Skip to content
Cactus Haiku
Daily haiku or senryu for fun
  • Home
  • SLife
  • Haibun Road
  • Caffeine
  • fiction
  • TOC (in prog)
  • Index (in prog)
  • OnBlogging
  • Cactus Catz
  • Cactus Dreams
  • Geocaching Cactus
  • Contact Me
Haiku/Senryu
by MNLOctober 6, 20198:21 amFebruary 5, 2020

Haiku : 1894 bosh, bicycles and hailstorms

Travel Haiku

Listen. “It’s all bosh.”
Biking. 1894.
Hailstorm chases steeds

haiku by ©2019 M. LaFreniere,  inspired by a travel account from 1894

I picked up this book for a few bucks: a bound volume of the 1894 issues of the Century Magazine. Opening it randomly, I found the third part of the account of two guys bicycling across Asia. A bit on the dry side but it’s interesting.  How did two bicyclists end up with an armed escort that they didn’t even want? Looks like they were paying for them too until Mother Nature lent a hand.  Looks like I may have to back up to check out parts one and two.  And why did they say “our alleged ascent of Ararat”?  You would think they would know if they rode up a mountain. (what? you were expecting an ode to my sore working feet?  I thought I’d give you guys a break.)

 

Across Asia on a Bicycle by Thomas Gaskell Allen, Jr., William Lewis Sachtleben

The Century Magazine, July 1894, Vol. XLVIII, No. 3

(excerpt from part 3, first three paragraphs, pg 389)

“It is all bosh,” was the all but universal opinion of Bayazid in regard to our alleged ascent of Ararat. None but the Persian consul and the mutessarif himself deigned to profess a belief in it, and the gift of several letters to Persian officials, and a sumptuous dinner on the eve of our departure, went far toward proving their sincerity.

On the morning of July 8, in the company of a body-guard of zaptiehs, which the mutessarif forced upon us, we wheeled down from the ruined embattlements of Bayazid. The assembled rabble raised a lusty cheer at parting. An hour later we had surmounted the Kazlee Gool, and the “land of Iran” was before us. At our feet lay the Turco-Persian battle-plains of Chaldiran, spreading like a desert expanse to the parched barren hills beyond, and dotted here and there with clumps of trees in the village oases. And this, then, was the land where as the poets say, “the nightingale sings, and the rose-tree blossoms,” and where “a flower is crushed at every step!” More truth, we thought, in the Scotch traveler’s description, which divides Persia into two portions — “One desert with salt, and the other desert without salt.”  In time we came to McGregor’s opinion as expressed in his description of Khorassan. “We should fancy,” said he, “a small green circle round every village indicted on the map, and shade all the rest in brown.” The mighty hosts whose onward sweep from the Indus westward was checked only by the Grecian phalanx upon the field Marathon must have come from the scattered ruins around, which reminds us that “Iran was; she is no more.” Those myriad ranks of Yenghiz Khan and Tamerland brought death and desolation from Turan to Iran, which so often met to act and react upon one another that both are now only landmarks in the sea of oblivion.

Our honorary escort accompanied us several miles over the border to the Persian village of Killissakend, and there committed us to the hospitality of the district khan, which whom we managed to converse in the Turkish language, which, strange to say, we found available in all the countries that lay in our transcontinental pathway as far as the Great Wall of China. Toward evening we rode in the garden of the harem of the khan, and at daybreak the next morning were again in the saddle. By a avery early start we hoped to escape the burden of excessive hospitality; in other words, to get rid of an escort that was an expensive nuisance. At the next village we were confronted by what appeared to be a shouting, gesticulating maniac. On dismounting, we learned a harbinger had been sent by the khan, the evening before, to have a guard ready to join us as we passed through. In fact, two armed ferashes were galloping toward us, armed, as we afterward learned, with American rifles, and the usual kamma, or huge dagger, swinging from a belt of cartridges. These fellows, like the zaptiehs, were fond of ostentation. They frequently led us a roundabout way to show us off to their relatives or friends in a neighboring village. Nature at last came to our deliverance. As we stood on a prominent ridge taking a last look at Mount Ararat, now more than fifty miles away, a storm came upon us, showering hailstones as large as walnuts. The ferashed with frantic steeds dashed ahead to seek a place of shelter, and we saw them no more.

— end of excerpt —-

Hope you enjoyed the excerpt.  I may back up and read the bit of their riding up Mount Ararat.  Do you want to read it too?

I am going to get back to Basho too but am needing a slower entry before I commit to doing a regular thing again.  Plus I want to buy some of the Basho’s translations as I had to return them all as they were Interlibrary loans. So that will be done with a November paycheck.

