Romaji Diary and Sad Toys

Romaji Diary and Sad Toys PDF Author: Takuboku Ishikawa
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 146290078X
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
The novella Romaji Diary represents the first instance of a Japanese writer using romaji (roman script) to tell stories in a way that could not be told in kana or kanji. Sad Toys is a collection of 194 Tanka, the traditional 31 syllable poems that are evocative of Japan's misty past and its tentative steps into the wider world. The publication of this edition of two of Takuboku Ishikawa's finest and most popular works together in translation has proven to be interesting from various standpoints. Romaji Diary and the collection of tanka, Sad Toys, while different forms of literature, are not as dissimilar as they appear on the surface. Takuboku himself wrote that poetry "must be an exact report, an honest diary, of the changes in a man’s emotional life," and these tanka are indeed as much a diary as a standard prose one. Both works reflect clearly, honestly, and poignantly the emotions and philosophy of a complex individual living in a time of profound change in Japan. Romaji Diary is here presented in full in English for the first time.

Romaji Diary and Sad Toys

Romaji Diary and Sad Toys PDF Author: Takuboku Ishikawa
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 146290078X
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
The novella Romaji Diary represents the first instance of a Japanese writer using romaji (roman script) to tell stories in a way that could not be told in kana or kanji. Sad Toys is a collection of 194 Tanka, the traditional 31 syllable poems that are evocative of Japan's misty past and its tentative steps into the wider world. The publication of this edition of two of Takuboku Ishikawa's finest and most popular works together in translation has proven to be interesting from various standpoints. Romaji Diary and the collection of tanka, Sad Toys, while different forms of literature, are not as dissimilar as they appear on the surface. Takuboku himself wrote that poetry "must be an exact report, an honest diary, of the changes in a man’s emotional life," and these tanka are indeed as much a diary as a standard prose one. Both works reflect clearly, honestly, and poignantly the emotions and philosophy of a complex individual living in a time of profound change in Japan. Romaji Diary is here presented in full in English for the first time.

The First Modern Japanese

The First Modern Japanese PDF Author: Donald Keene
Publisher: Asia Perspectives: History, Society, and Culture
ISBN: 9780231179720
Category : Poets, Japanese
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
A biography of Japanese tanka master Ishikawa Takuboku, who pioneered an unmistakably modern poetic style.

On Knowing Oneself Too Well

On Knowing Oneself Too Well PDF Author: Ishikawa Takuboku
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780615345628
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
At the turn of the twentieth-century, Ishikawa Takuboku took Japan's ancient, highly formal poetic tradition and turned it to the purposes of an impassioned sensibility in a rapidly modernizing world. Beginning with poems rich in childhood sorrow and wonder, he progressed in his short life to a poetry of searing objectivity and miraculous self-knowing. Before dying of tuberculosis, Takuboku achieved in his poems a kind of Buddhist awakening, observing by their means the emptiness of self in a riveting and heartbreaking world. On Knowing Oneself Too Well offers, in Tamae K. Prindle's lucid translations, the most comprehensive selection available in English of this vital modern poet. "Ishikawa died at twenty-six, lived long enough to change his name to woodpecker, died young, lived long enough to take an old form, tanka, and make it new, died young, lived long enough to read foreign books and taste foreign wine, died young but had chance to sing himself a long song, Whitman's eyes turned humbly, fiercely outward, careful what he sees, died young, lived long enough to build a body of poems that moves me the way weather does, birds and shabby autumn trees and all the other sorts of things that die young and make a spectacle of themselves, funny reminders, revelations, quiet ecstasies. Died young and left poems of a wry beauty, given to us here in quiet, affectionate English translation." -Robert Kelly "The poet as woodpecker indeed: Ishikawa Takuboku's clear pecked rhythms & images are a perfect delight. Are they large rain drops sparingly tapping the drum-taut paper of a shoji-screen or the poet's tensed fingers rapping on his tablet? The reader sits & listens & looks and the world grows quiet except for that nano-perception that now begins to fill the world. The small daily pain or pleasure, exquisitely brought over into the simplest of words: and yet, all the world is thus said." -Pierre Joris

The Illusions of Self

The Illusions of Self PDF Author: Ishikawa Takuboku
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781911221869
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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Book Description
Roger Pulvers' translations - with detailed notes and commentary - of Japan's greatest tanka poet, Takuboku Ishikawa, is now available here for the first time in this volume. Each tanka - a poem that in Japanese has thirty-one syllables - is a microcosm of the human psyche, revealing astounding insights into human behaviors, love (and hate) relationships, as well as social and political circumstances that presage our own times. In his short life (1886-1912) Takuboku experienced many loves, a tumultuous marriage, fatherhood of three children, one of whom died shortly after birth, a brilliant career as a journalist and wildly popular poet, not to mention a political awakening that was leading him onto the path of the revolutionary. In "Old Love Letters," he writes ... There are so many spelling mistakes In those old love letters. I never noticed until now. In "The New Year" ... Will this year be like all others With my mind conjuring only things That the world will not accept? And in "The Patient" ... One push of the door, a single step And the corridor seems to stretch As far as the eye can see. Pulvers writes in The Illusions of Self ... Takuboku puts every aspect of his character on the line for us to judge. Japan today craves writers who have the integrity of self-expression and the clarity of vision on their society that Takuboku expresses to us. In the mirror of his works, we are compelled to see our own face in a clear and honest light. Of these translations, distinguished author and translator of American literature Motoyuki Shibata has written: "These masterful translations will be a revelation for lovers of Takuboku's poetry while, at the same time, comprising a stylish introduction to those who wish to know it."

Modern Japanese Tanka

Modern Japanese Tanka PDF Author: Makoto Ueda
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231104333
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
His introduction gives an excellent overview of the development of tanka in the last one hundred years.

A Handful of Sand

A Handful of Sand PDF Author: 石川啄木
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 106

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Book Description


Modern Japanese Poets and the Nature of Literature

Modern Japanese Poets and the Nature of Literature PDF Author: Makoto Ueda
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804711661
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
A Stanford University Press classic.

Seeds in the Heart

Seeds in the Heart PDF Author:
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231114417
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 1284

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Book Description
Donald Keene, a noted authority in the field, offers a guide through the first 900 years of Japanese literature. This period not only defined the unique properties of Japanese prose and prosody, but also produced some of its greatest works.

The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature

The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature PDF Author: Haruo Shirane
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316368289
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature provides, for the first time, a history of Japanese literature with comprehensive coverage of the premodern and modern eras in a single volume. The book is arranged topically in a series of short, accessible chapters for easy access and reference, giving insight into both canonical texts and many lesser known, popular genres, from centuries-old folk literature to the detective fiction of modern times. The various period introductions provide an overview of recurrent issues that span many decades, if not centuries. The book also places Japanese literature in a wider East Asian tradition of Sinitic writing and provides comprehensive coverage of women's literature as well as new popular literary forms, including manga (comic books). An extensive bibliography of works in English enables readers to continue to explore this rich tradition through translations and secondary reading.

Japanese Counterculture

Japanese Counterculture PDF Author: Steven C. Ridgely
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 0816667527
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
Explores the significant impact of this countercultural figure of postwar Japan.