Poems. "Translation & introduction, Sho Sugita ; afterword, Eric Selland."--Page 3. "Cover art by Pareesa Pourian. Design by Katherine Bogden & Doormouse. Typeset in Avenir & Futura. Printed & bound by McNaughton & Gunn, Saline, Michigan. Covers printed letterpress at Ugly Duckling Presse in Brooklyn, New York. The editors would like to thank Lee Norton, Karen Ornat, and Emma Wipperman for their invaluable assistance. The publisher would like to acknowledge the support of the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts."--Colophon (page 2).
Contents:
Development: New Voice: Friend of the day ; Ball -- Le vieillard fou de dessin -- Spring! Spring! -- New voice -- Yesterday there -- A careless pitch ; Arabesque: A caricature of early dawn -- Sounds of the black night -- Ballade Van de Haven -- A conversation on the hill -- Gourd garden -- Minimum_Maximum -- Van Gogh's Sunflowers ; Hard Fight: Hot-Blast -- Insight -- Beast -- Uomo! Your mission -- Speck, fishhook, crest, antenna, hoof -- Ordinary symbols -- Expanse and I (Ekphrasis) ; Development: Two short poems -- An impression of Hospital K -- Ginza, color, light, reverberation, stench, curiosity, ephemere -- Music inside the box -- Talisman -- A tropical poem -- Four developments in my new poetic movement of 1921 -- Toad -- New moon -- Car -- Ensemble -- Contact -- Storm -- Instrument -- Figure -- Machine -- The strange cloud -- To a particular violiniste ......... -- Self-effacement -- What is sent there -- Key -- Improvisational poem I -- Improvisational poem II -- Friend of the day ; Uncollected Poems (1916-1922) : The king of heaven and earth -- Movement. Numerous gates -- To the end of the world -- Blue resounding -- Song for the skylark -- Spring -- Deep nocturne -- Flower garden of roses for our early years -- Bar -- Le soir -- The bay -- Spring and pupil -- Garden -- Drunkard's song -- The sword I gird is a grass seedpod -- Shakyamuni -- Festival song -- Memory -- Sea cucumber drying factory -- A sacred pattern -- Moondog -- Stars -- Porcelain -- To Mr. N -- To M -- To the young French poets on the battle line -- Her garden -- Creation -- Shadow -- Small self-portrait -- To the strange middle-aged man .......... -- To dispel doubts -- Green -- Vertical cut -- Various memories -- Indoors -- Happy life -- I'm to get sucked into five flower pots -- As the siren goes off. . . -- Torrent -- Meaningful union -- Open the window -- Unrestrained -- The footsteps of joyous life -- Brightly set the torch -- Diagram of spring light -- Cryptography -- Nightscape -- Ball polishing -- Portrait -- Amalgam -- Fire -- The joyous tree of life -- In praise of the seven-colored roses -- Self-portrait -- Beach longing -- Crown -- Nothing day / Not guilty -- Female diver -- Manifesto of the Japanese futurist -- Movement.
Summary:
"Once called "the Marinetti of Japan" by David Burliuk, Hirato Renkichi produced a unique brand of Futurism from the late 1910s and early 1920s through poetry, criticism, and guerrilla performance. Contributing to the earliest productions of Japanese avant-garde poetry, his aggressive experimentation with speed, spatialization, and performability would later influence what became a lively community of Dadaist and Surrealist writers in pre-war Japan.Spiral Staircase is the first definitive volume of Renkichi's poems to appear in English. With an introduction by Sho Sugita and an afterword by Eric Selland."--Publisher's website (viewed 01/09/2017).
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.