Yosano Akiko - River of stars: selected poems of Yosano Akiko

The canon of modern Japanese poetry is well-enhanced by this first English edition of one of Japans twentieth century stellar lights, Yosano Akiko (18781942)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 tankaa form similar to the sonnetto renewed lyrical essence, creating a unique style of true emotional directness. Given the enormity if reverberative effects in Akikos poems, Hamill and Matsui Gibsons 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 Akikos 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 Akikos eventful life, but the whole range of impact and emotions conveyed in this finely rendered first edition manage to supersede all criticism. Small Press Akikos verse exhibits a powerful simplicity and grace that make this volume one of much more than historical interest. Publishers Weekly ABOUT THE BOOK Yosano Akiko (18781942) is one of the most famous Japanese writers of the twentieth century. She is the author of more than seventy-five books, including twenty volumes of original poetry and the definitive translation into modern Japanese of the Tale of the Genji. Although probably best known for her exquisite erotic poetry, Akikos work also championed the causes of feminism, pacifism, and social reform.

Akikos poetry is profoundly direct, often passionate, exposing the complexity of everyday emotions in poetic language stripped of artifice and presenting the full breadth of her poetic vision. Included are ninety-one of Akikos tanka (a traditional five-line form of verse) and a dozen of her longer poems written in the modern style. Sign up to learn more about our books and receive special offers from Shambhala Publications. Or visit us online to sign up at shambhala.com/eshambhala. RIVER OF STARS Selected Poems of Yosano Akiko TRANSLATED FROM THE JAPANESE BY Sam Hamill AND Keiko Matsui Gibson ILLUSTRATED BY Stephen Addiss SHAMBHALA Boston & London 2013 SHAMBHALA PUBLICATIONS, INC. Toyokuni. Toyokuni.

Photo 1996 The Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford II Fund and General Membership Fund, gifts from Mr. and Mrs.William A. Fisher and Mr. and Mrs.

Edgar B.Whitcomb. A number of the poems in this book originally appeared in the journals Agni, Alaska Quarterly Review, Five Points, Prarie Schooner, Mosaic, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, and Bombay Gin, and in the books Only Companion and The Erotic Spirit, by Sam Hamill, both published by Shambhala Publications. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Yosano, Akiko, 18781942. p. cm. cm.

Includes index. eISBN 978-0-8348-2933-6 ISBN 1-57062-146-2 1. Yosano, Akiko, 18781942Translations into English. 2. WakaTranslations into English. I.

Hamill, Sam. II. Gibson, Keiko Matsui, 1953 . III. Title. mi no umiyunami chidorina ga nakebakokoro mo shinu niinishie omyu HITOMARO, Manysh YOSANO AKIKO was born December 7, 1878, in Sakai, Japan, one of eight children of the owner of a confectionery shop in a suburb of Osaka. mi no umiyunami chidorina ga nakebakokoro mo shinu niinishie omyu HITOMARO, Manysh YOSANO AKIKO was born December 7, 1878, in Sakai, Japan, one of eight children of the owner of a confectionery shop in a suburb of Osaka.

When she died sixty-three years later in May 1942, she was the most famous and controversial female writer in Japan, having published seventy-five books, of which twenty volumes were original poetry including seventeen thousand tanka and five hundred poems in free verse, as well as the definitive translation into modern Japanese of The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. She has been called a princess, a queen, and a goddess of poetry, the very embodiment of early-twentieth-century Japanese Romanticism, feminism, pacifism, and social reform. She dominates her epoch to such a degree that it is commonly referred to as the Age of Akiko. Despite being raised in an atmosphere of strict traditional social constraints, the child Akiko quickly developed precocious literary enthusiasms and began to develop her prodigious talent as she explored her great-grandparents library. Her father loved the arts, and her great-grandfather was renowned as a masters master in the region because of his formidable knowledge of classical Chinese literature and his accomplished haiku. As a child, she spent three years being raised by an aunt because her father despised her at birth, believing she would be male, his feelings compounded by the accidental death of Akikos elder brother two months earlier.

Her mother was forced to sneak through the night to visit the child. Only with the birth of a third son did her father permit Akikos return to the household. Once he witnessed her passion for learning, he provided her with the best possible education and gave her his undying admiration. He also imposed the most severe and archaic familial restraints, refusing to let her out even in daylight unless accompanied by a servant. Graduating from an all-girl high school, she studied the first imperial Japanese poetry anthology, Manysh, Sei Shonagons famous Pillow Book describing life among the court literati, and Genji. Besides studying the classics of Japan, she read European literature and history and contemporary poetry of her time. And she wrote poetry.

At the age of nineteen, she published her first tanka in a local journal, and within the next three years became prominent in literary circles around Osaka and Kyoto. In 1900, a tanka poet named Tekkan, the leader of a new romantic movement, discovered her poems and began teaching her work, bringing her into his new poetry group in Tokyo. She would come to help him edit their journal, Myj, over the following seven years and again during its revival from 1921 to 1927. Yosano Hiroshi was the son of a Buddhist priest. Disinclined toward his fathers occupation, he lived in poverty and on his stepbrothers charity, taking the pen name Tekekan and dedicating himself to infusing tanka with the spirit of masculinism, attempting to make it more modern in sensibility and well as in use of language. He had married the daughter of a wealthy merchant, using the dowry to fund his literary journal, but quickly lost favor with his father-in-law, who demanded a divorce.