Sakutaro Hagiwara Livres

Everything you want to know about haiku written by one of the foremost experts in the field and the "finest translator of contemporary Japanese poetry into American English" (Gary Snyder)

One of the most spectacular vendettas ever: the history and haiku behind the mass-suicide featured in the 2013 film 47 Ronin

"This anthology of over 60 of Sato's commentaries reflect the writer's wide-ranging erudition and his unsentimental views of both his native Japan and his adopted American homeland. Broadly he looks at the Pacific War and its aftermath and at war (and our love of it) in general, at the quirks and curiosities of the natural world exhibited by birds and other creatures, at friends and mentors who surprised and inspired, and finally at other writers and their works, many of them familiar--the Beats and John Ashbery, for example, and Mishima--but many others whose introduction is welcome"-- Amazon

Sakutarō Hagiwara remains a singular figure in modern Japanese poetry. His experimentation with traditional forms led to his becoming the most significant pioneer of free-style verse in Japan. Hagiwara’s first book of poetry, Howling at the Moon, astonished readers and was an immediate success—two poems were deleted on order of the Ministry of the Interior for “disturbing social customs.” Hagiwara blends everyday colloquialisms with literary language to remarkable and unsettling effect. Through meditations on mundane images of nature like dogs, bamboo, grass, turtles, eggs, seedlings, frogs, and clams, his poetry palpably conveyed the “modern malaise.” Hagiwara expanded on “an invalid’s” perception of the world in his second book of poems, The Blue Cat. Both of his major published books are included here in full, along with a substantial selection of poems and prose poems from his other collections and a complete translation of Cat Town, a prose-poem roman. These works wholly transformed the poetic landscape in Japan for all future generations. Award-winning translator Hiroaki Sato, called by Gary Snyder “the finest translator of contemporary Japanese poetry into American English,” has also written an insightful introduction to this edition.  

This collection includes four unique poetry pamphlets from Spring 2014, showcasing a diverse range of themes and styles. Each pamphlet highlights the distinct voice of its featured poet, offering readers an opportunity to explore fresh perspectives and innovative expressions in contemporary poetry. Ideal for poetry enthusiasts seeking to discover new talents, this pack represents a vibrant snapshot of the poetic landscape during that season.

This work comprises the first complete English translation of Shi no Genri, one of the most important attempts at a theory of literature written in the modern period. Hagiwara Sakutaro (1886–1942) was not only an original poet but also a perceptive and lonely literary critic. This book, in his own words, "is not a collection of fragmentary writings, but a thoroughly systematic and organized discourse" on poetry and other related arts. He sees the future of Japanese poetry as being tied to the characteristics of Japanese language, and even to the destiny of Japan.