Dreams on the Sand and Other Early Poems

Before he wrote the children's songs every Japanese child still sings, Noguchi Ujō (1882-1945) published four books of poems for adults: Withered Grass (1905), Town and Country (1919), Since We Parted (1921) and Dreams on the Sand (1923). This volume translates all four, complete and in order: ornate Meiji verse, plain modern free verse about farmers, tenants and mill girls, the ten-part sequence "My House" on the loss of a family estate, and the short folk-song lyrics of the Tone River country.

Some 170 poems, with a translator's note and endnotes. AI-assisted translation.