, so I had to ask the singers - anyway, it's a Cowley's goat vellum, about 26 x 34 cms,
gilded in gold leaf, where I first wrote the gregorian notation of a GLORIA: from the upper musical line,
a bunch of sparrows fly towards the capital letter, to be directed in their singing by St. Francis himself,
while a novice hidden behind a curtain stares incredulously at the scene...below, some dedication lines
and my signature: here you are the best image I have:

my "new faces": this first photograph was taken yesterday at the "ANTARES BAR", in our Minori's
lovely small square, where I use to have my very personal "lemon coffee" a couple of times a day...:




...the other one is recentISSIMA, only two hours ago: I had had my "logo" tattooed many years ago in its
previous shape, so that the weight of age took it to a true collapse - I decided therefore to cover it with my
current one, bigger (yes, some too much, I know, but that was a need) but finally in its actual form...now
wicapis and I share something more - at least, we both have a nice inflammation of our derma tissues!...: