Christ – Canadian Zen Haiku canadien ISSN 1705-4508

Sonnet I am the Resurrection and the Life Vulgate Version

Am I the Life?

As Jesus moved her to these words, I say,
as Martha said, “I know he’ll rise again
in the last hour of the very last day.”
And Jesus asked, “Am I the light, if slain?
Do you believe in me?.. resurrected
as am I? Nor have I died! Believe and live...
Do you believe?” ... “Lord, I do, elected
as you are, Messiah to all who give
themselves to you alone, the Son of God,
come to this world!” And saying this, she left
an sought her sister Mary, who was so awed
she turned to her and said, “Be not bereft
as God is ours and we are his alone...
I know we’ll live beside him by his throne.”

Richard Vallance

This sonnet is based on John 11:24-27, here in English

24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;
26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

ad here in the Vulgate Latin:

24 Dicit ei Martha: Scio quia resurget in resurrectione in novissimo die.
25 Dixit ei Jesus: Ego sum resurrectio et vita: qui credit in me, etiam si mortuus fuerit, vivet:
26 et omnis qui vivit et credit in me, non morietur in æternum. Credis hoc?
27 Ait illi: Utique Domine, ego credidi quia tu es Christus, Filius Dei vivi, qui in hunc mundum venisti.

senryu – exoplanets, the cradle of life = exoplanètes, le berceau de la vie

senryu – exoplanets, the cradle of life = exoplanètes, le berceau de la vie 

dear exoplanets,
where is the cradle of life? 
a child is born *



chères exoplanètes,
où est le berceau de la vie ?  
un enfant est né *

Richard Vallance

* This is of course a reference to the birth of Christ.

* Voilà qu’il s’agit de la naissance du Christ.

senryu – Lorenzo the Great = Lorenzo le Grand

Lorenzo the Great
saviour of Florence
and the world entire



Lorenzo le Grand
sauveur de Florence
et du monde entier

Richard Vallance

The actual title for Lorenzo is Lorenzo the Magnificent, but this does not fit into a senryu. The church illustrated here is la chiesa santa croce firenze orari. Christ has more than one face.

Le titre réel de Lorenzo, c’est Lorenzo le Magnifique, mais ce titre est trop long pour un senryu. L’église illustrée, c’est la chiesa santa croce firenze orari. Le Christ possède plus qu’un seul visage.

Sonnet of mine based on the 2 previous black haiku… Who the hell?

Who the hell?



Matthew 16:23
Get behind me, Satan! 


As madness burrows through the psyche’s realm,
it means to chew her up and spit her out.
I ask you, who the hell was at the helm?
And who was God to prove, “What’s that all about?” 

It rankles me too few will dare to ask
why some of us are sane and others not,
why some are not, while some are called to task,
while others see their faith is come to naught.

If faith in God were not enough, then what  
in hell would satisfy our lust for love,
and what in Heaven’s name has madness wrought
to place us altogether on the spot?

Since your concern was just an empty show, 
Don’t ask me why. You know I’ll never know.

Richard Vallance,


January 10, 2017

Quotation for January 2017: The Stone is Cast, my own sonnet

The Stone is Cast

the-stone-is-cast-greek

The Stone is Cast

John 8:7

So since they kept on and on nagging him, he answered them, and said,
“Let the one among you who is sinless be the first to cast a stone at her.”

As stones are cast against the inner walls,
the lessee of the castle wracks his brains,
while wicked winter rails against its halls
and shakes the filings off his dungeon’s chains
where he’s incarcerated serfs at whim,
because they’d dared defy his iron will:
his fingers drew the rusty bolt on him
as well as them, and held him, freezing, still, 
until he fled that vile, ensanguined room, 
their blasted thane — unconscious of his sin,
though conscious of what cold impending doom
was, as winter is, to do him in.
     Oh when it does, its frozen blast shall blind
     him to the shattered mortar of his mind.

Richard Vallance,

January 3, 2017

Great Photos to Welcome us back home to Canada from our grand tour of central Europe!

After spending almost a whole month in Europe (25 days), starting first with Budapest, Hungary for 3 days, then continuing on to Vienna, Austria for 5 days, thence to Prague, the Czech Republic for a week, and finally on to Warsaw, Poland for our last 9 days, we are finally back home here in Canada, though as you can all well imagine, not without mixed emotions. It goes without saying that this was such an exciting vacation, visiting so many astonishingly beautiful locales, we must both miss Europe terribly, all the more so considering that we added side trips to 3 more magnificent cities, Salzburg and Krakow for Louis-Dominique and Gdansk for myself. What a totally unanticipated and unimaginably rewarding dream come true! Words simply cannot express our profound joy at visiting so many famous European cities, all of which date from the cradle of European, hence, Western, civilization.

While even photos cannot adequately express the profound spiritual impact these amazing venues had on us, they can at least offer you all a glimmer of the fantastic experiences that await you should you ever decide to do a grand tour of central & Eastern Europe yourself. Beginning with this post, I shall be posting 4 of my finest photos for each of the 6 cities we visited, from the approx. 6,000 (!) I took during our voyage. You are going to love them!

So let us start with Budapest, Hungary: Click each photo to ENLARGE it:

1. Budapest Parliament Florentine cupola:

2. Budapest Parliament by night:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

3. Saint Matthias church with location and detail of weather vane:

4. Budapest Museum frieze:

5. Budapest cathedral frieze: Ego sum via veritas et vita = I am the way, the truth and the life.

6. Danube River with Budapest Chain Bridge from our night cruise boat:

Richard

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