, story and haiku translations by Matthew Gollub, illustrations by Kazuko G. Stone, calligraphy by Keiko Smith, Lee & Low Books, Inc., 1998Every once in a while during my high school and college years somebody would find out I played violin and make this cognitive leap: “Well you must love math, then! Because music is all numbers, isn’t it?” Well…I can’t argue that there are many aspects of music that are math-related—rhythm, scale degrees, the harmonic series, sound waves, music theory in general—but those things strike me as the mechanics of music. Numbers may be related, but to me, language is a much closer relative. And no, I don’t love math. I’ve grown to appreciate it, and I enjoy a certain satisfaction when the numbers all work out just so, but to this day, if you give me a word problem I will sort of want to smack you. (Just a little—I hate confrontation. But believe me, I will feel animosity.)
Music as language, though—that makes sense to me. And poetry—poetry is like the words to the music. Both are ways of seeing and sharing. Both use rhythm and sound, and both are attempts to get at the abstract through a concrete form. (How many times during a violin lesson have I been told, or have I told a student, “let this part sing,” “you’re telling a story,” “here comes the climax,” “this is just the introduction, don’t give it all away at once”?) As a teacher, as a performer, as an audience member, I approach music as language. Not as equations.
It was interesting, then, to read in Shinichi Suzuki’s book, Nurtured by Love
, that among other things, the young students at the Talent Education school he started in Matsumoto spent time daily memorizing and reciting the haiku of Issa. Not only were they using music to cultivate fine human beings, they were using poetry, as well! That little tidbit came back to me when I stumbled across this book recently: Cool Melons—Turn to Frogs, is the life story of Japanese haiku poet, Issa, accompanied by thirty of his poems. In a life marked with sorrow and loss, Issa found solace in nature and poetry. His ability to see and share eventually made him one of Japan’s most famous poets. The author’s notes in the back of this book offer more information about Issa’s poetry, calligraphy, and the art of haiku. It’s a lovely book, and I personally found it to be a wonderful, if serendipitous, link between the worlds of music and language.
