Angel at the Earth's Extreme

The intensely confessional work of Japan’s most famous modernist poet, considered the Japanese Rimbaud, whose poems have inspired cultlike devotion—especially among fans of the hit anime show Bungo Stray Dogs—in a brilliant new translation, the most comprehensive in English

A Penguin Classic

Nakahara Chūya lived only to age thirty yet ranks among the finest of Japanese poets, evoking in his work the alienation, ennui, and romantic melancholy of a changing world. An introspective, sensitive writer and early-twentieth-century contemporary of Natsume Sōseki, Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, and Osamu Dazai, he chronicled in his poems a life of personal and political upheaval: His lover left him for his most trusted friend, his first son died at age two, his country hovered on the precipice of war, and his own tremendous promise was cut short by illness. This edition of his poetry collects both his published and his unpublished work, from his traditional Japanese tanka to his experiments with European modernism, and captures in a melodic new translation the beauty and intimacy of his voice, showing why it has resonated with readers for a century.Nakahara Chūya (1907–1937) was one of the finest Japanese poets of the twentieth century. Often referred to as the Japanese Rimbaud for his tragic early death and poems of ennui and romantic melancholy, he was a pioneer of modernism in Japanese poetry and published two collections in his lifetime, Songs of the Goat and Songs of Days That Were.

Jeffrey Angles (editor/translator) is a poet, translator, and professor of Japanese literature at Western Michigan University. He has won awards for his translations from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Academy of American Poets, the Poetry Foundation, the Modern Language Association, PEN America, and the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University. His own book of Japanese poetry was a finalist for the Nakahara Chūya Prize and won the Yomiuri Prize.