The Heretical Sect

Step into a world of colored glass, harbor bells, incense, tobacco smoke, and flowers that seem to sing. In The Heretical Sect, Kitahara Hakushū turns the senses into a language of longing: sound takes on color, fragrance becomes music, and memories glow with the uneasy brightness of dreams.

These poems move between imagined Christian mysteries, the crowded streets and waterways of modern Japan, youthful love, and scenes of childhood. Their beauty can be tender or disturbing. A quiet room becomes a haunted chamber; a ship’s departure opens onto the sea of the heart; fruit and candlelight summon a vanished life.

Hakushū, one of the leading Japanese poets of the early twentieth century, brings musical intensity to these shifting scenes. This complete new English translation preserves the collection’s individual verse lines and strange sensory associations, with concise explanations of historical terms and uncertain readings. AI-assisted translation.