Description
The fascinating and quirky biography of a disheveled poet skillfully interwoven with his original works
Zen monk Santoka Taneda 18821940 is one of Japans most beloved modern poets famous for his freeverse haiku the dominant style today This book tells the fascinating story of his life liberally sprinkled with more than 300 of his poems and extracts from his essays and journalscompiled by his best friend and biographer Sumita Oyama and elegantly translated by William Scott Wilson
Santoka was a literary prodigy but a notoriously disorganized human being By his own admission he was incapable of doing anything other than wandering the countryside and writing verses Although Santoka married and had a son he devoted his life to poetry studying Zen drinking sake and wandering the length and breadth of the Japanese islands on foot as a mendicant monk
The poets life alternated between long periods of solitary retreat and restless travel influenced by his tragic childhood When not on the road he lived in simple grass huts supported by friends and family Santoka was a lively conversationalist who was often found so drunk he could only make it home with the help of a friendly neighbor or passerby But above all throughout his life he wrote constantly poetry and essays flowed from him effortlessly
Santokas eccentric style of haiku is highly regarded in Japan today for being truly modern and free from formal constraints His journals and essays are equally thoughtprovokingthe musings of an unkempt but supremely selfconscious mind on everything from writing to cooking rice and his failure to live a more orderly life
This translation and its introduction are by bestselling author William Scott Wilson whose other works include The Book of Five Rings and The Lone Samurai Wilson provides sensitive renditions of the haiku illustrating Santokas life as well as an extensive introduction to the influences on Santokas work from contemporary haiku poets and his Buddhist teachers
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