————— The End of the Post —————-

(Note: I’m an Amazon affiliate, see disclosure at bottom of post)

You can use the search bar to do an Amazon search as I did with “cycling across asia”. The results will vary. I thought it was pretty cool that when I did that Across Asia on a Bicycle: The Journey of Two American Students from Constantinople to Peking popped up. That’s actually the serialized Century Magazine account in a book. I didn’t realize it had been a book to begin with and was republished in fairly recent times as a paperback. Now I know what the bicyclists look like. A couple of other books had come up when I tried different search terms that I thought looked cool. The Road to San Donato: Fathers, Sons, and Cycling Across Italy (an American father and son tracing their Italian heritage by bicycle-425 miles) and Crazy Cycling Chick: The Inspirational Journey of Angie Across America (I love the title: crazy cycling chick. I would have thought it would be the title of her blog but the blog is called Angie across America instead.).

I’ve linked to the books rather than to kindle versions (but you can if you want) because my kindle is broken. Glares at my kindle. A whole library of books in there — and I can’t touch them. This is the harbinger of the future, I tell you. Billions of books will disappear because bam! technology changes, becomes obsolete and they will be stuck in old broken machines with dead batteries — no access. Sighs. Give me a good paperback. Yes, they fall apart but slowly. And one day someone will dig one up and will find a fragment of a page and wonder what the rest of the story was. Much more intriguing than a dead kindle.

My being an Amazon affiliate does not affect your price. Amazon disclosure: “We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.”

Post Views: 1,115

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Tagged with: 1894 travel account Century Magazine haiku travel haiku

4Comments

Add yours
  1. 1
    Paul Cannon on October 9, 2019 at 10:22 pm

    I like how nature helped get rid of the escort 🙂

    re the Kindle – why don’t you download the app and read from any other device?

    Loading...
    • 2
      MNL on October 18, 2019 at 8:59 am

      Yeah, it’s cool how nature helps in surprising ways. Of course, the escort may not have felt that way.

      I don’t like reading books on my laptop. I treat my kindle like a book (except for it breaks down and it needs to be charged constantly which are both minuses) in that I read the kindle in bed or on the sofa. The good thing is if I read a kindle while I’m eating spaghetti, the splatters don’t matter because it’s an easy wipe. However, I don’t take my kindle on the bus like I do books. Considering I read blogs on my laptop, it is a bit strange that I don’t also do books on my laptop. I think here on the laptop, I don’t read anything that’s more than a few pages long generally; then my mind skitters to the next thing. It’s not concentrated reading of half an hour to a couple of hours like a real book — even though laptops can hold real books, it’s still not the same to me. In real books, I fall into them, my imagination creates movies as I’m in the scene. That doesn’t happen when reading on a laptop. I don’t really know why.

      Loading...
  2. 3
    ardputerbaughaolcom on October 6, 2019 at 8:45 am

    Interesting excerpt…what struck out for me was the quote about “Iran was, she is no more.” A country still in unrest.

    Loading...
    • 4
      MNL on October 18, 2019 at 9:44 am

      That line struck me too but it made think of Mark Twain’s “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” Have you read Persepolis? It’s a graphic novel memoir set in Tehran of a young girl. Looking it up again, I just found out she has written more as her life continues to evolve going back and forth between Iran and other countries.

      Loading...

·Comments are closed.

Categories

Follow Cactus Haiku on WordPress.com
Follow

Email Subscription

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive email notifications of new posts.

Join 192 other subscribers
October 2019
S M T W T F S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Sep   Nov »

Cactus Dreams T-shirt on amazon

Recent Posts

  • Using Haiku or Poetry to make AI Art : Dream by Wombo AI Art Tutorial November 27, 2022
  • A Time Haiku November 13, 2022
  • A Haiku : Looking for a Hero November 9, 2022
  • A Haunted Haiku : Rusted Memories November 6, 2022
  • A Haunted Haiku : Gotta dance October 31, 2022

Blog Stats

  • 31,955 hits

Archives

All writing and images on this site is © 2017-2019 by M. LaFreniere, all rights reserved. 

Any exceptions and copyright of images or quotes belonging to other sources will be noted in the “References” area at the bottom of each post.

Affiliate Disclosure: I am an affiliate for Amazon, Walmart and others so clicking on a link and purchasing something may result in my receiving a small payment which helps to support this site.  This does not affect your price at their site. Your support is much appreciated. Amazon disclosure: Amazon disclosure: “We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.”

