Re: live cultures (was: Promoting Lojban)

[SwiftRain <swiftrain@geocities.com>]

Christopher Palmer wrote:
> 
> I doubt how effective culture-neutral poetry could be. Without culture 
> or history, metaphor is impoverished and symbolism in non-existent. 
> Doesn't sound much like poetry to me.
> 
> What am I missing?
 
lots! 
 
poetry is about emotion, expression, the soul of the poet.  symbol,
metaphor, rhythm, etc, these are just tools which are used to approach
that expression.  no one tool defines poetry. 
 
 
what would happen if a poet were limited to ONLY expressing things that
they saw before their own eyes, using no metaphor or fancy words?  what
if they had to describe things from nature, & each poem had to contain
something indicating what season it was written in?  & what if they were
further limited by having only 17 syllables to write each poem? 
 
it's called haiku! 
 
basho: This road -- / no one goes down it, / autumn evening. 
(ti dargu / .i no da ko'a litru / .i critu vanci) 
 
issa: Naked / on a naked horse / in pouring rain! 
(lunbe / je cpana lo lunbe xirma / va'o banli carvi) 
 
buson: White blossoms of the pear / and a woman in moonlight / reading a
letter. 
(blabi xrula le perli / .ije lo lunra selgusni ninmu / cu tcidu fi lo
xatra)