The Collected Poems Of Chika Sagawa

“One of the most innovative and prominent avant-garde poets in early twentieth-century Japan…Deep pain and deep beauty oscillate throughout Sagawa’s work.”—The New Yorker



“Nakayasu and Sagawa are that rare pairing: both formidable poets, both translators and both working with experimental forms. Sagawa’s poetry comes alive—relevant, necessary, urgent—in Nakayasu’s English translation.”—The Japan Times

The PEN Award-winning collected works of Japan’s first female Modernist poet and “one of the most prominent avant-garde poets in early twentieth-century Japan” (The New Yorker)

Chika Sagawa was a leader of the avant-garde movement in post-WWI Tokyo, a daring experimental poet who sought to free her work from the traditionally gender-bound traditions of Japanese poetry. Growing up in isolated rural Japan, Sagawa would move to Tokyo at seventeen, and begin publishing her work at eighteen. Almost immdiately recognized as a leading light of the (male-dominated) Japanese literary scene, Sagawa’s work combines startling, unique imagery with Western influences. The result are short, sharp, surreal poems about human fragility in the face of beauty.