turning japanese

how to make the sun rise*:

imagine a ladder-like thing small enough to fit in a 1-inch by 1-inch square of parchment (or paper--we're a modern society). black ink preferable. touch black tip to paper. stroke down. left side of ladder complete. stray about one half inch to your right. imagine the parallel line. same pen, stroke down. other ladder leg complete. to command a ladder, you must show its rungs. three rungs are enough: one bottomish: stroke. one middling: stroke. double check: both parallel parallel? the uppermost rung, reaching skyward on the left, slowly constant, rising rising. there. the sun.

now for rise: to the right of the sun, begin with a cross, how you imagine it, golgothic singular. talling and thin. pen to paper, make. now: a smidge up from the base, east to west, parallel with cross arms, your stroke. now, from the center of the cross where the trunk and arms are bound: down left, 45 degrees: swoop aaaaaaand barely up. not snapping up, but hesitating, a skirt hem stirring in a slow turn. a slight breeze. a slighter breeze. pen to center again. from the criss-cross, this time down right: 45 degrees, down down, past the east to west stroke at the foot, further, aaaaaaand a touch upward. not Up exactly. not a Line exactly, but a spin on a heel, a heavier breeze, one that lifts long heavy hair off the face, and up. rise.

sun rise. sunrise. the land of the rising sun.

*from the japanese