[PDF] Written On The Sky Poems From The Japanese eBook

Author : Eliot Weinberger
Publisher : New Directions Publishing
Page : 96 pages
File Size : 27,21 MB
Release : 2009-04-21
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 0811218376

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“Rexroth’s readings from the Japanese master poets are breathtaking in their simplicity and clarity.”—The New York Times I go out of the darkness Onto a road of darkness Lit only by the far off Moon on the edge of the mountains. —Izumi Shikobu Over the years, thousands of readers have discovered the beauty of classic Japanese poetry through the superb English versions by the great American poet Kenneth Rexroth. Mostly haiku, these poems range from the classical and medieval to modern poetry, with an emphasis on folk songs and love lyrics. Because women played such an outstanding role in Japanese literature, included here are selections from their work, including the contemporary, deeply sensuous Marichiko. This elegant, beautifully designed gift book of poems spanning many centuries presents the original texts in romanji, the transliteration into the Western alphabet.

Author : Kenneth Rexroth
Publisher : New Directions Publishing
Page : 186 pages
File Size : 22,54 MB
Release : 1955
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780811201810

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A collection of Japanese poems accompanied by their English translations.

Author :
Publisher : Tuttle Publishing
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 39,32 MB
Release : 1998-04-15
Category : Poetry
ISBN : 146291649X

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"A wonderful introduction the Japanese tradition of jisei, this volume is crammed with exquisite, spontaneous verse and pithy, often hilarious, descriptions of the eccentric and committed monastics who wrote the poems." --Tricycle: The Buddhist Review Although the consciousness of death is, in most cultures, very much a part of life, this is perhaps nowhere more true than in Japan, where the approach of death has given rise to a centuries-old tradition of writing jisei, or the "death poem." Such a poem is often written in the very last moments of the poet's life. Hundreds of Japanese death poems, many with a commentary describing the circumstances of the poet's death, have been translated into English here, the vast majority of them for the first time. Yoel Hoffmann explores the attitudes and customs surrounding death in historical and present-day Japan and gives examples of how these have been reflected in the nation's literature in general. The development of writing jisei is then examined--from the longing poems of the early nobility and the more "masculine" verses of the samurai to the satirical death poems of later centuries. Zen Buddhist ideas about death are also described as a preface to the collection of Chinese death poems by Zen monks that are also included. Finally, the last section contains three hundred twenty haiku, some of which have never been assembled before, in English translation and romanized in Japanese.

Author : Ayane Kawata
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 48,76 MB
Release : 2010
Category :
ISBN : 9781933959085

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Poetry. East Asia Studies. Finalist for the 2011 Best Translated Book Award in Poetry. Translated from the Japanese by Sawako Nakayasu. Cover art by Mauro Zamora. TIME OF SKY & CASTLES IN THE AIR is the first full-length translation of Ayane Kawata's poetry to be published in English. This single volume contains Kawata's first book of poems, Time of Sky (first published in Japanese by Kumo Publishers, 1969), and her sixth, Castles in the Air: A Dream Journal (first published in Japanese by Shoshi Yamada, 1991). "In TIME OF SKY we find terse lines that are unresolved--the tension is neither built nor released, but exists as if in its natural state, a note of music forever in suspension. It never arrives--it is and never was home.... Its poems are derived from a notebook the author kept for 15 years, in which she recorded her dreams every morning upon waking...The logic in these prose poems may feel familiar to us as dream logic, but we also find in them the complexity and anxiety attendant to of a lifetime spent living in a culture not one's own, an ongoing reckoning with one's dangers and desires, and the difficulty (and absurdity) of trying to communicate with others."--Sawako Nakayasu from the Afterword "In Japan, Kawata's work is noted primarily for its stark, vivid depictions of life--not so much life as lived by a specific person, but more the sense of 'living-ness.' To the Japanese eye and ear, Kawata's poetry cuts through to the 'overwhelming mysteries' that lie beneath everyday activities, and it does so with necessity. Hers are aggressive poems that look frankly at what it means to be a Japanese woman both inside Japan and away."--Melinda Markham

Author : Kazuaki Tanahashi
Publisher : Shambhala Publications
Page : 270 pages
File Size : 10,84 MB
Release : 2012-10-09
Category : Poetry
ISBN : 0834828162

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The delightful and often funny poetry of Zen’s quintessential free spirit, Master Ryokan—in a fresh translation by a beloved American Zen figure Ryokan Taigu (1758-1831) was a monk in the Soto lineage of Japanese Zen who spent a good part of his life as a hermit, writing poetry, playing with children, and creating simple and exquisitely beautiful calligraphies—sometimes using twigs as his instrument when he couldn't afford a brush. He was never head of a monastery or temple and as an old man, he fell in love with a young Zen nun who also became his student. His affection for her colors the mature poems of his late period. This loving tribute to the great legendary nonconformist includes more than 140 of his poems, 13 examples of his art, and a selection of laugh-out-loud funny anecdotes about his highly idiosyncratic teaching behavior.

