Contemprary Tanka Poet Mariko Kitakubo.

Modern English Tanka, Autumn 2008, BOOK REVIEW

Cicada Forest: An Anthology of Tanka
by Mariko Kitakubo
translated by Amelia Fielden
Review by Denis M. Garrison

Cicada Forest: An Anthology of Tanka by Mariko Kitakubo, translated by Amelia Fielden. Tokyo, Japan: Kadokawa Shoten, 2008. ISBN 978-4-04-652019-7 C0092. Trade paperback, 5¼" by 8", perfect bound, 192 pages. $15.00 USD. ¥1800E. Cover design by Yoko Hasegawa; cover calligraphy by Hiroshi Hurugoori.

Cicada Forestis a collection of Mariko Kitakubo’s tanka in Japanese accompanied by fine English translations by the renowned Amelia Fielden. In addition to the bilingual text, the book includes a preface by Michael McClintock that supplies an educated vantage point from which to regard the verses themselves and the poet in the context of her art at this moment in time. A charming “Greeting from the Poet” follows the preface.

Cicada Forestis an anthology of Kitakubo’s recent work plus selections from her previous collections, I Want to Tell You in the Words of Waves , When the Music Stops , and On This Same Star (which also is bilingual). The presentation throughout is usually four (sometimes, three) poems to the page, English on the left and Japanese on the right. It is a judicious design, allowing the tanka to be very readable. Likewise judicious is the selection of tanka and their arrangement which presents them to advantage. There is a natural flow to the entire collection that does not happen by chance.

I have read Cicada Forestover and over. It engages me as few such collections can. Here we have the poet’s fully realized voice, even in translation, coming through with a distinctive timbre and tone that becomes recognizable. That is remarkable insofar as her diction is quite natural, rather than stylized. There is a lovely, appealingly musical quality to these tanka that enhances the potent content rather than smoothing it over.

in the foal’s eyes
shines
such gentleness—
some part of me
is being loosened
(pg. 110)

Kitakubo pulls together the personal and the universal with graceful ease, as in:
as the baby
descends the slope to sleep
he seems
to be shutting down
the day for me
(pg. 88)

Quoting a few, or even a few dozen, of the wonderful tanka from this collection cannot do it justice. This is one of those collections, like several classics that we all have come to love, that reveals the poet’s life and inner being. After reading Cicada Forest , we are beguiled into believing that we know Kitakubo like a close friend, a cherished friend, even though here, as with personal relationships, we really catch only a glimpse.

one’s life
can no more be entrusted
to another,
than can the timing
of a perfect soft-boiled egg
(pg. 64)

I haven’t wept
as most women would.
I’ve endured
in my house
by the roaring sea.
(pg. 30)

Kitakubo is not sanguine about her legacy:
washed up
there on the beach
only an oar—
my name will never
ever be remembered
(pg. 60)

Oh, I think that it will. I am sure that it will.
This is an outstandingly beautiful and engaging collection of tanka which every tanka lover will want to own so that they can read it over and again. Mariko Kitakubo’s Cicada Forestis a collection for the ages. We also must be grateful to Amelia Fielden for making this work available to us in English.

—Denis M. Garrison, editor

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