Translating Toshiko Hirata's Ars Poetica

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

- Eric E. Hyett & Spencer Thurlow

IN REAL LIFE, TOSHIKO HIRATA (b. 1955) is a uniquely kind, warm, and outgoing person, famous for her sense of humor as one of Japan’s best-known living authors. However, in her award-winning collection Is It Poetry? Hirata’s choice of poetic speaker is a recluse: someone who struggles with the very idea of writing poetry and for whom the noises of contemporary society are frequently too much to bear.

The book’s title itself is an intentional pun. The Japanese title,