adinadragos's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
giselcruzzz's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
nmcannon's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.0
As another reviewer said, I’m here because Asagiri Kafka-san is good at his job. Asagiri-san is the writer behind the manga, Bungo Stray Dogs. He and the illustrator Harukawa Sango-san reimagine early 20th century Japanese literary figures as crime-fighting frenemies in the modern day. In interviews, Asagiri-san has said that he hopes his writing will entice readers to explore Japanese literature, and it worked on me. Nakahara Chūya is my favorite character, so of course I borrowed The Poems from the library.
The Poems of Nakahara Chūya are not what I expected. When I hear “debauched drunk who constantly cosplayed as a gay French poet,” I don’t think of delicate meditations on nature and grief. There is one poem about having a hangover, but that’s a blip on the radar. Poems discuss the loneliness of returning to a hometown; the light dancing under the door at night when you’re trying to sleep; living on after catastrophic death. A poem about his late son, Fumiya, made me cry. I realized mid-read that Poems was my first piece of Dada-esque literature that I can recognize as Dada-esque. Following the “nonsense” leaps was a fun game. There were many beautiful, sill moments sitting with nature. Nakahara-san’s poetry can really capture the quietude of the soul: those soft emotions and absolute truths only articulated in deepest hush.
All that praise being said, this book is very weird. The front matter contains Nakahara-san’s biography, which is very edifying. It’s during Paul Mackintosh’s forward that things get funky. Mainly, he views his own translation as an atrocity that should not exist. Poetry, as an artistic medium, is hard to translate in the first place. Nakahara-san’s poems are known for their lyricism—he set them to music sometimes—and Mackintosh admits, point-blank, that he couldn’t translate that music to English. He could translate the words, but not the musical cadence. He urges the readers to treat Poems as a taste of Nakahara-san’s work, and to not study the translation in an academic way. The implication that all English translations are colonialist violence sat odd in the stomach.
Mackintosh calling this book a “horrible butchery” is not conducive to 5 stars, but I still liked the poems, so…3 stars? Mackintosh is the one who threw me, not the nerdy hat rack.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Child death and Death
carolharumi's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
smokingchagga's review against another edition
4.0
Ok. I don't know how to rate poems.
My favorites were those of the Songs Of Past Days.
It does take a while to get into it, but I blame that on the fact that I rarely read poems. The translation was decent, but I've no doubt I would've enjoyed it more if I could read the original version.
My favorites were those of the Songs Of Past Days.
It does take a while to get into it, but I blame that on the fact that I rarely read poems. The translation was decent, but I've no doubt I would've enjoyed it more if I could read the original version.
meltates's review against another edition
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
3.0
This one was alright. Some of his prose were a little weird and lost me at times. There are some absolute gems in here and it was nice to read a new style of poetry.
tarioronar's review against another edition
3.0
Like probably most people, I picked this up because of Bungo Stray Dogs. I can't help but think this is probably a very poor translation of his work, and done by someone who doesn't know how to write poetry. "he created lyrics renowned for their songlike eloquence, their personal imagery and their poignant charm.". This book certainly did not achieve that. Most of the poetry is ugly, clipped and disjointed. More beautiful versions of his more famous poems can be found online with a simple Google search.