If you liked Kenji Miyazawa’s poems that you might have read in Strong in the Rain (the title comes from one of the poems – perhaps the most popular piece of poetry in modern Japan), now you have the opportunity to taste some of this writer’s prose. Once and Forever. The Tales of Kenji Miyazawa is an selection of the translator, John Bester, the author of translations of such giants as Kenzaburō Ōe or Fumiko Enchi.) In the introduction, Bester explains the essence of his fascination with Miyazawa’s prose and justifies his choices – because in the volume, apart from a few of the most popular fairy tales, you will also find a lot of less known, but equally interesting texts.
For Once and Forever should interest those of you who would like to know a little more about the texts of the 20th-century classics of Japanese literature – Miyazawa, who for almost all his life created away from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, among the fields and forests of Aomori, developed a completely original style and sensitivity. He carefully observed the surrounding nature, and wrote down his observations in the form of fairy tales. Many of them – although seemingly aimed at younger readers – are saturated with folklore, philosophy, sometimes religion and everything that the writer was passionate about.
There are no reviews yet.