Description

Book Synopsis

A profound collection of poetry from Japanese poet Toshiko Hirata, expounding on readership and everyday life.

Produced on the same day each month over the course of two years, every poem in Is It Poetry? (a pun also meaning "the seventh day" in Japanese) is a window into everyday life in Japan. Toshiko Hirata''s poems evoke awe and light in the daily minutiae of contemporary life, achieving both prosody and narrative cohesion colored by her dark yet warm artistic sensibility. Beloved and awarded in Japan, Hirata possesses an extraordinary ability to turn an ordinary event like an old man cycling through a park into a journey that elucidates something profound.

This translation offers entry into a busy Tokyo brimming with puns, imagery, sounds, and whimsy and asks what is to cherished, feared, loved—and what is not.

Is It Poetry

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    A Paperback by Toshiko Hirata

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      Book details

      Publisher Deep Vellum Publishing
      Published 1 July 2024
      ISBN-13 9781646052738
      978-1646052738
      ISBN-10 1646052730

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      A profound collection of poetry from Japanese poet Toshiko Hirata, expounding on readership and everyday life.

      Produced on the same day each month over the course of two years, every poem in Is It Poetry? (a pun also meaning "the seventh day" in Japanese) is a window into everyday life in Japan. Toshiko Hirata''s poems evoke awe and light in the daily minutiae of contemporary life, achieving both prosody and narrative cohesion colored by her dark yet warm artistic sensibility. Beloved and awarded in Japan, Hirata possesses an extraordinary ability to turn an ordinary event like an old man cycling through a park into a journey that elucidates something profound.

      This translation offers entry into a busy Tokyo brimming with puns, imagery, sounds, and whimsy and asks what is to cherished, feared, loved—and what is not.

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