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Description
Winner of a PEN Translation Fund Award: A lyrical, supercharged, dizzying collection in a unique bilingual format: like two halves of the walnut, the English text meets the Japanese half-way
The radiant subway. The wall that clears up, endless. A thundering prayer of steel that fastens together the days, a brush of cloud hanging upon it, O beginning, it is there—your nest. Thus the keynotes of Hiraide’s utterly original book-length poem unfold—a mix of narrative, autobiography, minute scientific observations, poetics, rhetorical experiments, hyper-realistic images, and playful linguistic subversions—all scored with the precision of a mathematical-musical structure.
About the Author
Takashi Hiraide was born in Moji, Kitakyushu in 1950. He has published numerous books of poetry as well as several books of genre-bending essays, including one on poetics and baseball. He currently lives in the west suburbs of Tokyo with a cat and his wife, the poet Michiyo Kawano.
Sawako Nakayasu is a contemporary poet and translator who was born in Japan. Her translation of Takashi Hiraide’s For the Fighting Spirit of the Walnut won the Best Translated Book Award (2009) from Three Percent, as well as a PEN Translation Fund Award in 2005.
Praise For…
Even in translation, [Hiraide's] fine poetry really shines. At times I am reminded of T.S. Eliot. — Kenzaburo Oe
