Will Dockery
2014-12-21 05:19:55 UTC
"Years later, when he was near death, Christopher Caperton wrote the answer
to the search for True Love in his journal. He wrote it simply, as a
quotation from the Japanese poet Tanaka Katsumi. What he wrote was this: 'I
know that my true friend will appear after my death, and my sweetheart died
before I was born.'..." -Harlan Ellison
Scientist Yoshito Takeuch with poet Katsumi Tanaka (on right) 1954 in Osaka
Japan:
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/357684395380235497/
The search was on, with poet detectives Matt Henderson and Gary Frankfurth,
to locate the mysterious Japanese poet Katsumi Tanaka, quoted by the equally
inscrutable Harlan Ellison (who spent some months with us in the area back
in the late 1950s while he was stationed at Fort Benning, but that's another
tale for another day).
Matt Henderson wrote: "I woke up with a startle, and a sobbing stuck in my
throat...wondering where I was and for what I was doing there... Will
Dockery, this was the thought I was half dreaming and halfway awakening to
this morning..."
"I know that my true friend will appear after my death, and my sweetheart
died before I was born." -Tanaka Katsumi (via Harlan Ellison, Stalking The
Nightmare pg. 45, 5th sentence)
We tracked him down to this out-of-print volume of translated Japanese verse
of which you can read more here:
http://archive.org/stream/poetryoflivingja002591mbp/poetryoflivingja002591mbp_djvu.txt
Scroll down to Pages 91 & 92 of The Poetry of Living Japan for two poems by
Katsumi Tanaka, "Chance Encounter" & "Wilderness".for the complete quote.
Here is another excerpt from this nearly perfect piece of work:
"Halley's Comet appeared in 1910 (And I was born in the following year): Its
period being seventy-six years and seven days, It is due to reappear in
1986. So I read, and my heart sunk.It is unlikely that I shall ever see that
star, and probably that is the case with human encounters. An understanding
mind one meets as seldom, and an undistracted love one wins as rarely. I
know that my true friend will appear after my death, And my sweetheart died
before I was born." -Katsumi Tanaka
The biography of Katsumi Tanaka an enigma, as well, even the details of his
1992 death is a mystery, we do know if he survived to age 75 and six more
years,and was actually able to see the 1986 crossing of Halley's Comet,
after all:
Katsumi Tanaka (b. 1911 - d. 1992) was a Japanese poet, who belonged to the
Japanese Romantic School. His first book was a translation of I.S. Tovalis,
Blue Flowers, available with one other poem by him, 'Wilderness'; both that
and 'Chance Encounter' are in [[The Poetry of Living Japan]], Takamichi
Ninomiya & D.J.. Enright. He read Oriental history at Tokyo University. He
is now (in 1957) a teacher and lives in Osaka Japan.
And I have to thank Harlan Ellison, 81 years old this year and still going
strong, for leading my way to Katsumi Tanaka, for finding the quote & then
writing his own short story based on it, in his book Stalking The Nightmare.
A warrior poet and hero of the highest order.
to the search for True Love in his journal. He wrote it simply, as a
quotation from the Japanese poet Tanaka Katsumi. What he wrote was this: 'I
know that my true friend will appear after my death, and my sweetheart died
before I was born.'..." -Harlan Ellison
Scientist Yoshito Takeuch with poet Katsumi Tanaka (on right) 1954 in Osaka
Japan:
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/357684395380235497/
The search was on, with poet detectives Matt Henderson and Gary Frankfurth,
to locate the mysterious Japanese poet Katsumi Tanaka, quoted by the equally
inscrutable Harlan Ellison (who spent some months with us in the area back
in the late 1950s while he was stationed at Fort Benning, but that's another
tale for another day).
Matt Henderson wrote: "I woke up with a startle, and a sobbing stuck in my
throat...wondering where I was and for what I was doing there... Will
Dockery, this was the thought I was half dreaming and halfway awakening to
this morning..."
"I know that my true friend will appear after my death, and my sweetheart
died before I was born." -Tanaka Katsumi (via Harlan Ellison, Stalking The
Nightmare pg. 45, 5th sentence)
We tracked him down to this out-of-print volume of translated Japanese verse
of which you can read more here:
http://archive.org/stream/poetryoflivingja002591mbp/poetryoflivingja002591mbp_djvu.txt
Scroll down to Pages 91 & 92 of The Poetry of Living Japan for two poems by
Katsumi Tanaka, "Chance Encounter" & "Wilderness".for the complete quote.
Here is another excerpt from this nearly perfect piece of work:
"Halley's Comet appeared in 1910 (And I was born in the following year): Its
period being seventy-six years and seven days, It is due to reappear in
1986. So I read, and my heart sunk.It is unlikely that I shall ever see that
star, and probably that is the case with human encounters. An understanding
mind one meets as seldom, and an undistracted love one wins as rarely. I
know that my true friend will appear after my death, And my sweetheart died
before I was born." -Katsumi Tanaka
The biography of Katsumi Tanaka an enigma, as well, even the details of his
1992 death is a mystery, we do know if he survived to age 75 and six more
years,and was actually able to see the 1986 crossing of Halley's Comet,
after all:
Katsumi Tanaka (b. 1911 - d. 1992) was a Japanese poet, who belonged to the
Japanese Romantic School. His first book was a translation of I.S. Tovalis,
Blue Flowers, available with one other poem by him, 'Wilderness'; both that
and 'Chance Encounter' are in [[The Poetry of Living Japan]], Takamichi
Ninomiya & D.J.. Enright. He read Oriental history at Tokyo University. He
is now (in 1957) a teacher and lives in Osaka Japan.
And I have to thank Harlan Ellison, 81 years old this year and still going
strong, for leading my way to Katsumi Tanaka, for finding the quote & then
writing his own short story based on it, in his book Stalking The Nightmare.
A warrior poet and hero of the highest order.