Tangled Hair: Selected Tanka from Midaregami » (Bilingual)

Akiko Yosano's Tangled Hair, originally published in 1901, had a sensational impact on Japanese literature, reviving Romanticism just as leading authors were turning to Naturalism. This updated new edition, with a special preface by Sanford Goldstein, brings Akiko Yosano's richly textured tanka to life for today's readers. She reshaped the tanka, the most popular form of Japanese poetry for 1,200 years, into a modern poetic form, and her tanka are one-of-a-kind artworks of passion, of love, of emancipation of women, of the glorification of the body. Gracefully accurate and sensitive English translations, with generous explanatory notes, allow today's reader to experience and appreciate the power of Akiko Yosano's work. The poems are also included in their original Japanese and in romaji renderings.