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Title: Shining like a knife...
Review: I liked the comparison that the introduction made between the thinking of Yosano Akiko and the High Moderns like Eliot and Pound. For all that they were working from different cultures and probably entirely different world views, I think that Akiko shared with them that kind of glittering precision that makes her work very pure to read-- particularly the Tanka.I was a little bit less impressed with the selection of "Modern Poetry" that came after the Tanka. I'm not sure whether it would have been true of all her non-traditional form poetry, but the poems chosen for this section were not nearly as strong as some of the others, and honestly seemed as though they'd been chosen to illustrate her political thinking rather than the body of her aesthetic work.Also, compliments to Shambhala Publications for the lucid translation and for the non-irritating introduction. Everything seemed just enough and well done.
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