Face at the Bottom of the World and Other Poems

by Hagiwara Sakutaro, Graeme Wilson (Translation), York Wilson (Illustrations)

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.

83 pages, Paperback

First published June 10, 1969

Reviews

[Robert Giesenhagen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really dig the poetry of Hagiwara. I might be in the minority but at times I swear he had to have been an influence on Bukowski. It’s a very real and direct view on the dark side of everything.

[Zoe · Rating 2 out of 5]

More than a third of this book was just the introduction, and Wilson rather oversold the work. It doesn't help that the actual translations were laden with ridiculous adverbs and some poems were made to rhyme, but then the repetitive introduction itself reads like an undergrad's thesis, with French and Latin thrown in for kicks and esoteric terms dotting the page. Hagiwara's poetry needed a brief background with maybe a general overview of themes we might encounter at most. The poetry itself veered into darker places, as promised, but without the original Japanese to compare it to and with Wilson's admitted fast and loose translation policy, I'm unsure of the actual impact of their style.