The Famous Five (of Canada) ask a clarifying question. A poet rejects his father’s lifestyle, despite benefitting from it. Plus, a translated poem.
The date is August 27th, Tuesday, and today I’m coming to you from Portland, OR.
On this day in 1927 in Canada, five women filed a petition to the Supreme Court of Canada. Their petition asked, “Does the word ‘Persons’ in Section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867, include female persons?”
The five women were Emily Murphy, Irene Marryat Parlby, Nellie Mooney McClung, Louise Crummy McKinney and Henrietta Muir Edwards. They are sometimes known as “The Famous Five” or “ The Valiant Five.”
The petition was part of a larger movement toward expanded equal rights for women in Canada. Though women had the right to vote in Canada, they were still barred from serving in politics, specifically, the Senate. Over six months later, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that women were not “persons.”
They kept on keeping on though, and finally in October 1929, the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council overturned that decision, setting the precedent that women are indeed persons. What a concept!
And today is the birthday of Kenji Miyazawa, Japanese writer.
Miyazawa was born in 1896 in Hanamaki, Iwate, a rice-growing region in the northern half of Japan. Miyazawa was the oldest son of a wealthy pawn-broker, and Miyazawa quickly developed a distaste for what he saw in his father as an obsession with wealth and social status.
But it was his father’s wealth and social status that afforded him educational opportunities. As a child and tween, Miyazawa attended lectures organized by his father for the Buddhist monks in the town. He went on to be a bright student at Morioka Agriculture and Forestry College. Miyazawa was quite attuned to the hard times suffered by rice farmers and his education focused on modern methods of farming.
He moved back home to Hanamaki to help care for his sick younger sister. He took up a teaching position at the local agricultural school. When his sister succumbed to her illness and passed away, Miyazawa was devastated. He remained in his hometown and his teaching position for a few more years, during which he would self-publish a collection of poems and write children’s stories.
Miyazawa’s writings were not critical or financial successes during his lifetime, but they survived as part of the Japanese pastoral. In the 1960s, a number of his poems were translated into English by American poet Gary Synder, resulting in increased interest in Miyazawa in both Japan and America.
Be Not Defeated by Rain
Kenji Miyazawa
(translated by David Sulz)
Be not defeated by the rain, Nor let the wind prove your better.
Succumb not to the snows of winter. Nor be bested by the heat of summer.
Be strong in body. Unfettered by desire. Not enticed to anger. Cultivate a quiet joy.
Count yourself last in everything. Put others before you.
Watch well and listen closely. Hold the learned lessons dear.
A thatch-roof house, in a meadow, nestled in a pine grove’s shade.
A handful of rice, some miso, and a few vegetables to suffice for the day.
If, to the East, a child lies sick: Go forth and nurse him to health.
If, to the West, an old lady stands exhausted: Go forth, and relieve her of burden.
If, to the South, a man lies dying: Go forth with words of courage to dispel his fear.
If, to the North, an argument or fight ensues: Go forth and beg them stop such a waste of effort and of spirit.
In times of drought, shed tears of sympathy.
In summers cold, walk in concern and empathy.
Stand aloof of the unknowing masses:
Better dismissed as useless than flattered as a “Great Man.”
This is my goal, the person I strive to become