Respect to Shuntaro Tanikawa

I was saddened to learn recently of the passing of Shuntaro Tanikawa (1931-2024), a writer whose whimsical yet profound musings on the consequences of a living as a temporary guest in a universe constantly at tug-of-war with itself inspired millions at a time when poetry in Japan was, by all accounts, in a marginal state. He was also an acclaimed translator, rendering the "Peanuts" cartoon and various works for children into Japanese. His work found an entirely new audience via Japan's burgeoning manga and anime industries, composing the lyrics to songs featured in popular series such as Astro Boy and Big X (music by Isao Tomita); later on he penned the words to the theme song to "Howl's Moving Castle" directed by famed auteur Hayao Miazaki.

Frustratingly most of Tanikawa's printed works seem to be nearly impossible to find in the United States, and even online the pickings look slim. You might have better luck at a university library. In the mean time, we'll have to content ourselves with this trio of sonnets over at the online literary journal Asymptote. I particularly like the middle one, "Yearning", with its frank philosophical honesty that seems to suggest a tearing of a veil of illusion that stops us from seeing the eternal resonances in everyday things.