Sonic Peace by Kiriu Minashita and translated by Eric Hyett, Spencer Thurlow

This is poetry from Japan.

Sonic Peace by Kiriu Minashita translated by Eric Hyett, Spencer Thurlow is published by HewesHeiser. This is a Book originally written in Japanese. This was published in 2017.0 and has the ISBN of 9.781944700409E12.

Sonic Peace, translated from the Japanese by Eric Hyett, Spencer Thurlow, brings Kiriu Minashita’s Japanese-language work into English through HewesHeiser. Published in 2017, it is best approached as a book of encounter rather than as a book to solve. Minashita’s title joins sound and calm, suggesting poems that listen for how noise, rhythm, and aftermath might be held without domination. I would begin with the poem itself: the image that refuses to behave, the phrase that gives the page a new temperature, the pressure of voice moving from one language into another. Good translated poetry does not only deliver information about Japan. It changes the reader’s sense of what English can hold, which makes this volume both a literary record and a readerly invitation.

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.