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Octopussy, Dry Liver & Blue Spots  w/ 1300 18-19c senryu

There is one review at Amazon especially recommended to all students of Japanese. And, a website named Comicsnob.com kindly called Octopussy, Dry Liver & Blue Spots "the best damn book title this year"  and advised readers to "Go ahead, say it out loud. Imagine seeing the concert poster that features that triple bill." While waiting for more reviews, I will print excerpts from a letter received from poet-editor Jane Reichhold, who has read the first 65 pages, with my author-comments bracketed in yellow. The occasional ?? are mine, too.

How sweet of you to make his and her versions of your book! Super idea! Now who and how many will imitate your marvelous solution to finding that one best title that appeals to different readers? God, I am so tempted!!! That alone is reason enough to start a new book!   [Never thought of dual covers as M & F.  It will be interesting to see if it works out that way!]

What you have done for senryu is simply marvelous! You know I have been critical of persons who did not really know about either haiku or senryu applying the terms indiscriminately. Through your examples I feel that the reader can more clearly see if there is a difference and figure out what it is. I felt your statement that haiku are felt and senryu observed is valid, but again both genres cross this boundary mark regularly. \o/ [There is much confusion about what is haiku and senryu and I have tried to set things straight, though much of my argument is hidden in the back of the book so as not to scare off the casual reader. Blyth and Ueda offer much history and analysis of humor in general, but, like all other writers I know of, fail to pick-up on haiku-as-personal and senryu-as-stereotype.]

?? Perhaps part of "my" problem of what constitutes a senryu is the fact that I can accept any of the poems in your book(s) as haiku because for me, sex is religion. For long enough religion has functioned as sex for a segment of the population. But ?? to see sex as the greatest good (God) is for me, perfectly reasonable, and accurate. If all sex stopped tomorrow, in three months we would be suffering from malnutrition. We live from sex, not only that of our parents and children, but from the sex life of bulls, birds, and blossoms that gives us our food. If one has an interest in God or needs something to worship then sex is the most important factor in our lives (it is the creation that touches us most directly) and righteously deserves all the attention and emotion we give it. Because of this, may this book (these books) become best sellers!!! [While it is wrong to make haiku senryu because they are sexy, I do not accept most of the poems in my book as haiku, but I am still pleased with what Jane writes.]

You have done important work in reading all that background material, and for translating the poems with such freedom that your translations are surely the closest anyone could come to the poem without being able to read Japanese. A deep, deep bow in your direction. Not only are you a masterful translator, your ideas, and ability to let your mind take the poem as far as it can go, are simply one-of-a-kind. How lucky we are that you have brought your genius to this field. [Thank you. Now, I am red as a beet. I only wish I were a better translator; but an academic who can write me into a corner has said the same in different words [link], so I must admit that, at times, rhyme and other accidents have helped me rise above myself.  But please see the online Errata and Glosses where I may simultaneously confess and indulge myself in improvements. But, she is right to praise me for my preparation. I wish I could have prepared more, but I did enough that when I read other English translations of dirty senryu, I cannot help finding mistake after mistake in them; and that means my book should be of use even to the academics who quote senryu in books about the popular culture of Edo Japan.]

Also, I wanted you to know how much I admired your calm ability to write about sex. That can be such a mindfield (mine field I meant to write) as you surely know. However, I felt you called a body part by the proper name for each of the circumstances This is proof of how your ability to explore language, and your path, is so close to others' needs and desires of how others also wish to use language. [I am sure Jane will find some of the words chosen less than ideal, as I will when I reread myself, but I am pleased that up to page 90, at least, my varied choice of words – or adopted words, or newly coined words – for the male and female private parts has her approval.]

 ?? My one and only critique of your book is that it is too heavy to read one-handed. Thank goodness your fonts are large enough that one can continue to read, up to a certain point, even when it is jiggling. Perhaps you should wrap your book in a towel? What a great idea for gift giving. And I will be giving your book as a gift to friends and lovers – of life. ?? What a pillow book! You can open it at any page and be instantly engaged. . .  [While there is a touch of dirty in all erotic, all that is dirty is not erotic, as will become clear from some chapters my kind correspondent has not yet come to. But, I must not be churlish. I am delighted to learn that my translations are good enough to turn on even one reader.]

I knew you needed to hear at least first impressions. I was eager for you to hear all the praise Werner and I have been giving you. He read in "his" copy and came downstairs exclaiming, "Unglaublich! Fantastish! Einmalig! Genius!" [For those who, like the author, do not know German, the first and third word mean "unbelievable" and "impossible."]   one-of-a-kind, the first, the only, \o/ [You, see, I really don't know German!]

The above is okay for web publishing. If you wish to use any of my  letter in ink, please stay with your original strikethrough with the removal of all the ??   ?? materials. I trust your judgment. [I admire Jane's gutsy sanity in a world that is mostly bipolar about sex: prissy+pornographic. Please do not print the part between ?? marks.]