Bathhouse and Other Tanka by Ishii Tatsuhiko and translated by Hiroaki Sato

This is poetry from Japan.

Bathhouse and Other Tanka by Ishii Tatsuhiko translated by Hiroaki Sato is published by New Directions Publishing Corporation. This is a Book originally written in Japanese. This was published in 2023.0 and has the ISBN of 9.780811231343E12.

Bathhouse and Other Tanka, by Ishii Tatsuhiko and translated by Hiroaki Sato, places the reader inside one of Japanese poetry’s most compressed forms. Tanka depends on brevity, turn, and the ability to let a small scene hold emotional afterlife. The bathhouse as title image is wonderfully bodily and social: steam, nakedness, cleansing, routine, exposure, and public intimacy. Sato’s translation gives English readers access to that form without pretending English can simply duplicate Japanese measure. I would read this book for the pleasure of compression. A tanka does not need much space to change the temperature of a room. It can offer a glimpse, a breath, a body entering water, and let the feeling continue after the poem has ended.

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.