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Shinkichi Takahashi is one of the truly great figures in world
poetry. In the classic Zen tradition of economy, disciplined
attention, and subtlety, Takahashi lucidly captures that which is
contemporary in its problems and experiences, yet classic in its
quest for unity with the Absolute. Lucien Stryk, Takahashi's fellow
poet and close friend, here presents Takahashi's complete body of
Zen poems in an English translation that conveys the grace and
power of Takahashi's superb art. "A first-rate poet . . .
[Takahashi] springs out of some crack between ordinary worlds: that
is, there is some genuine madness of the sort striven for in Zen."
-- Robert Bly; "We visit places in Takahashi that we once may have
visited in a dream, or in a moment too startling to record the
perception. . . . You need know nothing of Zen to become immersed
in his work. You will inevitably know something of Zen when you
emerge." -- Jim Harrison, American Poetry Review
This is a selection from among the most significant texts in the
body of Buddhist literature, culled especially for readers who want
a rich, varied, and comprehensive collection in one volume, and
includes translations from Pali, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese,
Japanese, and Lao. For the benefit of the newcomer to Buddhism --
and to facilitate the use of this volume in an academic context --
the pieces are arranged in chronological order and each chapter is
preceded by a separate commentary. In addition, there is a
comprehensive description of life in India at the time of the
Buddha and an outline of his life and mission.
Capturing in verse the ageless spirit of Zen, these 150 poems
reflect the insight of famed masters from the ninth century to the
nineteenth. The translators, in collaboration with Zen Master
Taigan Takayama, have furnished illuminating commentary on the
poems and arranged them so as to facilitate comparison between the
Chinese and Japanese Zen traditions. The poems themselves, rendered
in clear and powerful English, offer a unique approach to Zen
Buddhism, "compared with which," as Lucien Stryk writes, "the many
disquisitions on its meaning are as dust to living earth. We see in
these poems, as in all important religious art, East or West,
revelations of spiritual truths touched by a kind of divinity."
These 253 selections reveal Basho’s mastery of the genre.
'Nothing more lonely -' A selection of Basho's most magical haiku
Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th
birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and
diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and
across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over
Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del
Fuego to 16th century California and the Russian steppe. Here are
stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays
satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives
of millions Basho (1644-1694). Basho's On Love and Barley and The
Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches are
available in Penguin Classics.
Regional poems representing seventy-nine writers reveal the
beginnings of a Midwest renaissance in American poetry.
Koyashi Issa (1763-1827), long considered amoung Japan's four
greatest haiku poets (along with Basho, Buson, and Shiki) is
probably the best loved. This collection of more than 360 haiku,
arranged seasonally and many rendered into English for the first
time, attempts to reveal the full range of the poet's extraordinary
life as if it were concentrated within a year. Issa's haiku are
traditionally structured, of seventeen syllables in the original,
tonally unified and highly suggestive, yet they differ from those
of fellow haikuists in a few important respects. Given his
character, they had to. The poet never tries to hide his feelings,
and again and again we find him grieving over the lot of the
unfortunate - of any and all species.
No poet, of any time or culture, feels greater compassion for his
life of creatures. No Buddhist-Issa was to become a monk -- acts
out the credos of his faith more genuinely. The poet, a devoted
follower of Basho, traveled throughout the country, often doing the
most menial work, seeking spiritual companionship and inspiration
for the thousands of haiku he was to write. Yet his emotional and
creative life was centered in his native place, Kashiwabara in the
province of Shinano (now Nagano Prefecture), and his severest pain
was the result of being denied a place in his dead father's house
by his stepmother and half brother.
By the time he was able to share the house of his beloved father,
Issa had experienced more than most the grief of living, and much
more was to follow with the death of his wife and their four
children. In the face of all he continued to write, celebrating
passionately the lives of all that shared the world with him, all
creatures, all humans. Small wonder that Issa is so greatly loved
by his fellow poets throughout the world, and by poetry lovers of
all ages.
Lucien Stryk's poetry is made of simple things -- frost on a
windowpane at morning, ducks moving across a pond, a neighbor's
fuss over his lawn -- set into language that is at once direct and
powerful.
Years of translating Zen poems and religious texts have helped give
Stryk a special sense of the particular, a feel for those details
which, because they are so much a part of our lives, seem to define
us. Stryk's poetry is neither an attempt to surpass these details
nor an attempt to give them significance. It is an activity that
exists among them, as ordinary -- yet as important -- as breath.
Stryk's poetic power rests in the sureness of plain speech and his
insistence on a direct, sympathetic attention to the world we
actually inhabit.
Collected Poems, a gathering of three decades of work, contains
nearly all Stryk's poems, including the best of his Zen
translations and a book-length section of new poetry. This book is
a revelation of the wonderful amid the familiar by a poet whose
language and vision have found their maturity.
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