Author : Takashi Kojima
Publisher : Tuttle Publishing
Page : 199 pages
File Size : 47,37 MB
Release : 2011-11-08
Category : Poetry
ISBN : 1462901131

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This collection of classical poetry was selected from the Man'yoshu—the oldest and most important collection of Japanese poetry. Despair and hope are two emotions commonly voiced by poets in the Man'yoshu. Although written over thirteen hundred years ago, the poems retain a rare freshness, an originality that delights and fascinates even today. Part of the collection's originality is due to its variety of authors, from members of the aristocracy to commoners from the lowest ranks. The poems cover a wide range of content and expression, from court poets' highly polished verses to anonymous poems that read like folk songs. Poems about love are common but the treatment of love varies from anguished pinning to wondrous celebration to bitter denunciation. What the various Man'yo poems do have in common is emotional fire, amazing candor, and eloquent expression of feeling not found in later Japanese poetry. It is these characteristics that have earned the Man'yoshu a constant and devoted readership over the centuries.

Author : Kiriu Minashita
Publisher :
Page : 108 pages
File Size : 18,20 MB
Release : 2006
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN :

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Poetry. Translated from the Japanese by Sawako Nakayasu, Ryoko Sekiguchi and Cole Swensen. This revolutionary volume represents the first book of its kind, a bilingual anthology dedicated to women working in modern and cross cultural poetry milieus. Published collaboratively by Belladonna Books and Litmus Press in honor of the Festival of Contemporary Japanese Women Poets with support by NYSCA.

Author : Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsu
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 461 pages
File Size : 14,93 MB
Release : 2016-04-26
Category : Juvenile Fiction
ISBN : 1481437887

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In this beautiful and haunting debut novel in verse, called “a tender piece on connectedness” in a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, a Japanese-American girl struggles with the loneliness of being caught between two worlds when the tragedy of 9/11 strikes an ocean away. Eleven-year-old Ema has always been of two worlds—her father’s Japanese heritage and her mother’s life in America. She’s spent summers in California for as long as she can remember, but this year she and her mother are staying with her grandparents in Japan as they await the arrival of Ema’s baby sibling. Her mother’s pregnancy has been tricky, putting everyone on edge, but Ema’s heart is singing—finally, there will be someone else who will understand what it’s like to belong and not belong at the same time. But Ema’s good spirits are muffled by her grandmother who is cold, tightfisted, and quick to reprimand her for the slightest infraction. Then, when their stay is extended and Ema must go to a new school, her worries of not belonging grow. And when the tragedy of 9/11 strikes, Ema, her parents, and the world watch as the twin towers fall… As her mother grieves for her country across the ocean—threatening the safety of her pregnancy—and her beloved grandfather falls ill, Ema feels more helpless and hopeless than ever. And yet, surrounded by tragedy, Ema sees for the first time the tender side of her grandmother, and the reason for the penny-pinching and sternness make sense—her grandmother has been preparing so they could all survive the worst. Dipping and soaring, Somewhere Among is the story of one girl’s search for identity, a sense of peace, and the discovery that hope can indeed rise from the ashes of disaster.

Author : Kōtarō Takamura
Publisher :
Page : 236 pages
File Size : 48,42 MB
Release : 2007
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN :

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The major influence and subject of Takamura's work was Naganuma Cheiko, an early member of the feminist movement Seitosha. They were married in 1914 and modelled their relationship on sexual equality. In 1931, Cheiko began to show signs of schizophrenia and, in 1932, she attempted suicide. She was institutionalised in 1935 and died there of tuberculosis in 1938. The poems in this volume are touching portraits of his wife and their life together from the time of their courtship until some years after her death.

Author :
Publisher : Shambhala Publications
Page : 140 pages
File Size : 13,4 MB
Release : 2006-11-14
Category : Poetry
ISBN : 0834824973

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Written by court princesses, exiled officials, Zen priests, and recluses, the 150 poems translated here represent the rich diversity of Japan’s poetic tradition. Varying in tone from the sensuous and erotic to the profoundly spiritual, each poem captures a sense of the poignant beauty and longing known only in the fleeting experience of the moment. The translator has selected these five-line tanka—one of the great traditional verse forms of Japanese literature—from sources ranging from the classical imperial anthologies of the eighth and tenth centuries to works of the early twentieth century.