No punctuation, spaces, plurals or articles
By reading Kauzang’s comments, I thought you might enjoy seeing an old Japanese document with no punctuation. Modern Japanese writing includes some punctuation, but still no spaces because we don’t need them. We also have no articles or plurals.
I’ve looked for good examples to show you, but for some reason, I couldn’t find them easily. Maybe, readers have better luck in the western web sites. Anyway, I managed to find a year old Sankei newspaper article as below.
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/culture/academic/081029/acd0810292116008-n2.htm
The above site shows a photo of one of the oldest copies of Genji Monogatari. The article reports that the copy was created between 1240 and 1280. That’s more than two hundred years after Murasaki Shikibu wrote the novel. Like Chaucer’s original manuscripts, the texts written by her hand also do not exist. The article says, Konan Women College in Kobe City owns the copy, and the stamp on the copy indicates that it used to belong to Katu Kaisen who was one of the Japanese politicians responsible for the Meiji Restoration (around 1867).
On the above site, you’ll see three photos toward the bottom. The rightmost photo is the document.
About Keiko
Keiko Amano is a bilingual and bicultural writer who lives in Los Angeles and Yokohama. She writes short stories and novels in English and Japanese. Her stories appeared in Eye-Ai magazine.
Connections
Keiko’s Favorite Books
All the books by Flannery O'Connor
Keiko is a fan of
Viewing the document while
Viewing the document while considering your observations on the mechanics of Western aesthetics of grammar versus Eastern required an adjustment in consciousness and opens the door to further contemplations for this reader/writer.
Aberjhani
Founder of Creative Thinkers International
author of The American Poet Who Went Home Again
and Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File)
Chaucer and Louis Begley
Aberjhani,
This afternoon, I was talking with a friend of mine, a Chaucer expert, about this subject. She said something like, “Don’t you have miscommunication easily?” I said, “A lot.” She looked at the sky for a while and said, “Well, we do, too.” Then we both laughed.
I told her that “The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne,” becomes like
“Lyf so short, craft so long to lerne.” And like reading novels, each reader interprets what lyf or what craft is to her or him.
Also, Louis Begley wrote “About Schmidt” with minimum of punctuation. He said punctuations are like insects. I like that book and his interview.