Blue Cat

A blue cat sleeps in the shadow of a great city. Cherry blossoms sour beyond a closed window. A café in a pine grove offers a moment of ease, while an army advances like a vast machine crushing the earth. In Blue Cat, desire, solitude, and the changing light of ordinary places become vivid, unsettling poetry.

Published in 1923, this collection presents fifty-five poems by Hagiwara Sakutarō, a central voice in modern Japanese poetry. Its six main sections move through intimate interiors, haunted shorelines, melancholy landscapes, and moments of renewed sensual life, followed by the formidable poem “Army.”

This complete English translation also includes the author’s preface, collection notes, and extended essay on free-verse rhythm. There he argues that poetry’s music lies not only in regular beats, but in the inner movement of feeling and words. Original verse lines and stanza divisions are preserved, and brief notes explain unusual readings and period terms. Four illustration captions are included; the supplied source contains no image files. AI-assisted translation, prepared and edited by Valentin Sarić.