Friday, January 19, 2024

Rush Mats by Hiroya Takagai translated by Eric Selland (1999)


 Rush Mats 

Hiroya Takagai

translated by Eric Selland

Duration Press 

(c) 1999

Interestingly, as I approach the end of the huge poetry chapbook and ephemera dump I received a number of years ago from a generous soul in Iowa, I find one that completely appeals to me. 

Translated from the Japanese by Eric Selland, this thin collection has spacial distance that attracts me - long pauses in white space. And Mr. Selland has translated Mr. Takagai before. He had a book published by the University of Hawaii entitled Then the Whole was Flooded with Light: Hiroya Takagai Translated (2000) which was the year after this brief collection came out. It is possible and likely that some of the pieces here were also in the bigger book published the following year. 

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