i set out to write an academic paper on Yeats and the Japanese Nõ theatre or at least his relationship to the Nõ in inspiring him towards writing his Plays for Dancers focussing on At the Hawk's Well. Instead i ended up writing a poetic and philosophic paper that reflects upon the essence of Being in relation to Language, Yeats' relationship included, and draws upon the writing of Yeats, Zeami, Heidegger, Kukai, Joyce and others.
There are many scholars far more studied than i who have written about the Nõ and Yeats and if i had written about Yeats and the Nõ it would not necessarily have shed any new light upon these fields. Rather by exploring the essence of Being in relation to Language i hope that i have explored the Iki or Kokoro of Yeats and Nõ in a new way, reflecting on the Nõ as Hana or Flower as conceived by Zeami and as Nõ or Nõthingness, the 0 (zero) or silent echo of the void, that we can only dream of understanding.
Leaving the meaning of No and the Flower open to multiple interpretations i hope to have created a space/scape/place for the reader/viewer/listener to feel and imagine the ground and sounds moving as language dancing in poetic light. This is a rather "odd" essay (like an antique miniature train that is difficult to repair having an odd gauge) that will not pretend to be anything else. It draws upon my own strange relationship with Yeats and the Flower that transcends logic.
i have worked with the metaphor of Railway Lines as the lines upon which we write/ride/read whether via paper or internet lines and as life lines, time lines, as virtual and actual train tracks/lines, the lines upon which we live and work and die ... and the metaphor of the Rose as the Nõ flower.
i have explored Yeats relationship with the Flower in light of his passion for language/art and for Maud Gonne. i must here note that Maud though poetically silent certainly had a life and will of her own, a revolutionary mind and a body of work, and is not to be confused with the romantic essence of a muse whose inspiration still moving haunts Yeats. In this essay i have lost and found myself in my own relationship with the love of language / art and the essence of the Flower.
i have tried to note the sources from whom my thoughts were inspired though with scattered amounts of reading and conversing i can not be sure that i was always correct in doing so. i have touched upon Heidegger's theory of Being speaking through us via Language with reference to others such as Eliot and Versenyi who echo these sentiments. i have quoted Irigaray, Levin, Merleau-Ponty, Carroll and others.
My allusions or asides to Kukai and Sileus are playful and refer the reader to a possible etymology for our word "kooky" (eccentric? could we mean Kukai or another philosopher, Kuki?) and call to extend ourselves compassionately to understand that which is difficult to comprehend whether it be the language of poetic philosophy or the Rose / Nõ Flower. i am inspired by these authors or i would not refer to them so frequently. My apologies to any whom i have not given full credit. i have also left some of Nõ Essay single spaced to allow room for wider double spaced trains of thought.
Finally, i hope that the reader will enjoy the poetic directions that Nõ Book begins to explore. It is abstract and will certainly admit probably more creative than academic. It is more than likely an abstract for a larger work/thesis. As there can be Nõ end to this kind of writing i hope that the reader will read this in light of this as the beginning of a much deeper exploration of philology, of Yeats & Nõ Flower ... on line ... online ... on line ... online ... on line ... online ... on line ...........
At Simon Fraser University this Electronic or Nõ Book began as a paper essay for a course, The Interperforming Body: East West Perspectives by Lee Stothers. As i was writing it called to be in electronic form with Hyper*Text*Music*L'image*Sound. No sooner had i completed the essay than a course in Digital Art was offered by Barry Truax with the option of a CDrom project.
Interested in William Butler Yeats, his writing and inspirational love for Maud Gonne, and his relationship with Nõ (the classical theatre of Japan), it was serendipity to be able to do research for the paper essay and then so soon begin to realize it as an EBook. The research into Nõ and the heArt of the Flower/Hana led me into directions i could never have imagined going with Yeats, Kukai, Heidegger, Joyce, Irigaray, Merlau Ponty and others.
i hope only to express the essence of the flower as nearly and as dearly as Yeats. i hope i've been able to open the tap of that eternal well of being human with a deeply poetic relationship to language that it may flow like Water and grow like Roses through the Lines. It was also fun to work with the words, Yes & No, 1 & 0.
A work still in progress i hope to continue to refine the book. It is not a paper book and does not pretend to be. i would never want to replace the paper book. But working with HTMLs is an art form that allows for a kind of synaesthetic experience. Perhaps it is Cinema for the Ears and Music for the Eyes.
It has been a pleasure to be able to create this Electronic or No Book. I feel blessed having been given the opportunity to learn how to do so with the resources and guidance of my professors, and with permission to "bloom on line" to sthe best of my ability. I hope it will provide the screener many hours of pleasure.
With really No beginning and No ending this No Book may be viewed as going for a journey on a little train that goes round and round. It is up to the screener to be the conductor deciding how fast or slow to travel and how long to stop at any page or destination. One can begin at the title page and read consecutive pages or take links to unknown destinations, even retracing roots as one feels inclined.
The conductor can even choose to play various sound files in any combination ... cpr phone, raven, rain, gong, waves, violin, trains, train horn. Might i suggest choosing the same sound file more than once and starting it at different times to create delays ? The journey also includes a song and two compositions that can be listened to while exploring the book. It goes round and round. It goes Nõ where or it goes where ever you go ... : ) ...
