| NOTA |
(★)´PO-0134´y´PO-0151´son mismos libros. Japan´s modern poetry ranks with the best of world literature. Soon after the country had emerged from more than ywo hundred years of isolation in 1868, its old poetic tradition was shaken by the introduction of translations of Western poetry, as well as by the rapid social changes accompanying Japan´s industrialization. The poets after this time blended the old and the new to create colloquial free verse and modern ´tanka´ and ´haiku´. This combination of old and new resulted in great modern poetry, and, as the translators write,´seems expressive of Basho´s words,「I do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old, I seek the things they sought.」´ The state of Japanese poetry in the twentieth century, its high quality and individuality, is clearly shown in this book. The introduction gives a brief, lucid history of poetry in Japan, with the emphasis on modern poetry. The body of the book is taken up with the translation of the work of forty-nine widely acclaimed poets : free-verse poets, ´tanka´ poets, and ´haiku´ poets. At the back are notes giving illuminating biographical and literary information about each poet. The excellence of the translations and the lucidity of the introduction and notes make the book a treasure for poetry lovers everywhere. ◆Edith Marcombe Shiffert, former student in the University of Washington´s Far Eastern and English departments, has long been concerned with Asian poetry --lecturing, conducting TV and radio programs, translating. She is a founder and former Far Eastern editor of ´Poetry Northwest´. Her own poetry has been widely published in such periodicals as the ´New Yorker´ and the ´Saturday Review´, and in book form in ´For a Return to Kona´ and ´In Open Woods´. She has been teaching in Japan since 1963 and is presently professor of English at Kyoto Seika College in Kyoto, Japan. Yuuki Sawa, born in Kyoto in 1945, is a graduate inbusiness administration of Doshisha University. He has traveled widely in the United States, appearing on radio programs both in Japanese and in English at the University of Washington. He is now a free-lance writer and translator.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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