{"product_id":"yasuhiro-yotsumoto-starboard-of-my-wife","title":"Yotsumoto Yasuhiro, Starboard of My Wife","description":"\u003cp\u003eTranslated by Takako Lento.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA Japanese couple lives in Germany. The husband is moved to explore their love – and their otherness – in a series of poems where the external and internal landscapes are equally foreign. The displaced narrator’s perspective accommodates the sensual and the mundane, boredom and anxiety, familial stress and personal longing. \u003cem\u003eStarboard of My Wife\u003c\/em\u003e is a modern take on a 1500-year-old Japanese tradition of poems exchanged between lovers, first seen in \u003cem\u003eManyōshū\u003c\/em\u003e (the earliest anthology of Japanese poetry, assembled in 759 AD). His portrayal of the life of an ordinary middle-aged couple is at once analytical, romantic, and existential. This is love poetry for the modern world, as innovative as it is captivating.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Yotsumoto’s achievement appears in the ease with which the everyday, the earthy, the dream-like, and the bizarrely imagined all glide into each other, are there with a careful equality. The calm of the poem, the tone of everyday realism with no craving for effect, makes the image of the last two lines so startling: “silence” this “strange animal” brought so lovingly back from the grave.’ Peter Boyle\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eYotsumoto Yasuhiro\u003c\/strong\u003e was born 1959. Poet, novelist, essayist, and translator, he has published 15 collections of poetry, including \u003cem\u003eA Laughing Bug\u003c\/em\u003e (1991) \u003cem\u003eThe World Congress of Middle Aged\u003c\/em\u003e (2002), \u003cem\u003eAfternoon of Forbidden Words,\u003c\/em\u003e (2003), \u003cem\u003ePrisoner of Japanese\u003c\/em\u003e (2012), \u003cem\u003eDrip Drop Monotony, Sloppily, Wildly\u003c\/em\u003e (2017), \u003cem\u003eNovel\u003c\/em\u003e (2017), \u003cem\u003eFree Solo \u003c\/em\u003e(2020) and \u003cem\u003eEurope, Europe! \u003c\/em\u003e(2022). Yotsumoto’s poetry has won the Yamamoto Kenichi Award, Hagiwara Sakutaro Award and the Ayukawa Nobuo Award. He has published two full length novels, \u003cem\u003eThe Fake Poet\u003c\/em\u003e (2015), and \u003cem\u003eThe Poetic Diary of a Prostate Gland\u003c\/em\u003e (2018). He is also a long-time collaborator and friend of Vagabond Press, collaborating on and contributing to as writer and translator and publishing with us \u003cem\u003eTrilingual Renshi,\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eFamily Room\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003ePoems of Minashita Kiriyu, Yotsumoto Yasuhiro \u0026amp; Soh Sakon \u003c\/em\u003eand most recently with Takako Lento\u003cem\u003e Selected Poems of Shinkawa Kazue\u003c\/em\u003e, and has been also active as an editor and translator bringing out \u003cem\u003eAirborne Particles: a 108 Poet Renga, Stay home on Earth! \u003c\/em\u003e– an anthology of Covid 19 related poems from around the world, \u003cem\u003eThe Poetic Works Homo Sapiens\u003c\/em\u003e – an anthology of the contemporary poetry from 32 poets in 22 countries, \u003cem\u003eKid\u003c\/em\u003e by Simon Armitage and as a literary critic with \u003cem\u003eShuntarology\u003c\/em\u003e, a thesis on the poetics of Shuntarō Tanikawa, and a collection of essays \u003cem\u003eTo Dear Poets!\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTakako Lento\u003c\/strong\u003e translates poetry and prose from Japanese to English and vice versa, her most recent collections being Shuntarō Tanikawa’s \u003cem\u003eOrdinary People\u003c\/em\u003e (2021) and Shinkawa Kazue’s \u003cem\u003eSelected Poems\u003c\/em\u003e (2021), both with Vagabond Press. Her recent books of translation and critical essays include \u003cem\u003eTamura Ryūichi, on the Life and Work of a 20th Century Master\u003c\/em\u003e (co-ed. Wayne Miller); \u003cem\u003eThe Art of Being Alone: Tanikawa Shuntarō\u003c\/em\u003e,\u003cem\u003e Poems 1952 – 2009; Collected Haiku of Yosa Buson\u003c\/em\u003e (with W.S. Merwin); \u003cem\u003ePioneers of Modern Japanese Poetry,\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eButterfly\u003c\/em\u003e by Kashiwagi Mari. She lives in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYotsumoto Yasuhiro, \u003cem\u003eStarboard of My Wife\u003c\/em\u003e  \u003cbr\u003eTranslated by Translated by Takako Lento\u003cbr\u003e2023. 148mm x 210mm. 64pp. \u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eISBN 978-1-925735-46-8\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eRelease: February 2023\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAuthor photo © Mihoko Shida\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vagabond Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42830479687837,"sku":"","price":25.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0182\/8349\/products\/Yotsumotocover2023.png?v=1670833814","url":"https:\/\/vagabondpress.net\/ja\/products\/yasuhiro-yotsumoto-starboard-of-my-wife","provider":"Vagabond Press","version":"1.0","type":"link"}