Back in March, Sally highlighted the launch of our current Book of the Month, Tomo, edited by Holly Thompson (Stone Bridge Press, 2012). Carrying the by-line “Friendship through Fiction—An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories”, this is a wonderfully rich book that readers will want to dip into again and again, and all proceeds go to organisations working with young people affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.  Our review is coming soon; in the meantime, I wanted to return to the poem that Sally highlighted in her post: “Be not Defeated by the Rain” by Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933).

I didn’t know the poem before I read its opening cited at the beginning of Tomo and I wanted to know more about it. I was not only bowled over by the poem itself, but I was also much struck by Holly’s description in her Foreword of how the poem came into her head and repeated itself over and over as she attempted to come to terms with the devastation of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year.

The rest of the poem is no less powerful than the opening.  Although I am sadly unable to enjoy the poem in the original, I love the sonority and simplicity of David Sulz‘ translation, quoted in full here:

Be not defeated by the rain, Nor let the wind prove your better.
Succumb not to the snows of winter. Nor be bested by the heat of summer.

Be strong in body. Unfettered by desire. Not enticed to anger. Cultivate a quiet joy.
Count yourself last in everything. Put others before you.
Watch well and listen closely. Hold the learned lessons dear.

A thatch-roof house, in a meadow, nestled in a pine grove’s shade.

A handful of rice, some miso, and a few vegetables to suffice for the day.

If, to the East, a child lies sick: Go forth and nurse him to health.
If, to the West, an old lady stands exhausted: Go forth, and relieve her of burden.
If, to the South, a man lies dying: Go forth with words of courage to dispel his fear.
If, to the North, an argument or fight ensues:
Go forth and beg them stop such a waste of effort and of spirit.

In times of drought, shed tears of sympathy.
In summers cold, walk in concern and empathy.

Stand aloof of the unknowing masses:
Better dismissed as useless than flattered as a “Great Man”.

This is my goal, the person I strive to become.

Tomo has a blog running alongside it, featuring a wealth of interviews etc. with the book’s contributors.  Do read the interview with David Sulz, in which he discusses his translation of the poem and its impact.  He generously gave his translation to the World of Kenji Miyazawa website, who have made it freely available.  You can also read more information about Kenji Miyazawa and his children’s stories and poems, including background to “Be Not Defeated by the Rain” here, and other poems to download here.

Apparently Japanese children used to learn this poem at school, and perhaps they still do.  I think it would be a good poem for children to learn wherever they come from.  I’m certainly going to introduce it to my two…

This week’s Poetry Friday is hosted by Rena J. Traxel at On the Way to Somewhere – and she also has a caption competition, so head on over…

Edited and with a Foreword by Holly Thompson,
Tomo
Stone Bridge Press, 2012.

Ages: 12+

‘Tomo’ means ‘friend’ in Japanese and the purpose of this Anthology of Teen Stories is to offer friendship to Japan following the Great East Japan Earthquake of 11 March 2011: specifically, the book is dedicated to the memory of those who lost their lives and to “all the young people of Tohuku”.  Author Holly Thompson (The Wakame Gatherers, Orchards) has gathered contributions from creators of prose, poetry and graphic narrative, as well as translators, whose shared connection is Japan.  Their work makes for a remarkable collection.

Many of the contributors’ names such as Alan Gratz, Wendy Nelson Tokunaga, Debbie Ridpath Ohi,  Shogo Oketani, or Graham Salisbury may already be familiar to readers; others such as Naoko Awa (1943-1993) or Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933) will be less so, though famous in Japan.  A great deal of Tomo’s success lies in its blend of expertly translated older stories with contemporary, new writing, and this is true also of the stories’ content.  Many modern Japanese phenomena colour the stories, such as the particular fashion of Harajuku girls (“I Hate Harajuku Girls” by Katrina Toshiko Grigg-Saito) or the Purikura photo sticker booths (“Signs” by Kaitlin Stainbrook), yet these sit easily alongside more traditional stories such as the magical Ainu fable “Where the Silver Droplets Fall”, transcribed and translated into Japanese by Yukie Chiri (1903-1922) and translated into English by Deborah Davidson.  The anthology is all the richer for its varied array of writing, and its success is also in a great part due to the skill of the different translators involved.  The excellent Tomo blog also contains interviews with the contributors and offers readers further insight into Japanese culture.

