Rise, Ye Sea Slugs! is a book of many faces.

First, it is a book of translated haiku and contains over 900 of these short Japanese poems in the original (smoothly inserted in the main body),with phonetic and literal renditions, as well as the authors English translations and explanations. All but a dozen or two of the haiku are translated for the first time. There is an index of poets, poems and a bibliography. Second, it is a book of sea slug haiku, for all of the poems are about holothurians, which scientists prefer to call sea cucumbers. (The word cucumber is long for haiku and...

At 460 pages, this is the short version of Topsy-turvy 1585, a critical yet entertaining essay of the 611 ways Europeans and Japanese were considered contrary to one another, according to Luis Frois S.J. (1532-1597), a prolific letter writer who sent more information about Japan to Europe than anyone before or since. The book includes a full English translation of his treatise (Tratado em que se contem . . .), of the 611 topsy-turvy items, each only two-lines long (a distich)in the original, and hundreds of additional topsy-turvy items in the Foreword on the history of Topsy-turvy and within...

One of a line of books of translated haiku (from Japanese) about single themes by Robin D. Gill. Fly-ku introduces hundreds of haiku about flies, fly-swatters and fly-paper, scores of which are by Issa (1763-1827), whose famous ku about a fly begging not to be swatted has long been controversial because of its alleged maudlinity and anthropomorphism. Gill defends Issa and his famous fly-ku, while showing that Issa-lovers, on their part, are wrong to assume he was the first to notice flies rubbing their limbs together. There already was a century of such flies in haiku and an even older...

Cherry Blossom Epiphany - the poetry and philosophy of a flowering tree - a selection, translation and lengthy explication of 3000 haiku, waka, senryu and kyoka about a major theme from I.P.O.O.H. (In Praise Of Olde Haiku)by robin d. gill 1. Haiku -Translation from Japanese to English 2. Japanese poetry - 8c-20c - waka, haiku and senryu 3. Natural History - flowering cherries 4. Japan - Culture - Edo Era 5. Nonfiction - Literature 6. Translation - applied 7. You tell me If the solemn yet happy New Year's is the most important celebration of Japanese (Yamato) ethnic culture, and the quiet...

In this book, the first of a series, Robin D. Gill, author of the highly acclaimed Rise, Ye Sea Slugs and Cherry Blossom Epiphany, the largest single-theme anthologies of poetry ever published, explores the traditional Japanese New Year through 2,000 translated haiku (mostly 17-20c). "The New Year," R.H. Blyth once wrote, "is a season by itself." That was nowhere so plain as in the world of haiku, where saijiki, large collections called of ku illustrating hundreds, if not thousands of briefly explained seasonal themes, generally comprised five volumes, one for each season. Yet, the great...

17-syllabet Japanese poems about human foibles, sans season (i.e., not haiku), were introduced a half-century ago by RH Blyth in two books, "Edo Satirical Verse Anthologies" and "Japanese Life and Character in Senryu." Blyth regretted having to introduce not the best senryu, but only the best that were clean enough to pass the censors. In this anthology, compiled, translated and essayed by Robin D. Gill, like Blyth, a renowned translator of thousands of haiku, we find 1,300 of the senryu (and zappai) that would once have been dangerous to publish. The book is not just an anthology of dirty...

17-syllabet Japanese poems about human foibles, sans season (i.e., not haiku), were introduced a half-century ago by RH Blyth in two books, "Edo Satirical Verse Anthologies" and "Japanese Life and Character in Senryu." Blyth regretted having to introduce not the best senryu, but only the best that were clean enough to pass the censors. In this anthology, compiled, translated and essayed by Robin D. Gill, like Blyth, a renowned translator of thousands of haiku, we find 1,300 of the senryu (and zappai) that would once have been dangerous to publish. The book is not just an anthology of dirty...

This is the first book to translate a broad spectrum of the informal, improper and generally comic side of 31-syllable Japanese poetry called 'kyoka, ' or 'kyouka, ' literally, "mad-poems" or "madcap verse," representing in the words of Aston (1899), "absolute freedom both in respect of language and choice of subject." Literary anthologies have only translated a handful of kyoka to date, and the sole exception, recent catalogues of the color prints called 'surimono, ' stick to the rather tame kyoka of the early 19c that accompany the prints. The 2000 poems in Robin D. Gill's 740-page book...