| NOTA |
(★)(Almost a century after Shiki Masaoka´s death in 1902, he remains a powerful influence on modern haiku and tanka poetry. His life story is one of high drama and courage. He was the major voice of authority in bringing about the revival of haiku in Meiji Japan, yet he also suffered from tuberculosis and caries of the spine, excruciatingly painful illness which left him bedridden for nearly the last seven years of his life. It was at this time of prolonged physical pain that he set about restoring the declining tanka tradition to its high position in Japanese literature. Shiki had remarkable, almost telescopic vision, and this intense way of seeing is characteristic of his tanka, 298 of which appear in this book. These poems have been selected from Shiki´s Takenosato Uta by the translators Sanford Goldstein and Seishi Shinoda. In this unique collection, the longest anthology of Shiki´s tanka poetry in English, precise English translations are accompanied by romanized renderings of the original Japanese script. Reference notes contain important biographical, linguistic, and cultural information. Sanford Goldstein, Professor Emeritus at Purdue University, is now a professor at Keiwa College in Japan, where he teaches American literature. In 1983, he received an Arts Literature Program Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts to translate his third volume of tanka poems. Tanka collections he has co-translated with Seishi Shinoda include Akiko Yosano´s Tangled Hair, Takuboku Ishikawa´s Sad Toys, and Mokichi Saito´s Red Lights.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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