Etymologically Rose can be traced to the word W-O-R-D.1 In this light / sound, th rose on th railway line can refer to the word on the railway line, the word on line, or wo/man as rose on line, wo/man on line, wo/man as word on line. And we are all in that boat or is that train ? Inspired by th Rose and th Railway, by th space between where th Rose & th Railway meet, i hope you enjoy the ride .. .. .. ..
1 Joachim-Ernst Berendt, Nada Brahma: The World is Sound. Bredigkeit Helmut (translator). Destiny, USA 1987, page 56
th Rose & th Railway: of Yeats & No Being & Blooming on Line created in 1999 with the guidance of Lee Stothers (writing) and Barry Truax (composing & digital art) , Fine and Performing Arts, SFU. Nõ Book (ebook) published online April 21, 2010.
Sincere Thanks to
Lee Stothers - www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A7H69Tawx8
Barry Truax – www.sfu.ca/~truax
Kevin Austin – cec.concordia.ca
Charlie Richmond – www.richmondsounddesign.com
Melaena D Thomas Web Developer – www.xenifuse.com
Mum, Dad, Family, Friends and All my Relations
Voices, Soundscapes, Instruments include: CPR Phone, Miniature Train, with thanks to The Railway Club. Birds, Drums, Gongs, Rain, Waves, Thunder, Raven, Royal Hudson & Train Horn of 1888 Steam Engine : World Soundscape Project @ SFU & See Through Studios (sylvi macCormac)
Photos by sylvi macCormac include: Marine Building ( Yeats' Tower ) by Architect Alexander Nairne, and the Miniature Train, CPR Phone and Statue ( Guardian ) with thanks to the Railway Club, Vancouver, B.C. www.greatervancouverparks.com/355BurrardPhotos.html
Kazuo Ohno & Dancers from Dance of the Dark Soul Hoffman, Ethan (photographs). New York: Aperature, 1987
Railway Trains, Passengers & Workers from Trail of Iron: The CPR and The Birth of the West, 1880-1930. McKee, Bill and Georgeen Klassen. Glenbow-Alberta Institute in association with Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver, B.C., 1983. ISBN 0-88894-399-7
Maud Gonne from the portrait by Sarah Purser, and William Butler Yeats 1907 Oil on Canvas 76.2 x 51.2cm by Augustus John 1878-1961, Manchester City Art Galleries / Photo: Bridgeman Art Library London from Autobiographies: Memories and Reflections, Bracken Books, Studio Editions, London, 1995. ISBN 1 85891 368 3
Roses & Cherry Blossoms from Colour Dictionary of Flowers & Plants and How to Grow Roses
Music includes
Aural Shadows: of th Rose & th Railway (5:33)
Railway Lines: Trains of Thought (7:50)
8 Directions (8:17)
Aural Shadows: of th Rose & th Railway (5:33) Vocals, Guitar, Recording Engineer: sylvi macCormac
Eight Directions (8:00) recording & composing: sylvi macCormac; drums: albert st. albert; penny whistle & bag pipe: matt welch; flute: christa lynn; violin: andrea dodwell; marimba & gong: sylvi; birds, rain & thunder: World Soundscape Project Archives. Instruments were recorded in or near the Slendro Gong of the Gamelan, Kayu Madu Sari (Venerable Essence of Honey) @ Simon Fraser University – http://www.sfu.ca - this is a stereophonic mix of an octophonic composition composed with the Matrix a precursor to the Audio Box - http://www.richmondsounddesign.com
Railway Lines: Trains of Thought (7:50) 1998 Royal Hudson & 1888 Steam Engine : World Soundscape Project (SFU) Antique Miniature Train @ The Railway Club, Vancouver: sylvi (1998) Voices: Gordon Cobb & sylvi w guitar & song / story lines recording & composing : sylvi macCormac
Railway Lines
i was born
onto the railway line
train ran right over me
didn't see it coming?
did you see it coming?
or love is blind
what would my father say?
what would your mother say?
what would our brothers say
if the mountains fell into the sea?
made a million
lost another
in fools gold
now i’m on my third
only the best
in guinness
i was thrown
onto the railway line
train ran right over me
didn’t see it coming?
did you hear it coming?
or love is blind
i was born onto the railway line
train ran right over me . . .
© sylvi & see through publishing may 1998 (socan)
Railway Lines : Acoustic Tracks (3:40)
on Raven Shadows CD (2006)
also on Voices & Wheels CD (2000)
within the electroacoustic soundscape
Railway Lines : Trains of Thought (7:50)
http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/library/search?q=sylvi+macCormac
Th Rose & Th Railway: of Yeats & Nõ Being & Blooming on Line
about WB Yeats, Japanese Nõ Theatre, Maud Gonne and Being in Relation to Language
Audio Tracks include Aural Shadows, 8 Directions & Railway Lines: Trains o Thought with HTMLs – Hyper*Text*Music*L’image*Sound – Created in Vancouver, Coast Salish Territory, British Columbia, Canada by sylvi macCormac in 1999 and updated HTML developed by Melaena Thomas of www.xenifuse.com (2010).
Presented originally at Vancouver New Music Festival 2001 *e-lounge* www.newmusic.org
Nõ Book (ebook) © 2010 online, 1999 off line sylvi macCormac & see through publishing (socan) except as noted* with thanks to WB Yeats and AP Watt Ltd. on behalf of Gráinne Yeats.
*While making efforts to acknowledge source with permission, contacting publishers and copyright owners, if there are any questions re: permissions and plunderphonics, please contact see through publishing at sylvi@sylvi.ca