A Bridge of Words

Prolific, award-winning translator of classical and modern Japanese poetry Hiroaki Sato recorded his thoughts on American society in mainly two columns across 30-plus years, collected here for the first time.

This anthology of over 60 of Sato's commentaries reflects the writer's wide-ranging erudition and his unsentimental views of both his native Japan and his adopted American homeland. Broadly, he looks at the Pacific War and its aftermath, and at war (and our love of it) in general. He also explores the quirks and curiosities of the natural world exhibited by birds and other creatures, reflects on friends and mentors who surprised and inspired, and examines other writers and their works. Many of these are familiar, like the Beats and John Ashbery, but there are others whose introduction is a welcome discovery.

Sato is neither a cheerleader nor an angry expatriate. Remarkably clear-eyed and engaged with American culture, he is in the business of critical appraisal and translation, of taking words seriously, and of observing how well others write and speak to convey their own truths and ambitions.