Strong in the Rain: Selected Poems
by Kenji Miyazawa
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Description
Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933) is now widely viewed as Japan's greatest poet of the 20th century. Little known in his lifetime, he died at 37 from tuberculosis, but has since become a much loved children's author whose magical tales have been translated into many languages, adapted for the stage and turned into films and animations. Recognition for his poetry came much later. "Strong in the Rain"--The title-poem of this selection - is now arguably the most memorised and quoted modern poem in show more Japan. Both intensely lyrical and permeated with a sophisticated scientific understanding of the universe, Kenji Miyazawa's poems testify to his deep love of humanity and nature. From a young age, he was fascinated by plants, insects, and especially minerals, which he collected. At school, his interest in nature deepened, and he began poring through books on philosophy and Buddhism, which were to strongly influence his later writing. Miyazawa drew on nature in a way that no modern Japanese author had before him. Where other writers tended to use it as a springboard for their own meditations, he saw himself not just as nature's faithful chronicler and recorder but as its medium: light, wind and rain are processed through him before being recreated on the page. His mode of active engagement with nature set him apart from virtually all other Japanese poets, and led to his work being largely ignored by the Bundan (the literary establishment) and misunderstood for half a century. But in the 1990s, he received unprecedented attention in the Japanese media. The compassion, empathy and closeness to nature expressed in Kenji Miyazawa's poems and tales appealed strongly to a new generation of readers. -- Product Description from Website. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Even with the commentary on each poem by the (clearly talented & devoted) translator, I don't think I really understood an average of more than 20% of the riches herein. But some poems are more accessible, and gorgeous, even on the surface, and some lines just blew me away.
From Preface to "Spring and Ashura:" "The blue sky was awash with colourless peacocks."
From "Scenery and a Music Box:" "The water is a gently flowing body of glue/ I am prepared to meet my death/ In this excessively lucid landscape."
From "Shouldering the Flowers of the Narcissus:" "Children on their way to school/ Screaming like shrikes/ Burst from the morning sun."
I think I especially admire him because he's not only a poet, not only a man who wants to be the kind of show more person who is strong in the rain, but he's also a scientist, and there are relevant references to modern physics and to electricity in some of his poems.
I'd love to read more if only I could find his works in my library. show less
From Preface to "Spring and Ashura:" "The blue sky was awash with colourless peacocks."
From "Scenery and a Music Box:" "The water is a gently flowing body of glue/ I am prepared to meet my death/ In this excessively lucid landscape."
From "Shouldering the Flowers of the Narcissus:" "Children on their way to school/ Screaming like shrikes/ Burst from the morning sun."
I think I especially admire him because he's not only a poet, not only a man who wants to be the kind of show more person who is strong in the rain, but he's also a scientist, and there are relevant references to modern physics and to electricity in some of his poems.
I'd love to read more if only I could find his works in my library. show less
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212+ Works 1,498 Members
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- Genres
- Poetry, Fiction and Literature, Children's Books
- DDC/MDS
- 895.6144 — Literature & rhetoric Asian Literature Literatures of East and Southeast Asia Japanese Japanese poetry 1868–1945 1912–1945
- LCC
- PL833 .I95 .M59 — Language and Literature Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania Languages of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania Japanese language and literature Japanese literature Individual authors and works
- BISAC
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- English
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