Ransen's Blog

When I can't sleep I listen out for dogs barking in the night.  I don't know why but it makes me feel good.   The train line from Gallarate to Milano is close by, and I listen out for trains too. The idea of mysterious voyages in the night can make me fall asleep. This is linked to Toranomon Station when I lived in Tokyo. It means "Tiger Gate". Romantic. Planes are almost as good as trains, flying passed the Moon maybe. Flying through the night as I lie in bed. If those fail, then reciting poems I'm learning by heart can sometimes do it. And Death Shall Have No Dominion . Out Revels Now Are Over . She Walks In Beauty Like The Night . The Eagle . I Met A Traveller ...

Sometimes, when studying for my A-levels years ago, in Bigglsewade, I'd go to the cemetery over the hedge. The hedge was at the end of our back garden. An unofficial path ran along that hedge, passed all the back gardens, to the small road which ran through the cemetery. The road was (is?) only opened for funerals. In the center of the cemetery is a building which looks like a small church, but I don't think ever was. It is a sort of storehouse for the grave diggers and gardeners. In my last year of school, I'd go into the cemetery and study Physics or Eng. Lit. sitting on one of the benches, near evergreen trees under a blue sky. It was a pleasant place to stay, though not really very good for serious study. Too relaxing and the curved surface of the bench would make setting the books down and writing awkward. In Yokohama, Japan, about eight years later, my teacher Hideko Imai Sensei took me to the British Commonwealth Cemetery.  If is ful...