About the Author

Hiroaki Sato was born of Japanese parents in Taiwan in 1942; his family fled back to Japan at the end of WWII, and in 1968 he moved to New York, where he has lived ever since. He is the translator of many volumes of Japanese poetry and literature. The president of the Haiku Society of America from 1979 to 1981, Sato received the America PEN translation prize and the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Translation Prize twice. He is the author of the books Legends of the Samurai, Snow in a Silver Bowl, and One Hundred Frogs, and from 2000 to 2017 wrote the monthly column "View from New York" for The Japan Times. New Directions also publishes his translation of The Iceland by Sakutaro Hagiwara.

Reviews

"Sato's extraordinary collection of essays is at once a literary history, a scrupulous examination of the vicissitudes of translation, a discussion of haiku in America, and a series of introductions to lesser- known masters. Sato conveys encyclopedic knowledge in a lively, modest, occasionally self-deprecating tone, busting myths along the way. An expert illumination of a poetic form, to read and reread." -- Michael Autrey - Booklist (starred)
"This combination of history and criticism tells of the haiku, one of poetry's most simple and beloved forms. Sato gives a complete picture of the form's journey and significance." -- World Literature Today
"The pre-eminent translator of Japanese poetry in our time...possessed of an unfiltered enthusiasm and spontaneity." -- August Kleinzahler - London Review of Books
"Over the last four decades, English-speaking aficionados of modern Japanese literature have delighted in the numerous translations, both of prose and poetry, undertaken by the masterful hand of translator, essayist, and poet Hiroaki Sato." -- Meera Viswanathan