"...my sweetheart died before I was born" by Ellison or Tanaka?
Will Dockery
sweetheart died before I was born." -Harlan Ellison, Stalking The
Nightmare
This was written (or published) around 1982, and up to my quoting it I
had found no use of it at all on the internet, through Google
searches. Now, suddenly, the entire line has turned up in a poem by
Katsumi Tanaka... in fact, the very first entry for the phrase is
attributed not to Ellison, but to this other poet:
http://tinyurl.com/Harlan-Ellison
Here (for educational, example & other fair use purposes) is the poem
by Katsumi Tanaka that uses (what I assume is) H.E.'s memorable
phrase:
http://zokster.net/drupal/node/2493#comment-51303
Chance Encounter
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
I'll be looking into this interesting development in-depth today...
does anyone have any information on the poet Katsumi Tanaka and his/
her relationship to Harlan Ellison, if any, or any other comments on
this situation?
--
"Red Lipped Stranger & other stories" by Will Dockery:
http://www.myspace.com/willdockery
Cryptoengineer
9d45-45e...@a36g2000yqc.googlegroups.com:
Your google-fu is weak, grasshopper.
The poem appears in
http://www.archive.org/stream/poetryoflivingja002591mbp/poetryoflivingja002
591mbp_djvu.txt
'Poetry of Living Japan'
which was published in 1957.
The intro states:
KATSUMI TANAKA (b. 1911)
He read Oriental history at Tokyo University. His first book 'was a
translation of ISTovalis, Blue Flowers. He is now a teacher and lives in
Osaka.
other sources indicate he died in 1992.
pt
Captain Infinity
Will Dockery wrote:
In my copy of "Stalking the Nightmare" (Phantasia Press, book club edition)
in the story "Grail", the line is clearly attributed to "Tanaka Katsumi".
The relevant section reads:
>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."
I'm not sure where the confusion lies. Tanaka was, no doubt, just one of
the thousands of writers whom Ellison has read and remembered.
**
Captain Infinity
Will Dockery
wrote:
> Once Upon A Time,
>
> Will Dockery wrote:
>
>"I know that my true friend will appear after my death, and my
> >sweetheart died before I was born." -Harlan Ellison, Stalking The
Excellent, so there's no problem at all, Harlan Ellison quoted Tanaka
Katsumi, credited him in most editions of the book... excellent. I was
afraid there was more "Love and Theft" afoot.
--
Will Dockery & Shadowville:
http://www.myspace.com/willdockery
Brian M. Scott
<will.d...@gmail.com> wrote in
<news:83b600fe-5d4a-4cb7...@a36g2000yqc.googlegroups.com>
in
alt.arts.poetry.comments,rec.arts.poems,alt.poetry,alt.fan.harlan-ellison,rec.arts.sf.written:
[...]
> I'll be looking into this interesting development in-depth
> today... does anyone have any information on the poet
> Katsumi Tanaka and his/ her relationship to Harlan
> Ellison, if any, or any other comments on this situation?
It's not too hard to discover that the poet Katsumi Tanaka
(1911-92) belonged to the Japanese Romantic School, and that
his first book was a translation of Novalis, _Blue Flowers_.
I also managed to find one other poem by him, 'Wilderness';
both that and 'Chance Encounter' are in _The Poetry of
Living Japan_, Takamichi Ninomiya & D.J. Enright,
<http://www.archive.org/details/poetryoflivingja002591mbp>,
p. 91f. But the pickings are slim: he seems to have been a
pretty minor figure.
Brian
Will Dockery
> On Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:51:08 -0700 (PDT), Will Dockery wrote in
> <news:83b600fe-5d4a-4cb7...@a36g2000yqc.googlegroups.com>
> in
> alt.arts.poetry.comments,rec.arts.poems,alt.poetry,alt.fan.harlan-ellison,rec.arts.sf.written:
>
> [...]
>
> > I'll be looking into this interesting development in-depth
> > today... does anyone have any information on the poet
> > Katsumi Tanaka and his/ her relationship to Harlan
> > Ellison, if any, or any other comments on this situation?
>
> It's not too hard to discover that the poet Katsumi Tanaka
> (1911-92) belonged to the Japanese Romantic School, and that
> his first book was a translation of Novalis, _Blue Flowers_.
> I also managed to find one other poem by him, 'Wilderness';
> both that and 'Chance Encounter' are in _The Poetry of
> Living Japan_, Takamichi Ninomiya & D.J. Enright,
> <http://www.archive.org/details/poetryoflivingja002591mbp>,
> p. 91f. But the pickings are slim: he seems to have been a
> pretty minor figure.
>
> Brian
Yes, so glad that the outcome is favorable for all concerned... Mr.
Katsumi wrote the original thought, and was later properly attributed
by Mr. Ellison, and the quote reads well as:
"I know that my true friend will appear after my death, and my
sweetheart died before I was born." -Tanaka Katsumi (via Harlan
Ellison)
Robert Carnegie
complete with original footnote (I think the whole thing starts in a
footnote: his stuff is like that):
The Disc's greatest lovers were undoubtedly Mellius and Gretelina,
whose pure, passionate and soul-searing affair would have scorched the
pages of History if they had not, because of some unexplained quirk of
fate, been born two hundred years apart on different continents.
However, the gods took pity on them and turned him into an ironing
board and her into a small brass bollard[1].
[1]When you're a god, you don't have to have reasons.
----
A Christian might also expect to meet his best friend for the first
time after dying. And, some of them, to have a huge crush on his
mother - although some don't believe that she ever died. She went up
into the sky - to the mothership perhaps, appropriate...
Will Dockery
Interesting interpretation, indeed!
Here's Harlan Ellison's take on it:
Or: