Free verse haiku is a modern Japanese genre that discards the strict formalities of mainstream haiku in favor of unrestricted expression. Such poetry aims to capture the spirit of haiku in an even more spontaneous and direct way than would normally be possible in the standard variety of haiku - and its great success in doing that can inspire not only readers, but also non-Japanese poets who look for alternative models of representing this universally-loved concept of poetry.
Book 4 in the Nippoem bilingual series is a short collection of poems by Ozaki Hosai, one of the major poets of free verse haiku. This book is one of the very few titles that present Japanese free verse haiku in translation, and probably the only one to do so in a bilingual annotated format suitable for both general readers and learners of Japanese. This bilingual reader features:
(1) Twelve haiku poems representing a variety of scenes from Ozaki's daily life.
(2) Japanese script and latin transliteration for each poem.
(3) Analysis: the actual structure of the original Japanese in a hyper-literal version.
(4) Translation: The poem's meaning rendered into natural English.
(5) Notes: Information about vocabulary, grammar, cultural facts, and anything that cannot be translated accurately.
Check out the book's Look Inside preview to see how all this works in practice.
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Important notice:
This ebook contains both English and Japanese. You can read and understand everything in the text using the romanization, but if you would like to see the Japanese script, please make sure you read the book on a device that is capable of displaying Japanese correctly. If you have an older device, please use Kindle's desktop application instead.
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About the series:
Nippoem's goal is to bring Japanese poetry to non-native readers by putting the original texts at the center. With the aid of translations, structure analyses, and detailed notes, you will get to know the poems as they truly look, sound, and feel. The ebooks are carefully designed to be readable and usable by general readers who are interested in Japan or poetry but do not study Japanese. To language learners, Nippoem offers a rare gateway into a little-taught part of the language.
These ebooks, including all the translations and notes, are created by Dan Bornstein, a professional translator, editor, and language entrepreneur who lived four years in Kyoto and now manages several online projects for the instruction of Japanese. Dan also edits, writes and translates the Reajer series, which is focused on prose Japanese and is geared primarily toward language learners.
Book 4 in the Nippoem bilingual series is a short collection of poems by Ozaki Hosai, one of the major poets of free verse haiku. This book is one of the very few titles that present Japanese free verse haiku in translation, and probably the only one to do so in a bilingual annotated format suitable for both general readers and learners of Japanese. This bilingual reader features:
(1) Twelve haiku poems representing a variety of scenes from Ozaki's daily life.
(2) Japanese script and latin transliteration for each poem.
(3) Analysis: the actual structure of the original Japanese in a hyper-literal version.
(4) Translation: The poem's meaning rendered into natural English.
(5) Notes: Information about vocabulary, grammar, cultural facts, and anything that cannot be translated accurately.
Check out the book's Look Inside preview to see how all this works in practice.
====
Important notice:
This ebook contains both English and Japanese. You can read and understand everything in the text using the romanization, but if you would like to see the Japanese script, please make sure you read the book on a device that is capable of displaying Japanese correctly. If you have an older device, please use Kindle's desktop application instead.
===
About the series:
Nippoem's goal is to bring Japanese poetry to non-native readers by putting the original texts at the center. With the aid of translations, structure analyses, and detailed notes, you will get to know the poems as they truly look, sound, and feel. The ebooks are carefully designed to be readable and usable by general readers who are interested in Japan or poetry but do not study Japanese. To language learners, Nippoem offers a rare gateway into a little-taught part of the language.
These ebooks, including all the translations and notes, are created by Dan Bornstein, a professional translator, editor, and language entrepreneur who lived four years in Kyoto and now manages several online projects for the instruction of Japanese. Dan also edits, writes and translates the Reajer series, which is focused on prose Japanese and is geared primarily toward language learners.