The thirty-six stories are divided into sections: Shocks and Tremors, Friends and Enemies, Ghosts and Spirits, Powers and Feats, Talents and Curses, Insiders and Outsiders, and Families and Connections.  The opening story, “Lost” by Andrew Fukuda, is the gripping account of a girl regaining consciousness in a hospital bed following the Kobe earthquake in 1995; the other four stories in that opening section, including Tak Toyoshima’s graphic strip “Kazoku”, all have the raw immediacy of being set in the aftermath of the March 11^th disaster.

Among the other stories, readers will find stories to suit every mood: thought-provoking tales of conflict, spine-tingling ghost stories (I’m glad all these happen to have fallen to my reading in hours of daylight!), ostracism and friendship, romance, magic and surrealism.  Yearning to belong is a thread running through many stories, and the intensity for those characters seeking their identity is heightened where they are part of a bicultural family.  Nor does the collection flinch from addressing racial prejudice or the internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War.

As with all good short-story anthologies, Tomo needs to be read slowly in order to savour the intense individual flavors of its contents.  Framed by an extract from David Sulz’s translation of Miyazawa’s thought-provoking poem “Be Not Defeated by the Rain” as well as Holly Thompson’s moving Foreword, and a glossary and note on the book’s contributors (a rich mine for future reading), Tomo is a very special book.  While its immediate context is very much rooted in Japanese culture, it offers a glimpse at universal teenage concerns that will increase empathy among readers wherever and whoever they are.

Marjorie Coughlan
July 2012

Proceeds from the publication of Tomo are going to organizations assisting teens in the quake and tsunami hit areas of the Great East Japan Earthquake, 11 March 2011.

March 11 marks the first year anniversary of the disastrous earthquake and tsunami that hit northern Japan.  One event that will commemorate the disaster as well as raise funds for ongoing work in the area for teenagers particularly,  is the launching of the Tomo anthology (Stonebridge Press) on March 10.   The Tomo anthology was conceived of by writer Holly Thompson of Japan as a fundraiser for teens in the Tohoku region.  An array of writing was assembled and edited by Thompson, the result of which is a beautiful collection of writing aimed at young adults.  Recently, on the Tomo blog, interviews with some of the writers/translators have been appearing and one such translator is David Sulz, who translated the well known Kenji Miyazawa poem Ame no Mikazu (“Be Not Defeated by the Rain.”) A deceptively simple poem, “Be Not Defeated by the Rain,” is a manifesto of sorts, oddly humble and defiant at the same time.  Its message speaks deeply of a man’s singular determination to overcome the vagaries of nature by being the best he can be to others in his community.   I have loved this poem since I first read it, and it seems an appropriate poem for this anniversary.  I’m glad to see it included in this anthology.

Poetry Friday this week is hosted by Myra at Gathering Books.

When I was in Japanese school in Canada, our class did a skit of the story of the giant turnip — Ooki na Kabu (The Giant Turnip).  This story, based on a Russian folktale, is a classic, often performed by Japanese children in schools.  The story is about a giant turnip that is so big that everyone in the village tries to pull it out.  When our class did it, we used a bean bag with a white sheet covered over it and the boy playing the role of the turnip sat inside it, uttering his lines from underneath the sheet.  It was a lot of fun.  

Lately, a mother from the volunteer reading group I attend here, showed me the book of  the play we’d performed, The  Turnip (retold by Kimiko Saito, illustrated by Kaoru Ohno), alongside a number of similar bilingual Japanese picture books with CD published by a company called Labo Kyoiku Centre.  She had gotten them out from her local library.  The text was in English (all the books were translated by Sarah Ann Nishie).  Some other notable titles she showed me were A Mongolian Folktale: Sukh’s White Horse  retold by Yuzo Otsuka, illustrated by Suekichi Akaba, (published in English as Suho’s White Horse – see Marjorie’s recent Books at Bedtime post) and The Ocean Going  Orchestra by Yuzo Otsuka, illustrated by Jun Maruki.  The website pages for the books contain audio clips of the CD in which the tales are read both in English and Japanese. These are good books for bilingual education and a great resource.  I was very happy to see a number of my favorite Japanese children’s book author, Kenji Miyazawa’s books available in this bilingual CD format on the website.  Hope you can seek them out wherever you are!