{"product_id":"the-collected-poems-of-chika-sagawa-isbn-9780593230015","title":"The Collected Poems of Chika Sagawa","description":"\u003cb\u003eWinner of the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation • The electrifying collected works of “one of the most innovative and prominent avant-garde poets in early twentieth-century Japan” (\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTranslated by and with an introduction by Sawako Nakayasu\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eDreams are severed fruit\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAuburn pears have fallen in the field\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eParsley blooms on the plate\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSometimes the leghorn appears to have six toes\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eI crack an egg and the moon comes out\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn important and daringly experimental voice in Tokyo’s avant-garde poetry scene, Chika Sagawa broke with the gender-bound traditions of Japanese poetry and became Japan’s first female Modernist poet.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSagawa’s poems and prose in this stunning collection explore death and rebirth, the ephemerality of human life and the timeless wonders of nature. Combining striking, unique imagery with Western influences, these short, sharp, surreal works paint a vibrant picture of a world just out of reach of our own.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Modern Library Torchbearers series features women who wrote on their own terms, with boldness, creativity, and a spirit of resistance.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAMERICAN INDIAN STORIES • THE AWAKENING • THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY • THE HEADS OF CERBERUS • LADY AUDLEY’S SECRET • LOVE, ANGER, MADNESS • PASSING • THE RETURN OF THE SOLDIER • THERE IS CONFUSION • THE TRANSFORMATION OF PHILIP JETTAN • VILLETTE“One of the most innovative and prominent avant-garde poets in early twentieth-century Japan . . . Deep pain and deep beauty oscillate throughout Sagawa’s work.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Nakayasu and Sagawa are that rare pairing: both formidable poets, both translators and both working with experimental forms. Sagawa’s poetry comes alive—relevant, necessary, urgent—in Nakayasu’s English translation.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Japan Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eChika Sagawa\u003c\/b\u003e (1911–1936) was born in Hokkaido, Japan. In 1928 she moved to Tokyo and quickly integrated into the literary avant-garde community, publishing her work frequently in the influential journal \u003ci\u003eShi to Shiron. \u003c\/i\u003eShe died of stomach cancer at the age of twenty-four.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSawako Nakayasu\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Japan and raised in the US, and has also lived in France and China along the way. Her most recent books are\u003ci\u003e The Ants\u003c\/i\u003e (Les Figues Press, 2014), and\u003ci\u003e Texture Notes\u003c\/i\u003e (Letter Machine, 2010), and recent translations include \u003ci\u003eThe Collected Poems of Sagawa Chika \u003c\/i\u003e(Canarium Books, 2015), and Tatsumi Hijikata's \u003ci\u003eCostume en Face\u003c\/i\u003e (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2015). Her translation of Takashi Hiraide's \u003ci\u003eFor the Fighting Spirit of the Walnut\u003c\/i\u003e (New Directions, 2008) received the 2009 Best Translated Book Award from Three Percent. She has received fellowships from the NEA and PEN, and her own work has been translated into Japanese, Norwegian, Swedish, Arabic, Chinese, and Vietnamese. Sawako Nakayasu currently teaches at Brown University in the Department of Literary Arts.\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBlack Air\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e In the distance, dusk cuts the tongue of the sun. \u003cbr\u003e Underwater, the cities of the sky quit their laughing. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll shadows drop from the trees and gang up on me. Forests and windows go pale, like a woman. Night has spread completely. \u003cbr\u003eThe omnibus takes a flame aboard and traverses the park. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt that point my emotions dance about the city \u003cbr\u003e Until they have driven out the grief. \u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt Is Snowing\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eUpstairs from us, a grand ball! \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDevious angels dance in disorder, and out of their steps fall shards of deathly white snow. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDeath is among the holly leaves. Crawling quietly in the attic. \u003cbr\u003eGnawing at my finger. Anxiously. And then at midnight—it falls at the storefront of the glass shop, exposing its stark white back. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOld love and time are buried, and the earth devours them. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGreen Flames\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI first see them loudly approaching descending numerous green stairs pass by look away cram into a small space while gradually hardening into a mound their movement makes waves of light furrow through the wheat field a thick overflowing fluid makes it impossible to stir the woodlands larch with short hair snail that paints carefully a spider spins electric wires like a mist everything rotates from green to deeper green they are inside the milk bottle on the kitchen table are reflected crouching with their faces flattened sliding around an apple they seem to crumble as they block off shafts of light in the street a blind girl plays by ducking under the shadows of the sun’s rings. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI hurry to shut the window danger has come right up to me a fire blazes outside the beautifully burning green flames spread high, circling the outskirts of the earth and in the end they dwindle, disappear as a single thin line of the horizon \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy weight takes leave of me takes me back to the depths of oblivion people are crazy here there is no point in feeling sorrow nor in speaking their eyes are dyed green believing grows uncertain and looking enrages me \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWho blindfolds me from behind? Shove me into sleep. \u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eModern Library Torchbearers; Winner of the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation","brand":"Modern Library","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46299969585381,"sku":"NP9780593230015","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780593230015.jpg?v=1767738733","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-collected-poems-of-chika-sagawa-isbn-9780593230015","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}