At the turn of the twentieth-century, Ishikawa Takuboku took Japan's ancient, highly formal poetic tradition and turned it to the purposes of an impassioned sensibility in a rapidly modernizing world. Beginning with poems rich in childhood sorrow and wonder, he progressed in his short life to a poetry of searing objectivity and miraculous self-knowing. Before dying of tuberculosis, Takuboku achieved in his poems a kind of Buddhist awakening, observing by their means the emptiness of self in a riveting and heartbreaking world. On Knowing Oneself Too Well offers, in Tamae K. Prindle's lucid translations, the most comprehensive selection available in English of this vital modern poet.  "Ishikawa died at twenty-six, lived long enough to change his name to woodpecker, died young, lived long enough to take an old form, tanka, and make it new, died young, lived long enough to read foreign books and taste foreign wine, died young but had chance to sing himself a long song, Whitman's eyes turned humbly, fiercely outward, careful what he sees, died young, lived long enough to build a body of poems that moves me the way weather does, birds and shabby autumn trees and all the other sorts of things that die young and make a spectacle of themselves, funny reminders, revelations, quiet ecstasies. Died young and left poems of a wry beauty, given to us here in quiet, affectionate English translation." -Robert Kelly  "The poet as woodpecker indeed: Ishikawa Takuboku's clear pecked rhythms & images are a perfect delight. Are they large rain drops sparingly tapping the drum-taut paper of a shoji-screen or the poet's tensed fingers rapping on his tablet? The reader sits & listens & looks and the world grows quiet except for that nano-perception that now begins to fill the world. The small daily pain or pleasure, exquisitely brought over into the simplest of words: and yet, all the world is thus said." -Pierre Joris

On Knowing Oneself Too Well: Selected Poems of Ishikawa Takuboku

Literature & Fiction

Takuboku, Ishikawa

Prindle, Tamae K.

Poetry

Syllabic Press

Japanese poet Usgukawa's (1886-1912) collection of tanka traditional 36-syllable poems was published in English translation by Purdue University Press in 1977 as Sad Toys ; the introduction and notes are revised slightly here. The diary covers from April to June 1909 and is here translated in full for the first time; it portrays a disturbed artist in Japan as it was undergoing radical change during the Meiji era. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Romaji Diary and Sad Toys (Books to span the East and West)

Tuttle Pub

Japanese poet Usgukawa's (1886-1912) collection of tanka traditional 36-syllable poems was published in English translation by Purdue University Press in 1977 as Sad Toys ; the introduction and notes are revised slightly here. The diary covers from April to June 1909 and is here translated in full for the first time; it portrays a disturbed artist in Japan as it was undergoing radical change during the Meiji era. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Romaji Diary and Sad Toys (Tuttle Classics)

History & Criticism

Poems to Eat

Weatherhill

Poetic descriptions in English and French, based on the author´s photos. Photos by Albert Russo, texts by Eric Tessier and Albert Russo

Saint-Malo with Love

Arts & Photography

Russo, Albert

Tessier, Eric

Photography & Video

Xlibris US

Roger Pulvers' translations - with detailed notes and commentary - of Japan's greatest tanka poet, Takuboku Ishikawa, is now available here for the first time in this volume. Each tanka - a poem that in Japanese has thirty-one syllables - is a microcosm of the human psyche, revealing astounding insights into human behaviors, love (and hate) relationships, as well as social and political circumstances that presage our own times. In his short life (1886-1912) Takuboku experienced many loves, a tumultuous marriage, fatherhood of three children, one of whom died shortly after birth, a brilliant career as a journalist and wildly popular poet, not to mention a political awakening that was leading him onto the path of the revolutionary. In "Old Love Letters," he writes ... There are so many spelling mistakes In those old love letters. I never noticed until now. In "The New Year" ... Will this year be like all others With my mind conjuring only things That the world will not accept? And in "The Patient" ... One push of the door, a single step And the corridor seems to stretch As far as the eye can see. Pulvers writes in The Illusions of Self ... Takuboku puts every aspect of his character on the line for us to judge. Japan today craves writers who have the integrity of self-expression and the clarity of vision on their society that Takuboku expresses to us. In the mirror of his works, we are compelled to see our own face in a clear and honest light. Of these translations, distinguished author and translator of American literature Motoyuki Shibata has written: "These masterful translations will be a revelation for lovers of Takuboku's poetry while, at the same time, comprising a stylish introduction to those who wish to know it."

The Illusions of Self: Tanka by Takuboku Ishikawa, with notes and commentary

Balestier Press

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Books by Takuboku, Ishikawa