stories available to read online

A brief end of month post - some translated stories of interest available to read online - Asymptote Journal's October issue features a short story from prize winning author Tsutsui Yasutaka - entitled Descent into Yoppa Valley, translated by Sayuri Okamoto and Sim Yee Chiang, and another story from a prize winning author can be found over at Catapult where you can read A False Genealogy by Nao-cola Yamazaki, in a translation by Polly Barton. At Granta online you can read Kawakami Mieko's About Her and the Memories That Belong to Her, translated by Hitomi Yoshio, and also at Granta is Delira by Kanehara Hitomi, translated by Dan Bradley.



 

The Collected Poems of Chika Sagawa

I crack an egg and the moon comes out

Reading the poems of Chika Sagawa reminds me in places of looking at the paintings of Hasegawa Rinjiro, finely translated by Sawako Nakayasu their narration has a certain stillness to them, perhaps this is the stillness of the moment of the observations they contain, and as they unfurl we have a sense that the barrier between the interpretation of the wider world with that of it's translation to the inner being evaporates within their confines. This collection, as well as including Sagawa's poems also include a number of her short prose pieces, some of these appeared in the magazines that Sagawa contributed to, the collection also includes brief poetry reviews, observations of fellow poets, all of which convey a lucid sense of intimacy and close proximity, reading these reviews provokes the wish to see an anthology of them appear in English, to read on, to expand the picture we have of Japanese modernism. Sagawa was born in rural Hokkaido in 1911 and died in 1936 after succumbing to stomach cancer at the age of just 24, the collection includes diary entries written in hospital whilst she was receiving treatment, the entry for October 23rd sees Sagawa note; was the first time in two weeks I was able to walk down the stairs to get to the X-ray room. Symptoms of her illness and a sense of the outlines of mortality can be felt in many of the preceding poems, notably in the poem Finale.

In her introduction Sawako Nakayasu highlights the importance of Sagawa as a female poet in what was a largely male dominated arena, observing that perhaps the only other comparable poet being Yosano Akiko, Sagawa, who is regarded as Japan's first female modernist poet, was championed by Ito Sei, Kitasono Katue, and eventual Nobel Prize nominee; Junzaburo Nishiwaki. Another notable Japanese name here is Hyyaken Uchida, whom Sagawa mentions reading, perhaps some stylistic similarities can be detected between the two, another is Soseki whom Sagawa observes his passing. Although containing traditional observations of the changing seasons, Sagawa's poems are noted for their inclusion and insertions of modernist descriptions and subtle surreality, subject and object often take turns in coming to the fore. As well as writing poetry, Sagawa herself translated the poetry of James Joyce, Charles Reznikoff and Mina Loy into Japanese. Whilst reading the poem Ancient Flowers with it's young girls collecting the lips of the waves with their fingertips, I'm reminded of Hasegawa's 1975 still life of the antique doll's head laid out on the table next to the sea shell and as our eye moves from object to object, relationships shift and the picture as a whole subtly transforms from the one we first encounter, this can also be felt perhaps in Sagawa's poetry, from line to line, word to word. In the piece On Bucolic Comedies by Edith Sitwell, Sagawa describes the occasion of it's translation into Japanese, (by Tsuneo Kitamura), as a truly wonderful event, much the same and more could be said about this remarkable and valued translation.
 

Collected Poems of Chika Sagawa at Canarium Books


excerpts at Asymptote 

Hasegawa Rinjiro at Kyuryudo Art Publishing Co Ltd 

Flowering Harbour by Hayashi Seiichi

Recently finishing the fascinating Trash Market by Tsuge Tadao, translated and edited by Ryan Holmberg, published by D&Q, (no doubt a post forthcoming), I found myself in the mood to read more and a few clicks later brought me to the website of London based comic book publisher Breakdown Press, looking through their impressive catalogue my eye fell on Flowering Harbour by Hayashi Seiichi, again translated by Ryan Holmberg, after very much enjoying Golden Pollen and Other Stories, published by the now sadly defunct Picture Box Inc, I thought I'd have to give it a go. Flowering Harbour contains just the one story, and is produced in what could be described as a chapbook style with a stylish vertical obi, looking over the book it seems such a refreshing change that none of the cover art work here is encroached upon by a barcode or price tag, it's immacutely presented. As well as the story there is a brief introduction from Hayashi entitled Bohemian Living giving a contextual impression to the story which originally appeared in Garo in 1969.

As previously mentioned Flowering Harbour contains just the one same self titled story, it's a soulful one which ends as quickly as it arrives, so it's a little difficult to describe the drama of it without giving it all away, but the story is one of lost and loosing love, illustratively it feels wind blown, (some of it's scenes are played out in a storm), which adds to the sense of the character's emotions being blown and caught up on the much larger scale, although brief it's great to find yourself caught up in it's storyline, having it presented here on it's own makes it the more easier to turn back and read and enjoy again. It's also great to see that more from Hayashi is on the way, Drawn and Quarterly are issuing the paperback edition of his Red Colored Elegy any day now, perhaps it's already out where you are?, and then in December Breakdown Press have lined up Red Red Rock: And Other Stories    to look forward to.

Flowering Harbour at Breakdown Press