neils clark

I was looking to find a Haiku from one of Ian Fleming’s Bond books, “You only Live Twice.” I’d remembered the vocals on the theme going something like, “One life for yourself and one for your dreams,” and I was hoping to find something like a fancy-sounding and historically significant haiku (thoughtful, I know). I was a little dissapointed when I found that…

The title is often mistaken as being the work of a Japanese poet named Matsuo Bashō; however, the unique title comes from a haiku that James Bond wrote for his friend Tiger Tanaka. It is also mentioned in the novel that it isn’t a haiku at all, that in actuality it is a failed attempt by Bond after being taught the basics for creating a haiku.

In the epigraph and later explained in the novel, the haiku is listed as being “after Basho”, meaning written in the poet’s style.

“ You only live twice:
Once when you’re born
And once when you look death in the face.”

I was, however, highly excited to see that in the actual book…

Bond ultimately exacts revenge on Blofeld in a sword fighting duel

How awesome would that have been?

Anyway, I ultimately felt vindicated for my time when shortly after wikipediaing I found an MP3 of Nancy Sinatra’s 1967 “You Only Live Twice,” the theme playing at the opening and closing of the movie,

[Here]

The same site was also hosting a remake of Bjork’s cover,

[Here]

I decided to ante up and upload the beautiful instrumental version of this song, which has always been my favorite of the unique bond themes,

[Here]

After a long day of writing about ‘game addiction,’ these songs made me laugh pretty hard. They’re so pertinent, that if I ever do get back into gaming I may kick it off by leaving the Nancy Sinatra version of the song on repeat for a few hours. I’m not even joking.

Neils Clark :: Apr.05.2007 :: General, Media Experience ::

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