Overview

This anthology comprises poems written about the particularities of nature in Australia and Japan, together with the multi-faceted emotions engendered thereby. Japanese people cherish the tanka form as much now as they did in ancient times. And for English-speaking people, this anthology will provide an excellent way of experiencing tanka as English poetry. Composed by poets in Australia and Japanese, the tanka within these pages reveal previously unknown aspects of the natural world, while also enabling mutual understanding of shared feelings between the two countries. They may be brief, but these poems will leave deep reverberations in their readers' hearts and minds.

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9781922830418

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It warms my heart greatly to see two nations, their peoples, and their hearts, thus joined togetherin the form of tanka poetry.In composing these poemsone can feel the culture called 'tanka', while, in reading them, the natural elements of each other's countries can be experienced.Throughout this bookthere is a visceral sense of abundant informationcoloured with differing tinges of richness.My warmest congratulations on its publication- TAWARA Machi

Author Information

Saeko Ogi is a tanka poet and tanka translator. Born in Tokyo, has lived in Canberra since 1972.She contributes tanka both written in Japanese and English to tanka periodicals and to anthologies in Japan, Australia and USA, actively involved in tanka activities; translating, presenting talks in symposiums and facilitating a tanka group in Canberra CJC (Canberra Japan Club) Bluebells Tanka Group, she initiated.In 1998 her friendship with Amelia Fielden started through translating poetry; she translated her two poetry and tanka collections, 'Eucalypts and Iris Streams'; and 'Fountains Play, ' into Japanese. That was the first translating work published and since then the both has kept working on bilingual poetic collaboration.Thus, in association with Amelia Fielden, she has translated three tanka collections by Kawano Yuko; 'Time Passes, ' 'The Maternal Line' and 'The Time of This World - 100 Tanka from 13 collections written by Kawano Yuko'; also, three tanka collections by Tanaka Noriko;Doorway to the Sky, ' 'Breast Clouds' and 'From the Middle Country.' Other translation works with Amelia Fielden are 'Tanka To Eat, ' and 'Poems to Wear - from Japan and Australia.'In 2020, she published her own tanka collection, 'Michibata no Ishi' and its English translation by Amelia Fielden, 'Rock at the Roadside, ' was also published.The three poets, Amelia Fielden, Tanaka Noriko and Saeko Ogi published, two Canberra Nara Sister City commemorative anthologies by Australian and Japanese tanka poets, 'Music of the Heart' in 2014 and 'Poetry Bridges' in 2018.Her tanka, translated from Japanese into English, by Amelia Fielden appeared in 'Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka', Volumes 3 and 4.She loves watercolour painting, as well as knitting, playing the piano, Mahjong both in Australian and Japanese rules and Sudoku. A long while ago, I heard of an old Japanese tradition which associates the colour purple with the seventies, and endorses it as appropriate for wearing by people in that venerable age group. Then, when I turned seventy, I joined the Red Hat Society, founded in the USA in 1997 as 'the place where there is fun over fifty'. This society takes for its motto, so to speak, a poem called 'Warning', by the UK poet Jenny Joseph (1932-). The first verse of 'Warning' begins thus: 'When I am an old woman I shall wear purpleWith a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me.And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer glovesAnd satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired... And make up for the sobriety of my youth!'A nice synchronicity between East and West, isn't it? Loving the colour purple, I quite often wear it, not just to Red Hat Society functions. I was born in 1941, and most of the tanka in this book have been written and published during my 'purple years'.

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