The Poetry of Chuya Nakahara (9784805318973)

"A landmark book that will redefine Nakahara's place on the international stage." —Paul Perry, novelist and poet

Chuya Nakahara is widely regarded as Japan's most important modernist poet. A relentless experimenter in form, sound and imagery, he pushed traditional poetic forms toward the freer, more colloquial style that has come to define modern Japanese poetry in the decades since his death.

This new translation of Chuya's two major collections, Goat Songs and Songs of Bygone Days, presents the original Japanese poems alongside English translations by Christian Nagle. A poet and musician himself, Nagle captures with great sensitivity beloved poems such as "Voice of Life":

I'm in search of something, constantly in search of
something. […]
Sometimes I ask, as though kidding myself,
Is it a woman? Something sweet? Or is it honor?
Then my heart screams, It isn't that! It isn't this! It's
neither that nor this!
Then is it a song of the sky—a sky song that echoes,
mornings, through the stratosphere?

This volume includes a detailed introduction to Chuya's life and work by the translator and a foreword by leading Chuya scholar Mikiro Sasaki, along with rare archival photos and extensive notes. It will be treasured by all those interested in Chuya's groundbreaking work and in modern literature generally.


About the Author:
Chuya Nakahara (1907–1937) was the coddled eldest son of an army physician in western Honshu. When he was eight, the death of his brother Tsuguro spurred him to begin writing poetry. In Kyoto he encountered the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud and other French Symbolists, which he translated, and which profoundly influenced his own poetry. He soon moved to Tokyo and became active in literary circles. His first poetry collection, Goat Songs was published in 1932 but sold only fifty copies. His second collection, Songs of Bygone Days, was published in 1938, shortly after his death at age thirty from tuberculosis. His poems gained great acclaim after the war and were later published in a six-volume collection.

Christian Nagle, PhD, is a poet, musician and filmmaker. His award-winning work has appeared in Esquire, The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, Raritan, Subtropics, AGNI, and other leading publications. For more than two decades he has divided his time between Tokyo and Alexandria, Virginia, translating the poetry of Chuya Nakahara and co-directing The Brothers Murasaki film group, whose documentaries about Japanese culture include Carriers and Six Beats to Heaven.

Mikiro Sasaki is a poet and leading authority on Chuya Nakahara. He is the editor of Chuya's collected works and the author of Chuya Nakahara: The Music of Silence, as well as over ten volumes of poetry, essays and criticism.