Twenty Years Later- Bunbunmaru Spirit News archives
Gensokyo Poetry Competition in action!
Hello there. This is Alice Margatroid, part-time informant to the Bunbunmaru Spirit News, and I also happen to write columns every now and then, too. Recently, on behalf of Aya and Hatate, I have been collecting entries to a poetry competition that has been rather vigorously advertised by Aya, and out of all of Gensokyo, only a few ended up entering. It's a shame... if I wasn't so involved with the competition's inner workings, I'd have written an entry myself... oh well.
Anyway, the day after this article is released, Aya will go round Gensokyo and collect results on who shall win. But I imagine you readers don't want to hear of the logistics, you just want to see the entries, don't you? Very well...
The first entry is by Hebiko Bimyouna, a lizard youkai from Mayohiga:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Okay, if you insist
You make me sneeze with my fever of hay
Among other things in this list
You're far too hot for my own good
And that's coming from an ectotherm
You attract wasps in chewed-up wood
And give white humans sunburn
See, summer ain't that romantic
When you think the whole thing through
So why not forget that poetry schtick
And let me go out with you
I personally think it's funny and cute, especially if you know the poor girl, but I guess that the poem should be judged on its own merits, not on what the writer herself is like. Oh! The next entry is by Raiko Horikawa, a taiko tsukumogami who, for some reason, likes electricity a lot... oh, right, the poem.
This poem is what they call a sonnet
That means it has ten beats in ev'ry line
While difficult, don't fear, 'cause I'm on it
As I also keep to the rules of rhyme
A tool like a drum keeps beats as a job
So rhythm comes naturally to me
Crochet, quaver, one beat rest, I'm no slob
I hear beats clearly as some people see
Another rule states I keep three verses
All of four lines, like beats of common time
While some youkai spit, other yell curses
I'm content keeping to rhythm and rhyme
Sonnets end with rhyming couplets, observe
I admit, it's a shallow learning curve
I... um... counted, and yes, every line in that technically has ten beats. I kinda think Raiko cheated with her 'ev'ry', but I'll let that slide. Well, I guess the readers are voting, so it's up to them whether or not it'll be let slide.
The next entrant is Seija Kijin, an amanojaku of some sort. I... don't quite get her piece, I think it's... abstract? Free verse? Some kind of demonic ritual?
A car, a man, a maraca
Ah, Satan sees Natasha
No devil lived on
Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas!
Do geese see God?
Madam, in Eden I'm Adam
A man, a plan, panama
Art, name no tub time, emit but one mantra
Hannah
Bob
Eye
Animal loots foliated detail of stool lamina
Murder for a jar of red rum
Go deliver a dare, vile dog!
Yeah... um... please don't vote for that one. I'm supposed to not have a say in the voting, but please don't. I fear that something bad might happen if people keep repeat this stuff... oh well, it's an entry, I guess.
The next entrant is by Dawitsu, a mimicking youkai who keeps following me and Byakuren whispering 'Please kiss, please kiss, please kiss.' He's weird like that, I guess.
If I were a girl
Even just for a day
I'd lez the hell out, clearly
And enjoy a bit of girl on girl
Be angry and mean
Blame it on PMS
Style my hair up in cute pigtails
And never be confronted
'cause they'd look good on me
If I were a girl
I think I could understand
That sometimes guys are lazy
I would take good care of my man
Like, not that I'm gay
But as a girl I'd be bi
I'm not being defensive
And hopefully not offensive
I just think bis are hot, that's all...
I... um... no. I'm sorry, this is terrible. It doesn't even rhyme... and when Dawitsu gave me it in written form, he also decided to sing it to me. He sounded like a woman when he did it, and had a strange... accent, I can't quite describe it. It sounded like a woman who would have big hips, strong... anyway, his poem's totally wrong! Being a guy sounds way better, getting to be a weak, excuse-making idiot who cheats on people and what have you. Well... at least, that's what his former assistant, Yutaka, thinks of men. Also, what was up with his 'bis are hot' thing? Oh, he's not... he's not saying I'm hot, is he? Weirdo.
Fortunately, there was one more entry from Fujiwara no Mokou. She told me that she was devoting it to a certain... friend of hers. Here it is:
Fire rains from the sky
You're gonna die, die, die, die, die
Watch out or I'll torch you
If you value your lives then you've gotta get a clue
Stay the hell out of my face
Or I'll burn down your whole damn race
You think you can stop me?
I will turn the moon into a blazing cemet'ry!
Something tells me Mokou is... a little bitter of whoever this poem is aimed at. I imagine the intended recipient is Kaguya Houraisan, but she'd never get to read it anyway... she never goes out. Well, perhaps if Aya delivers the paper via wall-break, as she usually does, I imagine she might receive it. Seriously, though, I hope Mokou isn't really going to set fire to the moon...
Well, um... I guess those are the entries. I'm sure you guys... um... had fun reading those entries. This is Alice Margatroid, saying goodbye for now!
Article written by Alice Margatroid
Present-day hindsight: Like, Alice should write more articles. She's super-cute, not that that has anything to do with her writing skill or my personal feelings about her, but she's, like, got a way with people. I mean, her nervous loner act is super-awesome! It's, like, impossible not to want to listen to her when she does that!
Like, I personally voted for that Seija girl's poem! Abstract art is like, so intellectual!