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William J. Higginson's Publications Received

A Categorized List of Books, Periodicals, and Other Publications Recently Received, Read, or Reviewed

The links in the menu above reflect the current areas which include entries; unlinked menu items indicate future plans. This is mainly a listing of books of or about poetry and other literature as it relates to poetry, though it includes a selection of works in other fields which I have recently read or am reading with high interest. All items listed are part of the my personal collection. This page shows only recently received materials. A comprehensive list of all relevant works in my collection (several thousand items) will be available online in due time. Listing is free, donations of relevant publications are appreciated. Please note that not all items I receive or read are necessarily listed! Also, a specific listing often appears months after I receive an item, as my schedule allows.

In these listings, "Other Items" means printed items such as broadsides, poem cards, ephemera (from postcards to event programs), academic offprints, and items in other media, such as CDs and DVDs, and any other items not clearly books or periodicals. (Music and movies not related to the primary subjects otherwise dealt with here will not be listed.) For such items, a brief descriptive heading begins each listing. While my long-term goal is to list everything that might be considered a library or archive item, my main focus will be on items that I believe worthy of attention by others, as well as of interest to me personally.

A linked title indicates that further information on the item may be found on a web page elsewhere. A (See My Review) link at the end of a listing takes you to my review of the item, on either this web site or another. My system of categories is still in the beginning stages. Please bear with me as I develop and refine the list. The initial name at the beginning of each listing is surname first, a comma after the surname indicating that the book is by a Western author. The lack of a comma after the first surname generally indicates a Japanese or other East Asian author (usually writing in Japanese); all other personal names are given in Western order, personal name first, surname last, regardless of the order in the original. Where a title is given in two or more languages, these follow one another in the same order as in the book. Japanese titles are given in romanized form. If a book is published in a language other than English, its title is given in the language of publication, followed by an English translation in square brackets. Where known, prices are given in the currency of the location of publication; inquire of a bookseller or the supplier for other currencies. For items not readily available through booksellers in North America, contact information is given where known.

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Books of or about Haiku and Related Literature

Bilingual or Multilingual

Received in 2006

Takafumi Saito and William R. Nelson, translators. 1020 Haiku in Translation: The Heart of Basho, Buson and Issa. Artwork by Munetaka Sakaguchi. North Charlestown, South Carolina, USA: Booksurge, 2006. Pages 319+xx, 18x26 cm, perfectbound, no price listed. (Kindness of Michael Lustbader; entered 13 May 2006.) English free-verse (three-line) translations of "haiku" by the big three, with Japanese and romaji texts. The translations are relatively spare, organized by the seasons, with sections for each poet. Some of the translations are a bit needlessly awkward here and there—peculiar singulars and plurals, unlikely inversions—and in the romaji they have chosen to connect grammatical postpositions and other words to the words they follow. A four-page preface and the notes at the back appear in English only, though the book includes an index to the originals in romaji. The preface complains "Haiku is now well known as a poetic form in the world, but is still somehow not fully understood." It goes on to complain that "no one knows which translation faithfully reflects the original." The English translations here seem unlikely to contribute much. Some sample translations with romaji as supplied by the translators:

Basho

Once a year
Are picked
The shepherd's purses.

hitotoseni ichido tsumaruru nazunakana

Buson

A short night—
Reed tips
From the water peeking.

mijikayoya ashino hazueno mizuwo deru
Issa

Coaxing thunderbolts
To strike—
Eulalia.

kaminariwo maneki otoshita susukikana

In the first example, apparently each shepherd loses a purse to thieves once a year, and hence keeps several on hand. Or is it that all of each shepherd's purses are stolen once a year? In the second, there is no suggestion of "peek" in the original, which simply indicates that the tips come out of the water. (And the verb is in the plain present, not a defective or incomplete present progressive.) In the third, while some of the more garden-astute members of the English speaking world may relate to "eulalia", most of us would recognize "pampas grass"—not to mention that the one verb in the poem is in the past tense, not the broken present progressive of the translation. From my point of view, this poem was completely missed here, though I'll admit it's not an easy one to translate into sensible English.

For Bashô, we have Makoto Ueda's marvelous Bashô and His Intepreters (Stanford U. Press, 1992) and the more recent, and rather thorough and accurate compilation by David Landis Barnhill, Bashô's Haiku (State U. of New York Press, 2004). For Buson we have the competent Haiku Master Buson by Yuki Sawa and Edith M. Shiffert (Heian, 1978) and the recent The Path of Flowering Thorn: The Life and Poetry of Buson, also by Makoto Ueda (Stanford U. Press, 1998). In the case of Issa, if one cannot afford Makoto Ueda's recent and irreplaceable Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa (Brill, 2004), there are always the 7000+ translations on David Lanoue's Haiku of Kobayashi Issa web site, at http://haikuguy.com/issa.

