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Saeko Ogi is a tanka poet and tanka translator. A member of the Araragi-ha Tanka Society in Japan since 2003. Born in Tokyo, has lived in Canberra since 1972. She contributes tanka both written in Japanese and English to tanka periodicals and to anthologies in Japan, Australia and USA, is actively involved in tanka activities; translating, presenting talks in symposiums and facilitating a tanka group in Canberra CJC (Canberra Japan Club) Bluebells Tanka Group that she initiated. In 1998 her friendship with Amelia Fielden with Saeko translating her two poetry and tanka collections: Eucalypts and Iris Streams and Fountains Play, into Japanese. Since then they have kept working on bilingual poetic works. Also in association with Amelia, she translated three tanka collections by Kawano Yūko: Time Passes, The Maternal Line and The Time of This World – 100 Tanka from 13 collections as well as three tanka collections by Tanaka Noriko: Doorway to the Sky, Breast Clouds and From the Middle Country. Other translation works with Amelia are Tanka To Eat, and Poems to Wear – from Japan and Australia. Her tanka, translated from Japanese into English by Amelia Fielden appeared in Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, Volumes 3 and 4. She loves watercolour painting, as well as knitting, playing the piano, Mahjong both in Australian and Japanese rules and Sūdoku.

Two of Australia's most accomplished tanka artists collaborate in this bi-lingual (English / Japanese) collection. Saeko Ogi, whose primary language is Japanese but who is at home in English, and Amelia Fielden, whose primary language is English with wide experience in Japanese, write their tanka, in both languages, in response to those of the other. By linking ideas, suggestions and atmosphere, they give their tanka an interpersonal dimension and a cross-national flavour. The poems are sensitive, delicate and varied. This collection will be a source of enjoyment to the tanka aficionados in both countries, as well as those coming new to the form.

これは、豪州と日本の歌人が綴った短歌アンソロジー。 ８世紀ごろに芽生えた日本の伝統的短詩のスタイル、短歌の形で、それぞれの国独特の自然を謳い、又、それぞれが抱く情緒をそれに託して詠いあげたアンソロジー。 日本の現代人が、この詩形を今なお日常的に楽しみ、又、英語国民が英詩の一つに昇華させたことを知るアンソロジー。 これらの短歌に、読者は未知の自然の姿を発見し、又、思いがけず、両国の人々の共通した感情を知るアンソロジー。 この短歌というスタイルが、短いながら、奥深い余韻を読者の心に響かせるのを知るアンソロジー。 This anthology comprises poems written about the particularities of nature in Australia and Japan, together with the multi-faceted emotions engendered thereby. Japanese people cherish the tanka form as much now as they did in ancient times. And for English-speaking people, this anthology will provide an excellent way of experiencing tanka as English poetry. Composed by poets in Australia and Japanese, the tanka within these pages reveal previously unknown aspects of the natural world, while also enabling mutual understanding of shared feelings between the two countries. They may be brief, but these poems will leave deep reverberations in their readers’ hearts and minds.

Tanka

An anthology of individual tanka, tanka prose and haibun. The thirteen poets are all members of the Canberra-based Limestone Tanka Poets, convened by Kathy Kituai. The tanka feature one of five elements from the Taoist cosmology: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water and these elements form the organising concept for the book. The poems are complemented by original artwork by Deb Faeyrglenn, who responded to the words with her brushwork.