Muses (sacred poetry) is often seen with a pensive expression; Terpsichore (choral dance and song) is often seen dancing and carrying a lyre; Thalia (comedy) is often seen with a comic mask; and Urania (astronomy) carries a pair of compasses and the celestial globe. Greek "mousa" is a common noun as well as a type of goddess: it literally means "art" or "poetry". According to Pindar, to "carry a "mousa"" is "to excel in the arts". The word derives from the Indo-European root "men-", which is also the source of Greek "Mnemosyne" and "mania", English "mind", "mental" and "monitor", Sanskrit "mantra"
The Dancing Girl of Izu The Dancing Girl of Izu "The Dancing Girl of Izu" or is a 1926 short story by the Japanese writer and Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata. The short story was first translated into English by Edward Seidensticker and published in an abridged form as "The Izu Dancer" in "The Atlantic Monthly" in 1955. A complete English translation of the story appeared in 1998. Kawabata's "The Izu Dancer" represents a lyrical and elegiac memory of early love. The story is well known in Japan, and, today, part of the story's name, "Odoriko" (which means "dancing girl") is used as the name