A Handful of Sand

by Takuboku Ishikawa

English, Japanese (translation)

Genres: Poetry, Japanese Literature, 20th Century

Hardcover

First published May 15, 1952

About the author

Takuboku Ishikawa (石川 啄木 February 20, 1886 – April 13, 1912) was a Japanese poet. He died of tuberculosis. Well-known as both a tanka and "modern-style" (新体詩 shintaishi?) or "free-style" (自由詩 jiyūshi?) poet, he began as a member of the Myōjō group of naturalist poets but later joined the "socialistic" group of Japanese poets and renounced naturalism.

Reviews

[Thikra · Rating 4 out of 5]

ما يؤلمني
أن ما أغضبني حتى الاحمرار
وجدته في اليوم التالي بلا معنى

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un recueil de tankas surprenants, qui navigue entre plusieurs registres, celui de la tristesse, celui de la nostalgie, celui de l’amour, toujours avec un style et une beauté comme j’en ai rarement lus dans la poésie japonaise.
Article : https://comaujapon.wordpress.com/2017...

[Katya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exquisite and poignant Ishikawa's tanka are a perfect example of Japanese concept of Shibumi - subtle bitterness and unobtrusive beauty.

[Yuki · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is that first collection of poets by Ishikawa Takuboku (石川啄木), a Japanese poet in the end of 19th century.

Some popular tankas give us an impression that he's humble and modest, but I found it was wrong. Through many poems in this series, I saw the way he thought of his personal life and the society (in the narrow sense, though), and I recognized he was more ambitious and competitive than I had imagined. After reading, he became more familiar.

[Keren Esebua-Beniashvili · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that Ishikawa is FABULOUS !

[Navya · Rating 4 out of 5]

"My Sad Toys" is a really lovely poem. It's almost haunting to realize that you're reading someone's writings of their life as it slowly ebbed away from them.