The Illusions of Self

<p>Roger Pulvers' translations - with detailed notes and commentary - of Japan's greatest tanka poet Takuboku Ishikawa is now available here for the first time in this volume. Each tanka - a poem that in Japanese has thirty-one syllables - is a microcosm of the human psyche revealing astounding insights into human behaviors love (and hate) relationships as well as social and political circumstances that presage our own times.</p><p><br></p><p>In his short life (1886-1912) Takuboku experienced many loves a tumultuous marriage fatherhood of three children one of whom died shortly after birth a brilliant career as a journalist and wildly popular poet not to mention a political awakening that was leading him onto the path of the revolutionary.</p><p><br></p><p>In Old Love Letters he writes ...</p><p><br></p><p> <em>There are so many spelling mistakes</em></p><p> <em>In those old love letters.</em></p><p> <em>I never noticed until now.</em></p><p><br></p><p>In The New Year ...</p><p><br></p><p> <em>Will this year be like all others</em></p><p> <em>With my mind conjuring only things</em></p><p> <em>That the world will not accept?</em></p><p><br></p><p>And in The Patient ...</p><p><br></p><p> <em>One push of the door a single step</em></p><p> <em>And the corridor seems to stretch</em></p><p> <em>As far as the eye can see.</em></p><p><br></p><p>Pulvers writes in <em>The Illusions of Self</em> ...</p><p><br></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(28 28 28 1)>Takuboku puts every aspect of his character on the line for us to judge. Japan today craves writers who have the integrity of self-expression and the clarity of vision on their society that Takuboku expresses to us. In the mirror of his works we are compelled to see our own face in a clear and honest light.</strong></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(28 28 28 1)>Of these translations distinguished author and translator of American literature Motoyuki Shibata has written: These masterful translations will be a revelation for lovers of Takuboku's poetry while at the same time comprising a stylish introduction to those who wish to know it.</span></p><p><br></p>