Strong in the Rain: Selected Poems [Paperback]

Kenji Miyazawa (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 28, 2008

Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933) is now widely viewed as Japan's greatest poet of the 20th century. Little known in his lifetime, he died at 37 from tuberculosis, but has since become a much loved children's author whose magical tales have been translated into many languages, adapted for the stage and turned into films and animations. Recognition for his poetry came much later. Strong in the Rain - the title poem of this selection - is now arguably the most memorized and quoted modern poem in Japan. ""Newcomers to this startlingly great poet should begin with this book."" Booklist

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Another year, another selection of the early-twentieth-century Japanese master poet who didn’t catch on in his homeland until the 1990s, when deep economic recession roused spiritual concerns in Japan for the first time in decades. Although translator Pulvers offers a much smaller number of poems than Hiroaki Sato did in Selections (2007), no enthusiastic reader of that book will want to miss this one. Pulvers, a man of the theater more than a literary man, stresses the visual content of Miyazawa’s work, how the poet expresses emotions and reveals the meaning of events through colors, which have direct Buddhist spiritual connotations, and through natural action, especially that of the wind. Besides a more ardently sympathetic introduction to Miyazawa than Sato’s, Pulvers provides engaging, unfussy annotation for each selection. His translations are that extra bit livelier; they work a little harder to vivify Miyazawa’s almost Franciscan life of devotion to the poor farmers of his culturally backward home prefecture in northern Honshu. Perhaps newcomers to this startlingly great poet should begin with this book, proceed to Sato’s for earlier and other versions of some small masterpieces, seek out the stories that have been translated—and look sharp for more translated poems. --Ray Olson

Review

Newcomers to this startlingly great poet should begin with this book. --Booklist

Editor's Choice 2008 --Booklist

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd (May 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852247819
• ISBN-13: 978-1852247812
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #531,998 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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