{"id":4114,"date":"2015-03-16T05:37:07","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T12:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/?p=4114"},"modified":"2015-03-16T05:41:42","modified_gmt":"2015-03-16T12:41:42","slug":"the-eerie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/2015\/03\/the-eerie\/","title":{"rendered":"the eerie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Notes on the erhu: <\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

I was reading haiku on The Heron’s Nest<\/a> last night. I came across a word new to me: “erhu.” <\/p>\n

evening breeze
\nruffling thoughts of her
\nechoes of the erhu<\/p>\n

Chen-ou Liu
\nAjax, Ontario
\nCanada<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

2 <\/p>\n

I used the “define” function on iPad’s Safari to look it up. <\/p>\n

erhu |\u00c9\u2122r\u00cb\u02c6ho\u00cd\u017eo| (also erh hu)
\nnoun
\na Chinese two-stringed musical instrument held in the lap and played with a bow.
\nORIGIN early 20th cent.: Chinese, from \u00c3\u00a8r \u00e2\u20ac\u02dctwo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 + h\u00c3\u00ba \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbowed instrument.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

3<\/p>\n

Maybe fifteen minutes later, I’m reading Teju Cole’s Open City<\/a>, a hard cover copy from the library. I come across the following passage: <\/p>\n

I walked under the trees, past the creak of children’s swings and, as I moved closer to the end of the arbor, I could make out the sound of an erhu. The line was breathy and nimble, the precise nimbleness of an old-fashioned thing. …<\/p>\n

When I reached the other side of the park, I saw that there were actually two erhu players, not one. …<\/p>\n

I sat in the grass for a long while listening to the erhu players and the singer. It was cold.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

4 <\/p>\n

Spellcheck has a very difficult time with the word erhu. It is finally learning that I mean it when I type it. But I had to struggle to avoid “eerie” (left its choice in subject line), “erg” and “eh.” I got the impression spellcheck was trying to write a poem. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Notes on the erhu: 1 I was reading haiku on The Heron’s Nest last night. I came across a word new to me: “erhu.” evening breeze ruffling thoughts of her echoes of the erhu...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[46,117,120,119,116,118],"class_list":["post-4114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-appreciation","tag-coincidences","tag-haiku","tag-music","tag-poem","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4114"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4118,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4114\/revisions\/4118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}