Ishikawa Jozan

Kanshi is poetry written in Chinese by Japanese poets, imitating Chinese form and style. This collection is of Edo-period works which were written roughly contemporaneously with classic haiku. I have to admit that these poems don't appeal to me in general. Basically you've got 1. poets writing in a non-native language where they haven't even met a native speaker; 2. in a strict poetic form that carefully regulates rhyme, syllable-count, and tone; 3. imitating dead Chinese poets in style; and 4. translated finally into English. It comes across that way. The poems are the kind of uninteresting result you expect from an idle intellectual puzzle. The language is dull. The topics are dry. Also unfortunate - the book does not include the original Chinese. As one friend commented, if there's no Chinese, then that's not Kanshi, it's Eishi (English poetry).… (more)