Afterimages

 

Published by London Magazine Editions in 1971, Afterimages, is a selection of poetry by Shinkichi Takahashi, translated and chosen by Lucien Stryk and Takahashi Ikemoto, each also give insightful forewords to this unique poet. The poet himself has a translated introduction and the volume has a sample of Takahashi's calligraphy, with the title poem Afterimages. Takahashi Ikemoto's foreword gives a biographical background, born in Shikoku in 1901, mainly a self educated man, Takahashi after high school went to Tokyo, although he contracted typhus and as he was poor had to return to his village to recuperate. Whilst he was recovering he read articles on dada, which in turn would influence his early poetry. Ikemoto includes translations of the titles of some of these early works, and mentions that in 1924 that he wrote a novel also entitled, Dada. On his return to Tokyo he took various jobs, in 1928, Shizan Ashikaga a master of the Rinzai Zen sect suggested that he should study at Shogenji, a temple known for it's rigoris discipline, Ikemoto tells us that Takahashi collapsed whilst here, through Shizan's advise Takahashi concentrated on studying the koan. He studied under master Shizan for seventeen years, experiencing many hardships, but in an essay by Takahashi he writes about his experiences of achieving satori, these happening in quite unexceptional surroundings, one time upon hearing a bell, another time bending to pick up a washing pail. Ikemoto says of Takahashi, 'He saw once and for all that nothing existed - no earth,no universe,no God'. The poems collected here, went on to be included in the larger volume published by Grove entitled Triumph of the Sparrow, which has the same editors/translators, but also included in that edition are additional poems and an interview between Stryk and Takahashi. Ikemoto also points to the paradox that Zen is mainly a religion of word-denunciation, but settles the matter by observing that 'Zen scholars found that words and letters can embody elements of Buddhism in themselves'. Takahashi would later abandon dada, finding that it was in essence an inadequate mode.

Although zen like in their simplicity the poems aren't presented in the same style as koans, in them Takahashi expresses the essence of zen observations and learning. Ikemoto in his introduction emphasises the importance of the practice of sitting in zen, which is shown in many of the poems 'Life Infinite' for instance where in Zen sitting Takahashi finds that 'I can see, live anywhere, everywhere'. In the poem 'Paper Door' the simple scene of tea drinking takes on a broader dimension, the torn shoji seen flapping in the wind is focused upon, Takahashi with reference to it's fading frame questions the permanence of the universe. In 'Words', taken from a collection from 1949 Takahashi ponders the purpose of communication, where words are not merely words, 'I listen, To what makes you talk - Whatever that is- And me listen'. Many of the poems are located outside time and place, and simple observations of everyday objects and wildlife take on the themes of zen, the impermanence of time and the senses.

There's many excellent places to read Japanese poetry online, Poetry International Web features poetry and poets from around the globe. Recently featured is the poet Tatsuji Miyoshi, along with two articles by the translators, there are translations by Takako Lento and Jeffrey Angles. Many of the poems reflect on the war years and also look towards recovery, as in the poem After We Were Beaten In The War.

Betty san - Stories by Yamamoto Michiko

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Translated by Geraldine Harcourt, with cover photography by Martin Richardson and published by Kodansha, Betty-san-Stories, collected four short stories/novellas by Yamamoto Michiko, all published originally in Japan in 1972, the stories draw on the authors experiences of living in Australia in the early seventies. The collection includes the story Betei-san no Niwa/Betty's Garden which won Yamamoto the Akutagawa Prize in 1972, the story is told by Betty-San, married to Mike, moves to Australia where Mike works in local government. Betty who changed her name from her Japanese one of Yuuko when she married, was also baptised at the same time. Determined at first to adapt to her new country, she soon begins to think of her parents, which in turn makes her contemplate her home country, her surroundings begin to appear increasingly alien to her, and she finds herself out of step, Mike has grown colder towards her and at times overbearing. Every now and then Japanese fishermen visit the local harbour, and she takes them rice balls that she made for them, making the most of this small connection with home, and for a while she can talk in her mother tongue again, occasionally she holds barbecue's for the sailors in her garden, these garden parties act as Betty's haven. Once she is asked to help translate for a Japanese woman who is held in quarantine at the local customs office, looking forward to talking with the woman, Betty readily agrees, but when they meet the woman asks sardonically, 'Are you really Japanese?', after the woman leaves Betty breaks down and sobs. She recalls the times she lived in Darwin and Alice Springs, 'I was so permanently awed by my surroundings, that I lost sight of the way people are meant to live', she observes about herself.