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Yoshimura, Ikuyo. Four titles: Cats in Love (2000), A Desert Rose: Haiku Poems (2002), Waiting for a Breeze (2003), A Halo around the Moon (2004), all from her Rainbow Press, 1-3, Oonawaba 4-chome, Gifu 500-8889, Japan; pages unnumbered, no prices listed. (Kindness of the author; entered 5 May 2006.) Each of these collections has haiku, one to a page, originally written in English, along with a Japanese translation. In all but the first of these, the translation is also given in romanized Japanese. A couple of samples from the 2004 volume, A Halo around the Moon:

 

iris pond —
the way of wind
purple

over the trees
our Frisbee becomes
a winter bird

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Received in 2005

Ehime International Haiku Club, An Anthology of International Haiku, vol. 2, 2004 April – 2005 March. Matsuyama, Japan: Ehime Kokusai Haiku Kurabu, [2005]. Pages 40, 15x21 cm, perfectbound, no price listed. Contact Ms. Minako Noma, Minamikume-machi 649-1, Matsuyama City, Ehime 790-0924, Japan, or via e-mail at minacall-at-dokidoki.ne.jp. (Kindness of Minako Noma; entered 24 March 2006; my review is forthcoming in Modern Haiku.) Haiku in English by the mostly Japanese members of the group, with Japanese translations supplied by the authors.

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Gill, Stephen Henry, editor, with translations by Hisashi Miyazaki. Enhaiklopedia. Osaka, Japan: Hailstones Haiku Circle, 2005. Pages 110+iv, 13 x 19 cm, perfectbound in wraps, US$15.00 cash (no checks). Available from Hisashi Miyazaki, 54-16 Hamuro-cho, Takatsuki-shi, Osaka 569-1147, Japan. (Kindness of the editor; entered 24 March 2006; my review is forthcoming in Modern Haiku.) Haiku and haiku-like poems, with a few brief haibun, senryu, tanka, all composed in English by this largely Japanese haiku group. The work is arranged under 54 topics, mostly non-seasonal. Several, but not all, poems have been translated into Japanese.

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Holly, Anna, and Aya Yuhki. Eigo · tai eika shû: White Flower in the Sky / Sora no shiroi hana [English paired composed tanka collection: White Flower in the Sky]. Tokyo: Banraisha, 2005. Pages 164, 13 x 17 cm, perfectbound in wraps, ¥1700. Available from Aya Yuhki at 2-4-9, Fujimi, Sayama 350-1306, Japan. (Kindness of Aya Yuhki; entered 24 March 2006.) About 150 original English-language tanka written by the authors in responsive pairs over a period of four years, all with Japanese translations by Aya Yuhki.

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Think the Earth Project, editors. Ekoyomi / Ecoyomi [Eco-reader], edited by Shinichi Fukuda and Asako Nara, illustrated by Taiko Matsuo. (Kindness of Asako Nara and Emiko Miyashita; entered 25 March 2006.) Main text in Japanese and English, but prominent headings and explanatory notes appear only in Japanese. This book is a calendar of the 24 "solar terms" and 72 "seasons" or "weathers" they are divided into. The presentation, with full-page illustration throughout, suggests that it is a children's book, and the main text seems written with that in mind. But overall, the information is quite technical, typical of an appendix to a comprehensive saijiki. Since these terms are, or are closely related to, haiku season words, this is an attractive book for those with a serious interest in Japaneses haiku, and at least some command of Japanese language.

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Received in 2004

Kageyama Noriko. Haru no shio: Biringaru haiku shû / The Spring Tide: A Collection of Bilingual Haiku. Tokyo: Geirin Shobo, 2004. Pages 130, 13.5 x 19 cm, hardcover with dj, ¥2000. Available from the author at 5-27-8, Oizumi-gakuen-cho, Nerima-ku, Tokyo 178-0061, Japan. (Kindness of the author; entered 24 Marcy 2006.) About 110 Japanese haiku with romaji and English translations by the author, plus a dozen haiku originally composed in English.

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Kyle, Helen, and Ikuyo Yoshimura, editors. Evergreen Haiku Anthology. Gifu, Japan: Rainbow Press, 2003. Pages 160, 21 x 30 cm, perfectbound, no price listed. Contact Rainbow Press, 4-1-3 Onawaba, Gifu 500-8889, Japan, or via the web site. (Kindness of Ikuyo Yoshimura; entered 25 March 2006; my review is forthcoming in Modern Haiku.) Several hundred haiku originally written in English, with Japanese translations of all, along with a number of haibun and brief essays about the poets' involvement with haiku and the group. The collection ends with some linked poems by group members, including some in the "Necklace-shaped Renku" form invented by Yoshimura.

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In Japanese

Received in 2005

 

In English

Received in 2006

Fay Aoyagi, In Borrowed Shoes: Haiku. San Francisco: Blue Willow Press, [2006]. Pages 112, cm, perfect bound, $10. Available from the author; contact http://bluewillowhaiku.com/. (Kindness of the author; entered 13 May 2006.) A worthy follow-on to her Chrysanthemum Love, which I reviewed for Modern Haiku (see the review online at http://www.modernhaiku.org/bookreviews/Aoyagi2004.html.)

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Periodicals of or about Haiku and Related Literature

Bilingual or Multilingual

Received in 2006

Wisteria: A Journal of Haiku, Senryu, & Tanka, #1 (April 2006). See http://wistaria.blogspot.com/.

