How important is a poet's personal appeal? This question arises with each of these new volumes of translation, all of them bilingual. The three poets, otherwise quite different and unconnected, are only brought together fortuitously in this review.
Ryokan (1758-1831), monk, and poet, has already been introduced to Western readers, usually in the context of Zen Buddhism. Born in Izumozaki on the coast of Niigata Prefecture, he first followed his father in taking up the duties of a public functionary. But this work did not agree with him, and he soon gave it up to enter a religious order.
For much of his later life, he lived alone in a hut on a mountainside, bitterly cold in winter, but delighted by the natural world throughout the year. He sustained himself by begging, and was much loved in the small community where he was known.