Face at the Bottom of the World and Other Poems

Face at the Bottom of the World and Other Poems is a collection of Japanese poetry by master poet, Hagiwara Sakutaro. Hagiwara Sakutaro (1886-1942) is generally recognized in Japan as the best poet to have emerged since contact was re-established with the outside world. His work represents the astonishing achievement in the poetic field of General Meiji endeavor to blend ""Western learning with the Japanese spirit."" He and perhaps he alone, have successfully combined the lyric intensity characteristic of the short forms of traditional Japanese poetry with the freedo.;Frontcover -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- THE POEMS -- AI REN -- GREEN FLUTE -- DUEL -- IN THE BAR AT NIGHT -- WOMAN -- ROTTEN CLAM -- TO DREAM OF A BUTTERFLY -- PORTRAIT -- WINTER -- SPRING NIGHT -- DAWN -- BAMBOOS -- PERSON WHO LOVES LOVE -- HARMFUL ANIMALS -- WHITE MOON -- SAD MOONLIT NIGHT -- SEASIDE HOTEL -- FIELDMOUSE -- DBA TH OF AN ALCOHOLIC -- WITH A GIFT -- EGGS -- ELEGANT APPETITE -- ENCHANT EN GRAVEYARD -- TURTLE -- SKYSCAPE -- FACE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD -- NEW ROAD AT KOIDE -- BLUE FLAME -- MOONLIGHT AND JELLYFISH. Face at the Bottom of the World and Other Poems is a collection of Japanese poetry by master poet, Hagiwara Sakutaro.

Hagiwara Sakutaro (1886-1942) is generally recognized in Japan as the best poet to have emerged since contact was re-established with the outside world. His work represents the astonishing achievement in the poetic field of General Meiji endeavor to blend "Western learning with the Japanese spirit." He and perhaps he alone, have successfully combined the lyric intensity characteristic of the short forms of traditional Japanese poetry with the freedom of length, form and rhythm which characterizes the poetry of the West. In him East and West, despite Kipling's dictum, have indeed met; and from him the future poets of both traditions have much to learn.

For all the startling beauty and originality of his work, Hagiwara remains a poet of the dark. Shiveringly sensitive to loveliness in all its million modes, he finds it not only in its familiar haunts but even in such unexpected subjects as rotten calm or the dead body of an alcoholic. A man intensely aware that the sun, that symbol of Japan, rises as much to cast shadows as to give light.
Face at the Bottom of the World and Other Poems is a collection of Japanese poetry by master poet, Hagiwara Sakutaro. Hagiwara Sakutaro (1886-1942) is generally recognized in Japan as the best poet to have emerged since contact was re-established with the outside world. His work represents the astonishing achievement in the poetic field of General Meiji endeavor to blend "Western learning with the Japanese spirit." He and perhaps he alone, have successfully combined the lyric intensity characteristic of the short forms of traditional Japanese poetry with the freedom of length, form and rhythm which characterizes the poetry of the West. In him East and West, despite Kipling's dictum, have indeed met; and from him the future poets of both traditions have much to learn. For all the startling beauty and originality of his work, Hagiwara remains a poet of the dark. Shiveringly sensitive to loveliness in all its million modes, he finds it not only in its familiar haunts but even in such unexpected subjects as rotten calm or the dead body of an alcoholic. A man intensely aware that the sun, that symbol of Japan, rises as much to cast shadows as to give light. Frontcover -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- THE POEMS -- AI REN -- GREEN FLUTE -- DUEL -- IN THE BAR AT NIGHT -- WOMAN -- ROTTEN CLAM -- TO DREAM OF A BUTTERFLY -- PORTRAIT -- WINTER -- SPRING NIGHT -- DAWN -- BAMBOOS -- PERSON WHO LOVES LOVE -- HARMFUL ANIMALS -- WHITE MOON -- SAD MOONLIT NIGHT -- SEASIDE HOTEL -- FIELDMOUSE -- DBA TH OF AN ALCOHOLIC -- WITH A GIFT -- EGGS -- ELEGANT APPETITE -- ENCHANT EN GRAVEYARD -- TURTLE -- SKYSCAPE -- FACE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD -- NEW ROAD AT KOIDE -- BLUE FLAME -- MOONLIGHT AND JELLYFISH. SWIMMER -- SEA SHELL -- CAFE OF THE DRUNKEN MOON -- STILL LIFE -- POLISHED METAL HANDS -- DWARF LANDSCAPE -- LATE AUTUMN -- NIGHT TRAIN -- DEATH OF A FROG -- MURDER CASE -- IN THE MOUNTAINS -- INDEX OF TITLES -- OTHER EBOOKS. The poetry of Hagiwara Sakutaro is still little known in the in the English-speaking world, though this is not altogether surprising when the importance of his work remains inadequately recognized in Japan itself. Nearly all Japanese critiques of post-Meiji poetry acknowledge Hagiwara as one of the best (if not, indeed, the very best) of modern Japanese poets; but almost all critics, having briefly made some such admission, thereafter shy away from him, strangely to devote long paragraphs to other poets patently less talented, sadly more diffuse and far less influential. Why? Perhaps the reaso.