The Brief: Newsletter of the British Haiku Society, 67 (March 2006), packed with item below.

Blithe Spirit: Journal of the British Haiku Society, 16:1 (March 2006). See http://???

Frogpond: The Journal of the Haiku Society of America, XXIX: 1 (Winter 2006). See http://www.hsa-haiku.org/.

Modern Haiku, 37:1 (Winter-Spring 2006). See http://www.modernhaiku.org/.

 

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Received in 2005

Ribbons: Tanka Society of America Journal, I:4 (Winter 2005). See http://www.tankasocietyofamerica.com/.

TSA Quarterly Newsletter, VI:4 (Winter 2005), packed with item above.

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Bilingual or Multilingual

In Japanese

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In English

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Other Items of or about Haiku and Related Literature

Bilingual or Multilingual

Received in 2006

In Japanese

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In English

Academic Offprint: Edward Marx, "Yone Noguchi in W. B. Yeats's Japan (2) — Hokku" from Ehime Daigaku hôbungakubu ronshû Jinbungaku kahen [Bulletin of the Faculty of Law and Letters: Humanities], No. 19 (September 2005), 109-125. Contact Prof. Edward Marx, Faculty of Law and Letters, Ehime University, 3 Bunkyô-chô, Matsuyama 790-8577, Japan. Sequel to the author's "Yone Noguchi in W. B. Yeats's Japan (1) The Nô" in the previous number of the same journal. In this piece, Prof. Marx identifies the source of one of Yeats's later poems ("Imitated from the Japanese") in a translation of three of Issa's hokku (haiku) published together earlier by Noguchi in English. The most startling revelation is how closely Yeats copied from Noguchi, verging on outright plagiarism, as Prof. Marx demonstrates in a side-by-side comparison of the two pieces. He concludes with some interesting remarks on the disappointments and vitality of the three old-man poets, Issa, Noguchi, and Yeats. (Kindness of Prof. Marx.)

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Received in 2005

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Bilingual or Multilingual

In Japanese

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In English

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Books of or about Poetry

Bilingual or Multilingual

Received in 2006

Bill Zavatsky, Where X Marks the Spot (Brooklyn, New York: Hanging Loose Press, 2006); 110 pp., $15. Courtesy of the author. This first collection of Zavatsky's work in many years is full of his clear, clean New York School poems, each giving a piece of the jigsaw puzzle that is modern life in that great metropolis. Each poem sings its unique song, bringing a particular incident into sharp focus. "Free verse" at its best, these poems never flinch in their lyricism and honesty. For decades, Bill Zavatsky has been one of our great translators; his edition of Breton's Earthlight with co-translator Zack Rogow won the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club translation prize in 1993. Here, he translates his home city and the man he is in it, richly, wisely, and with a direct art that almost goes by unnoticed. Beautiful!

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Received in 2005

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In Japanese

Received in 2005

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Periodicals of or about Poetry

Bilingual or Multilingual

Received in 2006

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Received in 2005

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Bilingual or Multilingual

In Japanese

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In English

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Other Items of or about Poetry

Bilingual or Multilingual

Received in 2006

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Received in 2005

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Bilingual or Multilingual

In Japanese

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In English

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Books of or about Literature

Bilingual or Multilingual

Received in 2005

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Received in 2004

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In Japanese

Received in 2005

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Periodicals of or about Literature

Bilingual or Multilingual

Received in 2006

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Received in 2005

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Bilingual or Multilingual

In Japanese

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In English

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Other Items of or about Literature

Bilingual or Multilingual

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Bilingual or Multilingual

In Japanese

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In English

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Books of General Interest

In English

Received in 2006

Mann, Charles C., 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. Pages 510+xiii, 15 x 21.5 cm, hardcover, no price listed. Mann summarizes a century of work in archaeology, anthropology, forensic medicine, linguistics, and a host of other sciences to reveal a startlingly different picture of the pre-Columbian world we all grew up believing in. For starters, the population of the "New World" was probably a good deal greater than that of Europe; there were larger and richer cities in the Americas than elsewhere on the globe; and science and technology—from mathematics and writing to strength of materials and warfare—while different, were just as advanced among the native inhabitants as anywhere else on the planet at or before the beginning of European explorations here. There is much more to say about this book; I urge all humanistically-inclined persons to read it.

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Periodicals of General Interest

Bilingual or Multilingual

Received in 2006

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Received in 2005

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Bilingual or Multilingual

In Japanese

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In English

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Other Items of General Interest

Bilingual or Multilingual

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In Japanese

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This page first posted 23 May 2003 and last updated 3 June 2003. Copyright in all materials is retained by the authors. Copyright © 2003 by William J. Higginson. All rights reserved. No material from this web site may be copied on other web sites, produced in printed copies, or otherwise reproduced except as explicitly stated on a particular page, or by permission of the authors in writing. Please do not e-mail copies of this web page; rather, send the URL: http://wjhigginson.home.att.net/.
Contact William J. Higginson at wordfield-at-att-dot-net, substituting "@" for "-at-" and a period for "-dot-".
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