Forest of eyes by Chimako. Tada and translated by Jeffrey Angles

This is poetry from Japan.

Forest of eyes by Chimako. Tada translated by Jeffrey Angles is published by University of California Press. This is a Book originally written in Japanese. This was published in 2010.0 and has the ISBN of 9.780520260511E12.

Forest of eyes, by Tada Chimako and translated by Jeffrey Angles, has a title that immediately unsettles the relation between seeing and being seen. A forest is usually a place of trees, shadow, depth, and wandering; a forest of eyes turns that landscape into witness. Tada’s Japanese poetry is intellectually rich, often drawing on mythology, classical learning, and global cultural reference, while Angles’s translation gives English readers a supple entrance into that density. I would read Forest of eyes for its layered attention. The title suggests that perception is not singular but multitudinous, alive all around us. Some poems look at the world. Others make the world look back. That reversal can be eerie, beautiful, and strangely clarifying.

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.