Book record
adagio ma non troppo
Ryoko Sekiguchi
Translated from Japanese by Lindsay Turner
adagio ma non troppo, by Ryoko Sekiguchi and translated by Lindsay Turner, borrows a musical instruction and turns it into a reading tempo. “Slow, but not too much” is wonderful advice for poetry generally, and especially for Sekiguchi’s cross-lingual, formally alert work. Her writing often moves through food, sensation, translation, disaster, and the body’s delicate relations to language. Turner’s translation gives English readers access to that finely tuned pace. I would read adagio ma non troppo as a book of measured movement, neither rushed nor static. The title asks for attention with pulse. A poem can slow the reader down without freezing them. It can ask us to feel thought as rhythm, breath, and adjustment.
- Published
- 2018
- Publisher
- Les Figues Press
- Language
- Japanese
- Country
- Japan
- ISBN
- 9781934254707