| Masaoka Shiki: Selected Poems Contributor(s): Masaoka, Shiki (Author), Watson, Burton (Translator) |
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ISBN: 023111091X ISBN-13: 9780231110914 Publisher: Columbia University Press OUR PRICE: $29.70 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 1998 Annotation: Here are graceful and timeless poems by one of Japan's greatest modern writers, rendered by a master translator. Masaoka Shiki (1867--1902) is credited with modernizing Japan's two traditional verse forms, haiku and tanka. Born at a time of social and cultural change in Japan, Shiki welcomed the new influences from the West and responded to them by reinvigorating the native haiku and tanka forms. He freed them from outdated conventions, made them viable for artistic expression in modern Japan, and paved the way for the haiku to become one of his nation's most influential cultural exports. Burton Watson's excellent introduction explores the course of Shiki's life: his poverty-stricken childhood, his early love for literature, his education, and his work as a haiku editor for the newspaper "Nippon," and as a correspondent during the Sino-Japanese war. Watson details Shiki's long struggle with tuberculosis and its poignant expression in his poetry. Confined to bed for months before his death, Shiki continued to devote his energies to literary pursuits: writing poems and critical essays, and joining with friends and followers who gathered in his sickroom to discuss literature. He died a few weeks before his thirty-fifth birthday. These poems -- more than a hundred haiku, several tanka, and three kanshi -- are arranged chronologically within each genre, revealing the development of Shiki's art and the seamless way in which he wove his life and illness into his poetry. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Poetry | Asian - General |
| Dewey: 895.614 |
| LCCN: 97025799 |
| Series: Modern Asian Literature |
| Physical Information: 0.36" H x 5.28" W x 9" (0.37 lbs) 136 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Asian - Cultural Region - East Asian - Cultural Region - Japanese - Ethnic Orientation - Japanese |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Here are graceful and timeless poems by one of Japan's greatest modern writers, rendered by a master translator. Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) is credited with modernizing Japan's two traditional verse forms, haiku and tanka. Born at a time of social and cultural change in Japan, Shiki welcomed the new influences from the West and responded to them by reinvigorating the native haiku and tanka forms. He freed them from outdated conventions, made them viable for artistic expression in modern Japan, and paved the way for the haiku to become one of his nation's most influential cultural exports. Burton Watson's excellent introduction explores the course of Shiki's life: his poverty-stricken childhood, his early love for literature, his education, and his work as a haiku editor for the newspaper Nippon, and as a correspondent during the Sino-Japanese war. Watson details Shiki's long struggle with tuberculosis and its poignant expression in his poetry. Confined to bed for months before his death, Shiki continued to devote his energies to literary pursuits: writing poems and critical essays, and joining with friends and followers who gathered in his sickroom to discuss literature. He died a few weeks before his thirty-fifth birthday. These poems--more than a hundred haiku, several tanka, and three kanshi--are arranged chronologically within each genre, revealing the development of Shiki's art and the seamless way in which he wove his life and illness into his poetry. |