I really enjoyed the book too, was planning to include it on my “recommended books” of the year post whenever I get around to it. One thing I’ve been wondering is how loose some of the translations are. Granted its haiku so you’ve got to take liberties, but there were a few I tried to cross reference, or attempted to check the translation with ChatGPT’s help, and it seemed like the translation was at most a riff on the original, if not a totally new poem. I’d be interested to hear from someone who actually knows Japanese and could comment. Regardless, the poems are great.
Yea I wondered that too, there are certain words/phrases that sounded a little too western. I can imagine that there was no good way to translate some of the poems so the author took some poetic license - but like you say, the results are generally great anyways.
Oh wow. I want this now.
Ill be posting some more selections in the coming weeks, but the book is highly recommended if you are into this sort of thing!
Already ordered'!..
I really enjoyed the book too, was planning to include it on my “recommended books” of the year post whenever I get around to it. One thing I’ve been wondering is how loose some of the translations are. Granted its haiku so you’ve got to take liberties, but there were a few I tried to cross reference, or attempted to check the translation with ChatGPT’s help, and it seemed like the translation was at most a riff on the original, if not a totally new poem. I’d be interested to hear from someone who actually knows Japanese and could comment. Regardless, the poems are great.
Yea I wondered that too, there are certain words/phrases that sounded a little too western. I can imagine that there was no good way to translate some of the poems so the author took some poetic license - but like you say, the results are generally great anyways.
¡Viva la muerte! — José Millán-Astray
It almost makes me want to die, so that I can write my poem. But, I shall be patient.
as far I understand, some people wrote them before their death, so go ahead ;)
Great, thank you for this post! Always truth in their itinerant mutterings. I NEED TO ADD THIS TO MY COLLECTION. May it guide all of us…
magnificent, love this! Here's a haiku inspired by this post :
✨
what is life, you ask?
body, mind, heart, words, and song
life or death, choose one
🙏