Poetry of Ryuichi Tamura

by Ryuichi Tamura

This book contains English translations of the first six major works by the poet Tamura Ryuichi.

Genres: Poetry

182 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1998

About the author

Ryuichi Tamura (田村隆一 Tamura Ryūichi) is universally regarded as one of the most important poets of post-WWII Japan. Released from military service at the end of the war, he saw a new world rising out of the rubble, and was determined to be at the forefront of a new poetics. To this end, he called on fellow poets to help create a different kind of poetry to mark the new era. “It was Tamura who performed the role of our pilot after WWII”, wrote Nobuo Ayukawa, another representative poet of this period.

Tamura was instrumental in establishing the monthly poetry magazine, The Waste Land (Arechi) in 1947. He edited the first and the second numbers, with Saburo Kuroda taking over from the third through the sixth, the last of the monthly issues. Tamura also edited the annual anthologies Waste Land Poetry 1951 through Waste Land Poetry 1958, containing work by his fellow poets as well as his own. Through these activities, Tamura and his group, including Nobuo Ayukawa and Saburo Kuroda, laid the foundations of Japan’s post-WWII poetry, and built a lasting monument of their own times. These poets are often called “the Waste Land Poets”.

Tamura’s poetic style is a total departure from the past, and unique even among his contemporaries. He speaks of a certain poem by Ayukawa as being an epiphany that inspired him to write a poem, but the style and concept of his work are strictly his own. Many poets of later generations describe their first encounter with Tamura’s poetry as ‘shocking’, revelatory’, ‘eye-opening’, or ‘awe-inspiring’, regardless of their own inclinations or taste. His poetry remains fresh and powerful.

Reviews

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 5 out of 5]

A labor of love by the translators, this is one of the few full English translations of Tamura's work. Tamura lived through the militarist phase of 20th century Japanese history and his poems often reflect with subtlety on this theme, as well as the less subtle ways that war and conflict shape our lives and loves. His further development, which bears more than a passing resemblance to the poetry of his Surrealist predecessors strikes a fine balance between the beautiful and the terrible.

[Lua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Se ha vuelto uno de mis poetas favoritos.