WEBVTT

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As Mr. Wilson said,
I have been in Japan.

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I've been in Japan actually for
most of the last eight years.

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And I'll be going back
to Japan next summer.

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As a working man, I've
worked in the woods,

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in forestry and
logging industries.

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And I worked at sea in
the engine room of ships.

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When I lived in Japan, all
of these three atmospheres,

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the woods, the
sea, and the Orient

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are reflected in my poems.

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Also perhaps another strong
energy running through them

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is my delight and study
of-- my delight in

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and study of classical
Chinese poetry.

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I'm going to start by
reading a few translations I

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did the winter before last.

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These are translations
of a Japanese poet

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named Miyazawa Kenji.

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His surname is Miyazawa.

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Miyazawa died about 1933
at a relatively young age.

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He was born and
lived all his life

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in the poverty-stricken
and bitterly cold regions

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of the northern hemisphere.

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He was a high school
chemistry and geology teacher.

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He was also a farmer.

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And he was a kind of
agrarian anarchist.

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He was also a Buddhist,
a very learned Buddhist,

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who read the Chinese and
Sanskrit Buddhist literature

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very carefully, as well
as knowing Western history

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and philosophy.

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However in the Japanese
literary world,

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which is centered
in Tokyo and has

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been centered in
Tokyo since Meiji,

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he had no standing at all.

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And he is still not
very much read in Japan.

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He is more known for
his children's picture--

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his children's fairy tales.

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I'm going to read a
few of these first.

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This is called "Floating World
Picture Spring in the Kitagami

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Mountains."

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As you all probably know,
a floating world picture

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generally in Japan refers
to one of the genre wood

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blocks of the Yoshiwara, the
gambling and prostitution

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sections.

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So he's making
essential argument that

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Nobody at the edge
of the fire pit,

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snowboots and jute leggings,
white birch flaming,

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jetting out sour hot sap.

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A child sings the kite
songs, skinning badgers.

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Housepillars gleaming with soot.

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The sheer ceiling full of
the blue smoke of breakfast.

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Vault of a temple, one shaft of
sunlight shooting down and all

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is at the bottom in that
central beam of light.

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Spring at the chilly horse barn,
glimmer of dry hay and snow.

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Yearning for sunny hills, the
horses stamp their hooves.

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The willow sets out flowers.

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Birds flow over hill after hill.

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Horses hurry.

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Hot-breatht Arab, glistening
light-bodied thoroughbred,

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transparent cuneiform wind
and the stiff loony limbs

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of the walnut.

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A dog rustles the bamboo grass.

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Heavy work horse
flashing his tufty tail

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like a monstrous lizard
navigating in the sun.

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Horses one by one
coming, chewing

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at the edge of
the marl, climbing

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along the misty run of
snowmelt under a malachite sky.

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Bright noisy market, being led
to the stud inspection center.

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