Wing-Beaten Air: My Life And My Writing (Paperback)
Acclaimed Japanese poet Yorifumi Yaguchi has turned his writing attention to telling what he experienced as a child growing up on the island of Honshu in the late 1930s and '40s. When life became incomprehensible, Yaguchi put his experiences into poems. His audience grew beyond Japan—and included Robert Bly, Denise Levertov, and William Stafford, who became his friends. Recognized in Japan as a major poet and also as an outspoken advocate for peace, Yaguchi here uses his extraordinary voice to tell his life story in prose and poetry.
Nationally acclaimed poet and translator Yorifumi Yaguchi was born November 1, 1932, in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. His poetry has appeared in numerous publications in Japan and elsewhere. His translations have included the work of American poets Anne Sexton and John Hollander, and he was for many years the poetry editor of the respected journal Poetry Nippon. He graduated from Tohoku Gakuin University with a bachelor's degree in English, from the International Christian University with a master's degree in education, and from Goshen Biblical Seminary in Indiana with a master's degree in theology. Yaguchi is the author of numerous volumes of poetry in both English and Japanese. A longtime peace activist and Mennonite pastor in Japan, he is retired from teaching American poetry in the literature department of Hokusei Gakuen College in Sapporo, Japan. He and his wife, Mitsuko, live in Sapporo. They have two sons, Yobu and Yujin. Translators and editorial assistants Clive Collins and Yujin Yaguchi teach in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo in Japan.