His introduction gives an excellent overview of the development of tanka in the last one hundred years.

Winner of the 1995 Benjamin Franklin Award, this is a landmark anthology of traditional short verse. In haiku and tanka fifteen Japanese women poets reveal universal female themes through the lens of a challenging spiritual and physical Japanese environment.

Akiko Yosano's Tangled Hair, published in 1901, had a sensational impact on Japanese literature, and we are pleased to make this highly praised translation (originally published 30 years a

"Harryette Mullen is a magician of words, phrases, and songs . . . No voice in contemporary poetry is quite as original, cosmopolitan, witty, and tragic." —Susan Stewart, citation for the Academy of American Poets Fellowship Urban tumbleweed, some people call it, discarded plastic bag we see in every city blown down the street with vagrant wind. —from Urban Tumbleweed Urban Tumbleweed is the poet Harryette Mullen's exploration of spaces where the city and the natural world collide. Written out of a daily practice of walking, Mullen's stanzas adapt the traditional Japanese tanka, a poetic form suited for recording fleeting impressions, describing environmental transitions, and contemplating the human being's place in the natural world. But, as she writes in her preface, "What is natural about being human? What to make of a city dweller taking a ‘nature walk' in a public park while listening to a podcast with ear-bud headphones?"

This collection of modern Japanese poetry presents carefully selected works for Western readers. The state of Japanese poetry in the twentieth century, its high quality and individuality is clearly shown in this book. The introduction gives a brief, lucid history of poetry in Japan, with the emphasis on modern poetry. The body of the book is taken up with the translation of the work of forty–nine widely acclaimed poets: free–verse poets, tanka poets, and haiku poets. At the back are notes giving illuminating biographical and literary information about each poet. The excellence of the translations and the lucidity of the introduction and notes make the book a treasure for poetry lovers everywhere. Poets include: Kotaro Takamura Yoshiaki Sasazawa Iku Takenaka Saburo Kuroda Shuntaro Tanikawa Mokichi Saito Kuniyo Takayasu Suju Takano Kiyoko Takayanagi

One of Japan’s most important modern poets, Tada Chimako (1930–2003) gained prominence in her native country for her sensual, frequently surreal poetry and fantastic imagery. Although Tada’s writing is an essential part of postwar Japanese poetry, her use of themes and motifs from European, Near Eastern, and Mediterranean history, mythology, and literature, as well as her sensitive explorations of women’s inner lives make her very much a poet of the world. Forest of Eyes offers English-language readers their first opportunity to read a wide selection from Tada’s extraordinary oeuvre, including nontraditional free verse, poems in the traditional forms of tanka and haiku, and prose poems. Translator Jeffrey Angles introduces this collection with an incisive essay that situates Tada as a poet, explores her unique style, and analyzes her contribution to the representation of women in postwar Japanese literature.