When she first moved to her area, she was the only Japanese in her neighbourhood, but after three or four years, another Japanese woman appears called Haruko, who returns to Japan at least once a year. Betty has three sons, Jerry, John and Bobby, Jerry who works at the post office volunteers to save up his wage so that she can visit Japan, when the children were younger Betty-san would go out for walks, and Mike would usually come out in the car to pick her up, often she would walk down on the beach, she realizes she has forgotten the sense of security found in walking in a crowd, with no friends she would sit in the kitchen staring distractedly at the sky for hours on end. The differences within the family are strained when she takes in a young sailor who was stabbed during a fight on one of the Japanese fishing boats, none of the rest of her family speak Japanese, and there are times when Betty and the sailor are talking in Japanese, which proves to unsettle the rest of the family. The character of Betty-san is well conceived, and the nuances of the difficulties of the cross cultural experience within the family setting is observed in exacting prose, and also that of Betty's quiet sense of loneliness is brilliantly conveyed.

The very brief story Father Goose/Rojin no Kamo is included as is Powers/Maho, which won the Shincho Prize, a story that shares a common framework to the title story, although the husband and wife are both Japanese, Ryosuke and Asako, they also have young Yuri, they came to Australia for Ryosuke's job. Asako seems to be fascinated, possibly attracted to their neighbours young son, Sean,the community where they live is made up of families from other nationalities, and another family that features prominently is a neighbouring Italian family, at the centre of this story is an accident involving the son of the Italian family. This story too looks at the ambiguities within multi culture emigrant communities. Chair in the Rain/Ame no Isu, the last story, in which Japanese couple Nakako and Ryuji make the move out of Japan, Nakako leaving behind the security of her job in advertising, plans to start a family, this plan though before we know it soon drifts away into the distant past. The couple rent what used to be the Portuguese consul's house, and for a while after they've moved in they receive random phone calls from people requiring information on passports and visa's etc, one caller seems to stand out from the rest, a man simply asking for a woman called Louise. Nakako buys a cat to try and cure her loneliness, but the cat ends up forming an unlikely alliance with Ryuji. There are a few uses of symbolism among these stories,as when Ryuji confesses to Nakako that he's actually infertile, the plans of starting a family disappear, which add to Nakako's growing sense of desperation and solitude, before this, Ryuji goes to great lengths planning to mate the cat with a colleague's cat, the animal's desperate cries at night seem to be another sign of Nakako's failed attempt at making things better for herself, as this heightens her antagonism. Also at the end of Betty's Garden, as Betty and her sons drive home from dropping off Mike, who is about to take a business trip with a young secretary, her fears that he maybe embarking on an affair are heightened when they see a burning buffalo at the side of the desert highway.

Camera Obtrusa

Camera Obtrusa published recently by Kaya Press, continues their innovative translations of titles from Japan, I'm looking forward to seeing forthcoming titles from them. The book's introduction written by Abe Mark Nornes, the author of the book,  Forest of Pressure, looks back on his own meetings with Hara Kazuo and Ogawa Shinsuke, and notes the differences between the two directors work. Abe Mark Nornes goes on to mention the work of another great documentarist, that of Michael Moore, who whilst working on his own film Roger and Me, happened by chance to see Hara's The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On, and afterwards felt inspired and exhilarated, seeing in it something similar to his own film-making. The two directors met up and talked about their different approaches to documentary film making. The subtitle to this book is The Action Documentaries of Hara Kazuo, as Pat Noonan,who translated the book, describes in his foreword that documentary making for Hara is 'an act of communication between himself and his subjects'. The book actually comprises two books by Hara, the first being Camera Obtrusa/Fumikoeru Kamera, published in Japan in 1987, which is largely autobiographical, starting from reflections on his childhood experiences, his relationship with his mother in particular is returned to later in the book, leading onto his first encounters with film and photography, and working with directors Shohei Imamura and Kei Kumai. Also here Hara starts to bring into question notions of what we think of when we think of what constitutes the private and the public, and looks into his own method of film making,'while capturing my subject on film-I'm inevitably forced into situations from which there's no turning back' and also 'Whatever happens keep the camera rolling', many of his films are a cathartic experience not only for the viewer, but for those involved in the making. We learn that at many points whilst filming when it looked like things might come to a premature end,that he would be faced with paying back the loans he took out to fund the making of his films. The second book comprises the production notes he made whilst filming The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On.

