Poets of Modern Japan Vol. 1: Yosano/Yanagiwara/Kujo

Poets of Modern Japan Vol. 1: Yosano / Yanagiwara / Kujo Forgotten Poets #13 / forgottenpoets.substack.com ‘Poets of Modern Japan Vol. 1’ brings together the complete English translations of over 100 poems by three prominent Japanese ‘new tanka’ poets of the early-1900s, Akiko Yosano, Akiko Yanagiwara, and Takeko Kujo, translated by Glenn Hughes and Yozan T. Iwasaki; with newly restored illustrations by Eiko Yonemura. Hughes and Iwasaki’s translations drew on 1920s ‘free verse’, Imagist, and modernist poets for inspiration, which had themselves drawn on late-1800s and early-1900s translations of tanka and haikai as models. . . . . . . . . . -: Akiko Yosano :- The white iris And the purple iris Grow side by side in the pond, Yet never open their hearts To each other. . . . . . . . . . -: Akiko Yanagiwara :- Heaven and earth, Cloud and water, Life and death: There is neither end nor beginning— That is all I feel sure of. . . . . . . . . . -: Takeko Kujo :- Spring night. Silence. The rustle of my dress Falling to the floor. Silence. . . . . . . . . . The Forgotten Poets Newsletter presents: new collections of out-of-print and obscure poetry, with a focus on compressed & fragmented ‘free’ and ‘new’ verse from the late-1800s & early-1900s, & the early history of English-language tanka & haiku. Verses are carefully selected & spaciously laid-out, adorned with illustrations & ornaments from the books & magazines they originally appeared in. These are not “”reprints”” of previously published books, but newly crafted collections, for the serious poetry lover. —- ISBN: 9781991310415