海的比喻 The Metaphor of the Sea - 谷川俊太郎 Shuntarô Tanikawa - Bookniverse

Shuntarô Tanikawa (Japan) (谷川俊太郎) was born in 1931 in Tokyo. He is the only child of well-known philosopher Tetsuzô Tanikawa, and among the most popular contemporary poets in Japan. After having finished high-school, he decided not to go on to university. His first book of poems Two Billion Light-Years of Solitude appeared in 1952. He has since produced some 70 books of poetry and won every major Japanese award for his writings. He has also written essays, radio and film scripts and picture books for children. He is the translator of the Mother Goose Rhymes and has for many years been the translator of Peanuts. He has performed his poems in America, Ireland, England and China. His books of poems which have so far been translated into English are Two Billion Light-Years of Solitude (trans. 1996), 62 Sonnets (1953, trans. 1992), On Love (1955, trans. 2003), With Silence My Companion (1968, trans. 1975), At Midnight in the Kitchen I Just Wanted to Talk to You (1975, trans. 1980), Definitions (1975, trans. 1992), Coca-Cola Lessons (1980, trans. 1986), Map of Days (1982, trans. 1996), Songs of Nonsense (1985, trans. 1991), Floating the River in Melancholy (1988, trans. 1988), Naked (1988, trans. 1996), On Giving People Poems (1991, trans. 2005), The Naif（1993, trans. 2004）and minimal (2002, trans. 2002). The Selected Poems of Shuntarô Tanikawa was published in America in 1983 and Shuntarô Tanikawa: Selected Poems was published by Carcanet, U.K. in 1998. His most recent book of poems is SUKI (Liking) published in May 2006.