Hara gives full backgrounds on his films, Extreme Private Eros:Love Song 1974, Goodbye CP, A Dedicated Life and probably the most well known The Emperors Naked Army Marches On, (1987), although there's a great deal written about Japanese cinema, translations of books by directors are few and far between, I can only think of two, there's Akira Kurosawa's 'Something Like An Autobiography', and also Kiju Yoshida's book; Ozu's Anti-Cinema, so this book is a great addition for anyone interested in Japanese Film. He describes meeting his wife Takeda Miyuki whilst working at a school for the handicapped, and through these experiences he made the film Goodbye CP (1972), a film following people who suffer from cerebral palsy. Hara explains the background to how he came upon the idea for the film being that at that time Shuji Teryama's book; Throw Away Your Books,Rally Into the Streets! was very popular, and whilst taking his students to the shops, he'd say let's throw our wheel chairs away and rally in the streets!, as a kind of a joking parody, when he started contemplating issues surrounding the disabled, Hara reminds us that this was before public access for the disabled was as common place as it is now. He goes onto explain that previous films he had seen about the disabled had always presented the film looking at them, so what he wanted to do was 'reverse the gaze', to see things from the disabled perspective. He talks also of his frustration that when the film was first screened many people misinterpreted it.


Kaya Press

A conversation with Hara Kazuo

Celebration In Darkness/Stranger's Sky

Another book in Katydid's Asian Poetry in Translation series was Celebration in Darkness/Stranger's Sky, from 1985, collecting together two selections of poems from Yoshioka Minoru and Iijima Koichi.Translated from the Japanese by Onuma Tadayoshi,Ooka Makoto writes an introduction and Tsuruoka Yoshihisa gives a commentary on both of the poets.Yoshioka Minoru's Celebration in Darkness opens with the well anthologised poem Still Life, from 1955, at it's centre, an observation of decomposing fruit, which Yoshioka applies many different metaphors and twists of interpretation, time, light and darkness exist and then come to an end. The poems rarely escape to two pages, but Still Born a larger poem is told in eight parts, another longer poem Monks (1958), is told in nine parts,the everyday duties of four monks intertwines with morality and mortality, as the monks go about their daily ablutions, parade like as the poem seems to dance past the reader, Tsuruoka Yoshihisa notes that there lies a 'bitter humor' to this poem.Spindle Form Parts 1 and 2 display Yoshioka's more automatic approach to his poetry, as in an excerpt from his essay 'How I write poems?', he stated that 'I start my poems with no premeditated themes or structures. For me a blank sheet of paper is always the best place for poetry'. In Saffron Gathering, a poem based on a recollection of seeing the fresco The Gathering of Saffron,contains some fantastic lines depicting scenes observed from the fresco, 'in the night that even virgin skin cannot resist', a boy collects saffron from among a rocky landscape, in the poem the narrator contemplates what events might transpire within the fresco next.

Iijima Koichi's Stranger's Sky primarily contemplates life in post war Japan, starting with the poem American Symphony, it looks at the before and after of the war, in the opening segment, a plane is referred to as an object dropping incendiaries, then later the object lands with a visit from Eisenhower, there's a sense of the impermanence of history,'The war that ended like a kite whose string suddenly snaps-Where had it blown away to now?'. There's a sense of relief of the wars end, but also a bitterness and a greater sense of confusion and questioning of the future. This sense of unease seems to appear in many of Iijima's poems, Obstinate Anxiety being one where a heady unease transfers to physical sickness. Cut-Out Sky takes us into different territory, dreamlike, a woman delivers pieces of jigsaw like sky, pieces of her memories to the narrator of the poem, who sees in them a school child at a station, 'Among pieces of the sky now lost,There have been much clearer ones'. Streams and Rivers a longer poem in thirteen parts seems possibly drawn from Iijima's own experiences,starting from 1939 to the war's end, when Iijima was fifteen, and then jumps to just after Mishima Yukio's suicide, where the narrator examines an unnamed person's feelings, maybe addressing the collective consciousness, about Mishima Yukio, before and after his suicide. This collection similar to that of Dead Languages is in it's dual text, I'm not sure if this book is still in print, Asian Poetry in Translation was a really excellent series, number four in the series, Treelike: The Poetry of Kinoshita Yuji another I'd like to read.