A Chagall and a tree leaf by Shuntarō Tanikawa and translated by William I. Elliott

This is poetry from Japan.

A Chagall and a tree leaf by Shuntarō Tanikawa translated by William I. Elliott is published by Katydid Books. This is a Book originally written in Japanese. This was published in 2008.0 and has the ISBN of 9.780942668681E12.

A Chagall and a tree leaf, translated from the Japanese by William I. Elliott, brings Shuntarō Tanikawa’s Japanese-language work into English through Katydid Books. Published in 2008, it is best approached as a book of encounter rather than as a book to solve. Tanikawa’s title places art and leaf beside each other with disarming ease, as if the poem’s task is to let scale remain playful. What I want from a translated poetry library is not only coverage, but temperament: the chance to meet a mind arranging the world differently. This volume does that work. It gives the reader enough ground to enter, then enough strangeness to keep the encounter from becoming merely informational.

If you’d like to see international poetry continue and gain traction, consider requesting this work from your local library, or purchasing it from places like Open Books (a poetry only bookstore), Asterism Books (an independent press distributor), or bookshop.org to connect you with your local bookstores.

Check out more of the always in-progress translated poetry index here.