Shuntarō Tanikawa was a Japanese poet and translator. He was considered to be one of the most widely read and highly regarded Japanese poets, both in Japan and abroad. The English translation of his poetry volume Floating the River in Melancholy, translated by William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura and illustrated by Yoko Sano, won the American Book Award in 1989.
I start to adore poems more and more. When I was small, I couldn't get the beauty of it, the abstractness, the metaphor, the room for thoughts, etc. Even though poems in this book were written in 1950s, they are surprisingly related to current chaotic political situations in Hong Kong. Maybe it's because history always repeats itself. At least I gained a bit of hope and mental power reading it in a coffee shop.