Publication:
Gusts
Volume:
#4
Date:
06/25/2006
edited by Kozue Uzawa; translated by Kozue Uzawa & Amelia FieldenBoston: Cheng & Tsui, 2006. reviewed by Kay F. Anderson
Kozue Uzawa personally selected the honored tanka and their poets, and her Author Index offers biographical notes and page numbers for each poet’s tanka. Each time I began to think . . . I wish I knew . . . Uzawa had already provided guideposts for fulfilling any involved reader’s wishes for more information.
The selection of each tanka was originally jotted down in a notebook whenever Uzawa felt moved by a poem. Now her private treasure trove may be experienced and savored by countless others. Based on the quality of each poet’s writing, and not by the poets’ names, this anthology will expand awareness and appreciation of such tanka.
FERRIS WHEEL will give the reader a ride that they will hold dear for a long long time. In case some ferris wheel ride was a terrifying experience for you in childhood, you are invited to conceive of a peaceful ride, for that is what these tanka offer you.
grindinga handful of coffee beansI enjoythis time of not chasing
this time of not being chased
---Reiko Hakozaki
falling blossoms
a myriad of them,
each petal
trailing light down
into the ravine
---Miyoji Ueda
Many of the tanka riding this FERRIS WHEEL have never before appeared in English translation. Kozue Uzawa and Amelia Fielden have lit the path to fresher and more far-reaching tanka than the poetic world may have seen before.
they say—
there is a harp
so full of music
it starts singing by itself
ah, that was I, last autumn
---Kyoko Inaba
With Inaba’s indulgence, I momentarily change the last word in her tanka and . . . it speaks for my enchantment with FERRIS WHEEL. ah, that was I, last evening