River of Stars: Selected Poems of Yosano Akiko (Paperback)

by Yosano Akiko (Author), Sam Hamill (Author), Keiko Matsui Gibson (Author) "Immersed in my hot bath like a lovely lily growing in a spring, my twenty-year-old body-so beautiful, so sublime..." (more)

Editorial Reviews

Review
After Hearing My
After Twenty Years
After Two Long Months
Agreed, We Have
All Day Yesterday
All The Red And White
Almost Transparent
Among The New Leaves
And Now You Must Ask
At My Lover's
Before Your Leaving,
The Blossoming Plum
A Blow From My Son August
Both He And I
By A Nameless Stream
Camellias And %plum Blossoms Are Equally White.
Clinging To A Bible,
Cold Supper
Concentrated So %completely On Each Other
Did You Really Think
Does The Pale Priest See,
Don't Complain To Me
Early Summer Comes
Even At Nineteen,
The Evening Dark
Feeling You Nearby,
First Labor Pains
Following His Bath
Fresh From My Hot Bath
Friends, Please Don't Ask
From Her Shoulder
Gently, I Open
The Gods Wish It So:
Hair In Morning Tangles,
The Handsome Boatman,
A Handsome Oarsman
He Does Not Return
He Stood By The Door
Hearing Your Poem
His Hand On My Neck
Hitting My Koto
A Huge Array
I Say His Poem
I Whisper, Good Night,
If I Could, I Would
Ignoring The Way
Immersed In My Hot
In Bright Spring Sunshine
In Dreams Anyway,
In Return For All
In Utter Silence
Is It Anyone's Fault
It Was Only
Kiyomizu Temple's %picturesque Across Gion:
Kyoto, Autumn,
Late Last Autumn
Lifting Your Head
Like A Summer Flower
Lingering With Him
The Little Lamb's Eyes,
A Long, Restless Night,
Love
A Man, Like A Twig
Mistaken Again!
Mountain Moving Day
My Shiny Black Hair
Not So Long Ago
O My Beloved God
On Her Cheek And Mine,
One Autumn Ago
One Note From The Flute
The Only Question
Picking Wild Roses
Please Forgive Me
Raindrops Continue
Rather Than Trying
The River Of Stars
Self-awareness
So All Alone
Spring Quickly Passes
Standing Beside Him
Sutras Grow Bitter
Testing, Tempting Me
To Paint My Soft Lips
The Town Of Amazement
Twenty Years Of
The Universe And Myself
Voice Still Immature,
Wakening Me
Was It A Thousand
Were They Bitter Or
Wet With Spring Rain,
What Can I Put In
Where Gentle Spring Winds
While Mother Begins
Who Might That Be,
A Wish About Poetry
With Teary Eyes, She
With The Young Monk
Women Are Plunder
Yesterday You Spoke
You Shall Not Be Killed, Brother!
You've Never Explored
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

The canon of modern Japanese poetry is well-enhanced by this first English edition of one of Japan's twentieth century stellar lights, Yosano Akiko (1878-1942) - the most well-known and controversial female writer of that country this century. In her lifetime, Akiko published 75 books, among them 20 volumes of poetry, along with a definitive modern Japanese translation of the classic, The Tale of Genji. A pioneering feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, her passions were intensely reflected in her literary work, reviving tanka - a form similar to the sonnet - to renewed lyrical essence, creating a unique style of true emotional directness. Given the enormity of reverberative effects in Akiko's poems, Hamill and Matsui Gibson's translations are crisp and incisive, with judicious care given the limits of English syntax. The 91 tanka and dozen modern style longer poems translated maintain a sustained pitch of such deeply engaged feeling that one almost reaches Zen-like union with Akiko's mind. What is remarkable is her fearless presentation of the sensate reality of the female body in relation to the masculine. Often evoking simple but striking images bordering on fetishism, she shows a very profound sensual connection with her man, her body almost becoming an imbued form of narcissism that challenges him to equal passion as her own. Other riveting poems in this mode address the bodiless perfection of Buddhist novices, immersed in meditation, challenging them to reciprocate and liberate themselves through her passion. Her poetry moves swiftly, subsuming one current into another, gathering shades of images and feelings, until the reader is finally swept along in her concentrated intensity of spirit. Some annotation would have been helpful in placing the poems in context to Akiko's eventful life, but the whole range of impact and emotions conveyed in this finely rendered first edition manage to supersede all criticism. -- From Independent Publisher

Review
"The canon of modern Japanese poetry is well-enhanced by this first English edition of one of Japan's twentieth century stellar lights, Yosano Akiko (1878-1942)—the most well-known and controversial female writer of that country in this century. In her lifetime, Akiko published seventy-five books, among them twenty volumes of poetry, along with a definitive modern Japanese translation of the classic Tales of Genji.

"A pioneering feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, her passions were intensely reflected in her literary work, reviving tanka—a form similar to the sonnet—to renewed lyrical essence, creating a unique style of true emotional directness. Given the enormity if reverberative effects in Akiko's poems, Hamill and Matsui Gibson's translations are crisp and incisive, with judicious care given the limits of English syntax. The ninety-one tanka and dozen modern style longer poems translated maintain a sustained pitch of such deeply engaged feeling that one almost reaches Zen-like union with Akiko's mind.

"What is remarkable is her fearless presentation of the sensate reality of the female body in relation to the masculine. Often evoking simple but striking images bordering on fetishism, she shows a very profound sensual connection with her man, her body almost becoming an imbued form of narcissism that challenges him to equal passion as her own. Other riveting poems in this mode address the bodiless perfection of Buddhist novices, immersed in meditation, challenging them to reciprocate and liberate themselves through her passion.

"Her poetry moves swiftly, subsuming one current into another, gathering shades of images and feelings, until the reader is finally swept along in her concentrated intensity of spirit. Some annotation would have been helpful in placing the poems in context to Akiko's eventful life, but the whole range of impact and emotions conveyed in this finely rendered first edition manage to supersede all criticism."—Small Press

"Akiko's verse exhibits a powerful simplicity and grace that make this volume one of much more than historical interest."—Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 134 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala; 1st edition (March 18, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570621462
• ISBN-13: 978-1570621468
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #188,574 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite, Passionate and Strikingly Direct, September 3, 2002

By	Hortensia Anderson "Hortensia Anderson" (nyc, ny, usa) - See all my reviews

As a poet, I can barely open this book without the muse whispering in my ear. The translations are superb - page after page of delicious tanka with a small section of "modern style poems" at the end. The brush illustrations by Stephen Addiss visually enhance a magnificent experience. Don't miss it!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetically Exquisite, July 1, 2001

By A Customer

"River of Stars" is one of the more sophisticated books of Japanese poetry that I have read. It is artfully translated and beautifully presented. If you like tanka, you will love the selected poems of Yosano Akiko.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shining like a knife..., November 30, 2003

By	C. Gilbert "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I liked the comparison that the introduction made between the thinking of Yosano Akiko and the High Moderns like Eliot and Pound. For all that they were working from different cultures and probably entirely different world views, I think that Akiko shared with them that kind of glittering precision that makes her work very pure to read-- particularly the Tanka.

I was a little bit less impressed with the selection of "Modern Poetry" that came after the Tanka. I'm not sure whether it would have been true of all her non-traditional form poetry, but the poems chosen for this section were not nearly as strong as some of the others, and honestly seemed as though they'd been chosen to illustrate her political thinking rather than the body of her aesthetic work.

Also, compliments to Shambhala Publications for the lucid translation and for the non-irritating introduction. Everything seemed just enough and well done.