A Kiss for the Absolute
Selected Poems of Shuzo Takiguchi
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The first book of poems by the great Japanese surrealist to be published in English
In 1923, Shuzo Takiguchi's first year at Tokyo's Keio University was cut short by the Great Kanto Earthquake, which nearly destroyed the Japanese capital. When he returned to school two years later, he was hit by a second earthquake--French Surrealism. Takiguchi (1903-1979) began to write surrealist poems, translate surrealist writers, curate exhibitions of surrealist art, write art criticism, and, later, paint, helping introduce Surrealism to Japan. He eventually became a major Japanese artistic and cultural figure whose collected works number fourteen volumes. In A Kiss for the Absolute, Mary Jo Bang, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and her fellow poet and translator Yuki Tanaka present the first collection in English of Takiguchi's ingenious, playful, and erotic poems, complete with an introduction and the original Japanese texts on facing pages. Takiguchi's obvious interest in style is perfectly wed to his daredevil rhetorical antics. His poems read as if they could have been written today, yet they are so original that they couldn't have been written by anyone else. Bang and Tanaka's skillful, colloquial translations offer English readers a long-overdue introduction to this important poet.
About this Author
Mary Jo Bang is the author of nine books of poems, including A Film in Which I Play Everyone and Elegy, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. She has published translations of Dante and Matthias Göritz and is a professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis. Yuki Tanaka was born and raised in Japan and teaches at Hosei University in Tokyo. His debut poetry collection, Chronicle of Drifting, is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press. He received an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin and a PhD in English from Washington University in St. Louis.
Reviews
"A Kiss for the Absolute isn't only an important cultural project; it is vivid, ambitious work. . . . A book to remind us about the potential of poetry."---Fiona Sampson, Guardian
"A Kiss for the Absolute introduces Shuzo Takiguchi's surreal, mythical world to English readers, inviting them into a poetic landscape where Japanese culture and French surrealism meet in a celebration of beauty, desire, and wonder. This collection is more than an introduction to Takiguchi's poetry; it's an invitation into a cultural and linguistic dialogue that feels deeply mysterious and illuminating."---Georgia McInnes, The Indiependent
"Bang and Tanaka's skillful, colloquial translations offer English readers a long-overdue introduction to this important poet."
"The poems in A Kiss for the Absolute . . . are of a distinctly joyous, cheeky surrealism. . . . This splendidly resonating collection. . . . will make you wonder how you've been living all this time, and how you might now carry yourself with more rapture, more mystery, and more attention fit for the dizzying world we inhabit."---Turi Sioson, Only Poems
"Meticulously harvested from a cache comprising a ten-year period of intense literary composition from 1927-1937, this edition of thirty-five poems gives needed shape to Takiguchi's wide-ranging legacy as an eclectic visionary--critic, translator, poet, artist, collector, curator."---Michael Londra, Asian Review of Books
"[An] exciting new translation of Takiguchi's work."---Leanne Ogasawara, 3 Quarks Daily
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