Sparrows’ Eggs

In a rented cottage, sparrows peer from the eaves, quarrel over grains of rice, and flutter through bamboo, frost, and snow. Around them, a poet struggles to feed his family and to find words exact enough for the life he sees. Sparrows’ Eggs follows Kitahara Hakushū through island exile, marital separation, rural seclusion, and the intimate sorrow of aging parents.

This volume combines three collections of tanka, longer poems, and small lyrical pieces with an extended preface and a closing commentary. Its landscapes range from the brilliant sea of the Ogasawara Islands to the fields of Katsushika and the streets of Tokyo. Fireflies, swallows, cranes, spinning tops, white magnolias, and ordinary meals become occasions for sharply attentive poetry.

Hakushū (1885–1942), one of modern Japan’s major poets, also shows the labor behind his art: discarded manuscripts, repeated revisions, sleepless nights, and the cost of refusing compromise. This new English translation preserves his order and physical verse structure, with concise notes for names, allusions, and textual inconsistencies. AI-assisted translation, prepared and edited by Valentin Sarić.