Reviews
Japanese Death Poems: Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death by Yoel Hoffmann
aiona's review
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Probably better as a reference book than to read through, some lovely poems and accompanying information here. But because it’s haiku there are sooo many and it’s hard for them to stand out individually.
fei_chan's review against another edition
informative
reflective
3.0
Good history, but many descriptions of the haikus can become pretty repetitive. Some haikus are just common sense if you use your brain, such as “I move my face toward the moon” description basically: “This means the monk moved his pillow closer towards the window to see the moon before death” Um….no duh? Otherwise it’s a nice little book about death poems.
sanmeow's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.75
as the title suggests, a collection of poems about death. it's a collection of jisei - poems written by a poet shortly before they died. i really liked this collection and i believe it has the potential to make people feel more at ease with the concept of death. this attitude towards the end of one's life is definitely a big part of japanese culture and i loved the way it was showcased here. i enjoyed a lot of the metaphors because they seemed very natural, not try-hard or unnecessary in the slightest. especially liked the metaphors which referenced nature. it was a beautiful read in a strangely calming way. accepting and even embracing death is not a concept many are familiar with, but i think it's inspiring and sort of freeing, and so i'm a huge fan of these poems. i also think the introduction was very insightful and informative, and it's especially important for it to be there for those going into this book unaware of how death is perceived in japanese culture.
cantordustbunnies's review against another edition
4.0
A wonderful book on a surprisingly boring subject. Of course, there are many masterpieces of poetry within this book. However, while some poems stand out many are repetitive variations on the same metaphor with a limited range of imagery. A lot of the poems in this book would be better standing alone or sprinkled throughout a haiku anthology of varying subject matter but as it is they tend to drown each other out. I thought Yoel Hoffmann did a great job of translation and provided useful explanatory notes as well as interesting yet brief histories of the poets when pertinent. He also has an excellent introduction to the book which puts things into cultural, historical, and artistic perspective. Unless if you're a devotee of some aspect of this book (death, haiku, or Japanese culture more generally) I wouldn't actually recommend this to the average reader. It's difficult to imagine a book that is more complete or well researched than this one on the particular subject of Japanese death poems but it could be too much of a good thing and wound up being monotonous. One positive aspect of so many death poems back to back is that you really get to appreciate how many different attitudes there are towards death and the poet's personality and attitude are compared and contrasted to each other in an interesting way. Picking this book up on a whim might not be such a great idea, but for a devotee or someone with a special interest this book is great.
foggy_rosamund's review
5.0
I've been reading this book since August, and have found a lot of solace, insight and beauty within its pages. People keep making fun of me for reading a book of Death Poems before bed, but it's honestly been a huge comfort to me.
This book consists of three sections: a long introduction, discussing the history and practice of writing death poems, and what such poems meant to the people who wrote them. Then there is a section of death poems written by Zen monks, which are usually five- or six-line poems, often directly discussing Buddhism or enlightenment. The longest section by far is the last, which contains the death poems of haiku poets from Basho onwards. The haiku appear in English with cross translation of Japanese written phonetically in English, and are often glossed with some details about the poet's life or explanations of references in the poem.
I loved the last section of this book, and found myself returning to poems again and again. The poems are not all of equal quality -- some of them are by people who are not well-known poets, or not poets at all, and some poems return to the same images again and again -- the "world of dew", the morning-glory, the boat crossing the river, all feature multiple times. But some poems elevate even these tired images, and some poems feel utterly unique and create a moment of great insight.
Quoted below are two of my favourite poems from this collection:
The running stream
is cool -- the pebbles
underfoot.
--Chiboku, 1740
I cast the brush aside --
from here on I'll speak to the moon
face to face.
--Koha, 1897
This book consists of three sections: a long introduction, discussing the history and practice of writing death poems, and what such poems meant to the people who wrote them. Then there is a section of death poems written by Zen monks, which are usually five- or six-line poems, often directly discussing Buddhism or enlightenment. The longest section by far is the last, which contains the death poems of haiku poets from Basho onwards. The haiku appear in English with cross translation of Japanese written phonetically in English, and are often glossed with some details about the poet's life or explanations of references in the poem.
I loved the last section of this book, and found myself returning to poems again and again. The poems are not all of equal quality -- some of them are by people who are not well-known poets, or not poets at all, and some poems return to the same images again and again -- the "world of dew", the morning-glory, the boat crossing the river, all feature multiple times. But some poems elevate even these tired images, and some poems feel utterly unique and create a moment of great insight.
Quoted below are two of my favourite poems from this collection:
The running stream
is cool -- the pebbles
underfoot.
--Chiboku, 1740
I cast the brush aside --
from here on I'll speak to the moon
face to face.
--Koha, 1897