Tags

almost daily poems alphabet haiku AtoZ Challenge A to Z Challenge Cactus Haiku caffeine caffeine addict coffee coffee addiction coffee daily poem coffee haiku coffeeholic coffee love coffee lover coffee photography coffee poem coffee time daily haiku daily poem daily post daily prompts food haibun haibun challenge Haibun Road haibun writing prompt haiku imaginary garden with real toads love coffee Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie MLMM photography poetry postaday ragtag daily prompt rdp real toads second life secondlife senryu tanka Tucson writing writing challenge writing prompt

Most Liked

  • no-thumbnailSenryu : experience & life
  • Senryu : lucky coffee
  • Senryu : wonder
  • coffee cup and bananas, photo by M. LaFreniere, all rights reservedSenryu : coffee ramblings
  • no-thumbnailSenryu : heiroglyphic hineys
  • Senryu : Legends

Most Viewed

  • Daily Haiku / Senryu: Planet (8,952)
  • Ragtag Daily Prompt : Redux (7,621)
  • Senryu : ghost poems (7,523)
  • Daily Haiku / Senryu : Leaf (Wash’s requiem) (7,239)
  • Ronovan Weekly / Haibun Monday : Lake & Calm / Water (6,768)

Recent comments

  • MNL on Using Haiku or Poetry to make AI Art : Dream by Wombo AI Art Tutorial
  • Diane Puterbaugh on Using Haiku or Poetry to make AI Art : Dream by Wombo AI Art Tutorial
  • Debbie on Using Haiku or Poetry to make AI Art : Dream by Wombo AI Art Tutorial

.Bloggers who liked/commented me (in past 7 days)

  • Adventures (2/6)
  • Don't hold your breath (1/27)
  • ilovepainting80
  • Jules Longer Strands of Gems (11/7)
  • Magaly Guerrero (11/18)
  • Maverick Mist (2/8)
  • Postcard Poems (2/11)
  • Wholeness Haven (2/5)
  • yocollector-Romania (2/6)

