Interview Hiromi Ito
Readers of this blog have the opportunity to ask questions of brilliant poet Hiromi Ito. If you send in the question in the comment section, I'll forward them to Hiromi Ito via her American translator, Jeffrey Angles, and she will respond some time in late March.
So, please send in your questions.
Hiromi Ito is the author of Killing Kanoko (Action Books, 2009) as well as many books in Japanese. Here's the full wikipedia entry for Hiromi Ito.
So, please send in your questions.
Hiromi Ito is the author of Killing Kanoko (Action Books, 2009) as well as many books in Japanese. Here's the full wikipedia entry for Hiromi Ito.
posted by Johannes at 7:57 AM
2 Comments:
I haven't read Hiromi Ito's poetry--i'm going to now-- but the paraphrase of her affinity for the comparison between an ideal poet and an otherworldly figure has resonance for me, and I'd like to hear some of her ideas about the ideal poet as an exceptional other. Phrasing that as a question, maybe: Is your ideal poet a "respectable madwoman/madman"?
OK, in super-primitive romaji and half-forgotten Japanese:
1) Ito-san no shi wa aru imi de ankoku butoh, toku ni Hijikata no butoh no kangaekata, kankei aru mitai. Ryoho wa mijime-na ningen no karada ga tottemo taisetsu. Hijikata to butoh wa Ito-san no shi ni chokusetsu na eikyo ya kankei arimasu ka?
It strikes me that Ito-san's poems have some connection to ankoku butoh, especially Hijikata's butoh. The abject human body is central to both of them. Has Hijikata's butoh had a direct influence or connection with your work?
2) “Saniwa” to iu kangae wa, shijin ni tsuite, aru imi de jikohidai dewa arimasen ka? Ima no shijin wa honto no saniwa ni naru koto ga dekiru to omoimasuka? Tabun sono seikakubosha wa chotto dasakute naïve to omoimasen ka? Shijin ga saniwa dattara, mina wa saniwa da to omoimasu. Mina no jibun wa kotoba de tsukureru; kokugo wa watashi-tachi no karada ni nagareru. Shijin wa tokubetsu na ningen desuka?
Isn't the idea of the shaman(ess), when applied to poets, a little bit self-aggrandizing? Isn't that characterization maybe a little outdated and naive? If poets are shamans, I think everyone's a shaman. Everyone's self is made of words; language flows through everyone's body. Is the poet really a special person?
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