A Kiss for the Absolute
Selected Poems of Shuzo Takiguchi
Shuzo Takiguchi author Yuki Tanaka translator Mary Jo Bang translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Princeton University Press
Published:5th Nov '24
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The first book of poems by the great Japanese surrealist to be published in English
In 1923, Shuzo Takiguchi’s first year at Tokyo’s Keio University was cut short by the Great Kanto Earthquake, which nearly destroyed the Japanese capital. When he returned to school two years later, he was hit by a second earthquake—French Surrealism. Takiguchi (1903–1979) began to write surrealist poems, translate surrealist writers, curate exhibitions of surrealist art, write art criticism, and, later, paint, helping introduce Surrealism to Japan. He eventually became a major Japanese artistic and cultural figure whose collected works number fourteen volumes. In A Kiss for the Absolute, Mary Jo Bang, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and her fellow poet and translator Yuki Tanaka present the first collection in English of Takiguchi’s ingenious, playful, and erotic poems, complete with an introduction and the original Japanese texts on facing pages. Takiguchi’s obvious interest in style is perfectly wed to his daredevil rhetorical antics. His poems read as if they could have been written today, yet they are so original that they couldn’t have been written by anyone else. Bang and Tanaka’s skillful, colloquial translations offer English readers a long-overdue introduction to this important poet.
"A Kiss for the Absolute introduces Shuzo Takiguchi’s surreal, mythical world to English readers, inviting them into a poetic landscape where Japanese culture and French surrealism meet in a celebration of beauty, desire, and wonder. This collection is more than an introduction to Takiguchi’s poetry; it’s an invitation into a cultural and linguistic dialogue that feels deeply mysterious and illuminating."---Georgia McInnes, The Indiependent
ISBN: 9780691263885
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
218 pages