Doubled Flowering: From the Notebooks of Araki Yasusada

Rating:
Summary: No Hoax
Review: Legend has it that Araki was a member of an experimental poetry group in post-war japan, and was one of the first Japanese poets to read Jack Spicer and Frank O'Hara, as well as the Beat writers. Before his death in 1972, Araki apparently left his papers with a friend, Tosa Motokiyu, who then passed the work onto poet/Japanese Scholar Kent Johnson. It was Johnson who then presented the work to the public, a gesture that saw a rapid series of publications in such journals as Grand Street, Conjunctions and First Intensity. It was just before the publication of Doubled Flowering, that rumours began circulating about the authenticity of these texts.

Regardless of this speculation--and regardless of the identity of the author--the poems in this book mark a distinct turn in the tradition of Japanese poetry. Utilizing traditional forms such as the renga and the tanka, the author of this book brings these ancient forms to life with his (or her?) decidedly contemporary poetics. Subtle, yet harrowing, these poems merge the lyric simplicity of traditional Japanese verse with the myriad possibilities of experimental textworks--linguistic hijinx, collage, recontextualization and deft conceptual leaps. Set mainly in a post-nuclear landscape, these poems spin uncontrollably (suggesting nuclear power itself) around the outer reaches of human experience, refusing to rest on their subject. Instead, the author chooses to write "around" subjects of death, lust and tragedy, never attempting to portray these experiences, but rather evoke them; he seems acutely aware of the falsifying nature of putting experience--especially traumatic experiences--into words. In short, these are beautiful, intangible works that favor the reader's intuition, rather than representation. If you are concerned about the authorship of these texts, file the book beside Alvaro de Campos or Bernardo Soares (two of Fernandoo Pessoa's alter-egos) or Andreas Karavis (David Solway's fictional Greek poet). If you are unfettered by this, file it under Araki. Regardless the author, Doubled Flowering is an essential book for anyone interested in contemporary poetry.