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A review by honnari_hannya
The Poems of Nakahara Chuya by Chūya Nakahara
3.0
A sad, mournful collection of poems. There is something lovely and lyrical about Nakahara's words, and I can see how several of them could have been set to music. Particularly enjoyed the themes of loss, regret, and ennui that permeated multiple poems throughout this collection, especially in the older works that dealt heavily with the loss of his child and his youth. It really does seem like he was sure he would die early, and was already in deep mourning about the life he could have lived.
Absolutely not a fault of the book itself nor of the translator, as it is just a quirk of language, but there were definitely moments I know I was missing because I was not reading the original. Japanese is a highly symbolic language especially in poetry, and combined with Nakahara's use of pattern and rhythm and repetition, a lot of the meaning was unfortunately obscured by my reading of this in English. Something to definitely reread, as I will probably enjoy it more a second or even third time, and see if there are other translations floating around for some of these poems.
Absolutely not a fault of the book itself nor of the translator, as it is just a quirk of language, but there were definitely moments I know I was missing because I was not reading the original. Japanese is a highly symbolic language especially in poetry, and combined with Nakahara's use of pattern and rhythm and repetition, a lot of the meaning was unfortunately obscured by my reading of this in English. Something to definitely reread, as I will probably enjoy it more a second or even third time, and see if there are other translations floating around for some of these poems.