Bloggers who are following me

  • ……….365 Days………..
  • A Geordie Lost in London
  • A Guide 2 Everything
  • A Guy Called Bloke and K9 Doodlepip!
  • A Heaven for Toasters
  • A little insight
  • A.C. Stark
  • Afterwards
  • Alive
  • ALMANDYNE
  • and the words that echo..
  • Angelswhisper2011
  • August's Attic
  • awisewomansjourney
  • Balance
  • balifrendlydriver
  • Ballesworld
  • Be Blogger (official)
  • BE KITSCHIG
  • Beating the Odds
  • beauty1st
  • Bees in Amber
  • Benyapoesy
  • Between Land and Sky
  • Bilocalalia
  • blackwings666
  • Bob's Blog
  • Book 'Em, Jan O
  • Butterfly Dance Magic
  • Buzz in the Snow
  • By Sarah
  • byluis7
  • Cage Dunn: Writer Author Collaborator
  • Carpe Diem Haiku Kai
  • Cat Care Solutions
  • Chèvrefeuille's haiku
  • cocinaitaly
  • Comedy Plus
  • Crazy Life
  • CRYSTAL AND DAISY MAE'S PHOTO-BLOGGING SITE
  • Culture Shocks
  • Curious as a Cathy
  • Curious Cat
  • Curious Steph
  • Dancing Echoes
  • Dancing to the Words
  • Debbie Scott Photography | Digital Art
  • Diary of an Aesthete
  • Difficult Degrees
  • DJ Ranch
  • Dolls, Dolls, Dolls
  • Edge of Humanity Magazine
  • Education Motivation Inspiration
  • Empowered Everyday
  • Expedition Overlanding Nomadic Adventures
  • Exploring the epiphany
  • Eye For A Pic
  • Family Travel Host USA
  • Feline Café
  • From my guardaviñas
  • From Pyrenees to Pennines
  • from sand to stars
  • Giggles & Tales
  • Gin & Lemonade with a twist
  • H.Walker
  • HABLEMOS DE PELICULAS
  • Hannah's Happenings!
  • HAYAT GÜZELSE
  • HEALTHY LIFESTYLE
  • Her Writing Haven
  • Imaginarium Fantastical
  • In Dianes Kitchen
  • In my mind's eye
  • Indie Reviews
  • Inexorable Spark
  • Ingredients Please!
  • Ink 'em Down
  • Inspiring you
  • Invisible-No-More
  • iScriblr
  • Jakesprinter
  • Jayblogs
  • JEANNE FOGUTH Sci-fi and Fantasy Author
  • Jeanne Foguth's Blog
  • Joseph Dalton Elite Reality
  • Katzenworld
  • Keto For Beginners
  • KO Rural Mad As Hell Blog
  • komodotourlabuanbajo
  • Kunstkitchen's Blog
  • KUSAMER'S
  • Kversus
  • La Audacia de Aquiles
  • La Mamarazzi
  • Layue's everyday photo blog
  • Life & Leisure
  • Life Amazing
  • Life On The Skinny Branches
  • life_with_daphne
  • Light Motifs II
  • Light of God haiku
  • Lisa Dorenfest
  • Little Literature
  • Live Your Dreams 24/7
  • LIVING THE DREAM FOR A NEW TOMORROW
  • Love it Now
  • M I C A L I E N
  • Mariga'sphotos
  • McGuffy's Reader
  • Meditation – now or never
  • MHZADA
  • MICALIEN
  • MindEscapes
  • Mindflight
  • MINDING MY P'S WITH Q
  • MMLeonard
  • Moda-Creative thinking
  • Mugilan Raju
  • Musings from Melbourne
  • My Fantasy World
  • My Feelings My Freedom
  • My Sentence! Guilty of writing and loving it
  • My Slice of Mexico
  • My Slightly Twisted Life
  • My Strange Days
  • Mystic Land
  • Mystique
  • Natasha Musing
  • Netdancer's Musings
  • nightshade
  • O tempo tem Histórias
  • Obzervashunal
  • Oh, border!
  • One day at a time
  • Optimistic Life
  • Our Other Blog: Two Sisters and Two Points of View
  • Out of my Write mInd
  • PALAMPUR PANORAMA
  • parallax
  • Passion and Chaos
  • Photogate (Rebel Gal)
  • Photogate (Rebel Guy)
  • Piper's Adventures
  • Pixel Edit
  • Poetricks
  • Poetry by Nathan Cocker
  • Poetry Collection
  • Poetry Festival
  • Poetry For Healing
  • Poetry talks
  • PrairieChat
  • Proscenium
  • Ramblings from a Writer's Mind
  • Ramblings of a Writer
  • Random Thoughts in a cluttered world
  • Recipesbybangash
  • Reflections of An Untidy Mind
  • Ren'ee Verona: The Poetry Of Paradise
  • Rhyme In Time
  • romeevv
  • Roth Poetry
  • Running Naked With Scissors
  • Scribbled to Paper
  • Searching The Meaning Of Life! (STMOL)
  • Secret World Entertainment
  • Sgeoil
  • Shamelessly Self-Involved
  • Shop and Fly
  • shutterbugdiary
  • simple Ula
  • Simpliv LLC
  • SIMPLY BEING ROYALTY
  • sketchingwords.com
  • slideaways
  • slippery edge
  • Smart Veg Recipes
  • Smell The Coffee
  • Smoke and Mirrors : Vintage Sista
  • Snapshots: Styles And Smiles
  • sonofabeach96
  • sparksfromacombustiblemind
  • Stephanie's RV Travels
  • stepsdaily
  • sunflowerrosecw
  • syedabir (Biography)
  • Tales from My Lens
  • Talkin' to Myself
  • teleportingweena
  • territori del '900
  • TESS: RedMoon Art Music
  • Tex Shelters Online
  • The Abject Muse
  • The Black Wall
  • The Curry Apple Orchard
  • the Flowers of Art
  • The Godly Chic Diaries
  • The Great Panjandrum
  • The Inkwell
  • The Martian Muckraker
  • The Mind of Nox
  • The Nutty Book Blogger
  • the orangutan librarian
  • The Poetry of Things
  • The Pristine Land
  • The Shaming Room
  • theindieshe
  • tinytotspoetry
  • Travel Destinations, Insights and Photography
  • TravelArtPix
  • Traveling-Trish
  • Tres Fabeaux
  • Trizahs RANDOM THOUGHTS
  • Twenty Four
  • Urban Poetry (Linda Wolff)
  • Veggiegate
  • W+W
  • Welcome to Crystal's site (originally country living)
  • What if We all Cared?
  • Wide Eyed In Wonder
  • Wild Womanista
  • Wind Kisses
  • Wolff Poetry | Poetry, Tools & Resources for Self-Publishing Writers
  • Word Florilegium
  • Writer A.D. Hughes
  • Writing with Strangers and making poetry
  • Writings and Musings
  • Zombie Flamingos
  • ✨Colleen Chesebro✨The Faery Whisperer ✨
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Patch Lite by Pixelgrade.
%d bloggers like this: