Arakawa, youji

Born in the town of Mikuni , Fukui Prefecture. He graduated from the philological department of Waseda University . He began to write poetry at school. The first collection of poems “On the Life of Selling Women” (1971) was published on his own money, while still a student. Published in 1975, the Marine Station collection was awarded the H Prize (the unspoken analogue of the Akutagawa Prize for poets). Also known as an essayist and connoisseur of modern Japanese literature. For a long time he taught relevant courses at the University of Osaka and Waseda University.

Arakawa's poetic work and his attitude to literature are emphasized isolated from any currents: he himself occupies a marginal place in the Japanese literary world ( Bundan ). His poetics is a conscious break with the tradition of the previous generation of post-war poets, gravitating to multi-layered metaphors and other literary delights. The last one is opposed by Arakawa, a verbal , balancing on the verge of colloquial speech. He prefers to call himself not a poet, but a writer of genderysy .

Arakawa criticizes the current situation in Japanese literary criticism, characterized by a focus on one poet, Kenji Miyazawa , whom he denies in the central place in Japanese poetry; his crushing reviews of the works of Kenzaburo Oe , Yoriko Shono and other prominent authors are also known.

• 1976 - Prize H for the collection of poems Marine Station
• 1998 - Takami Jun Prize for the collection of poems "Life Path"
• 2000 - Yomiuri Prize for the collection of poems "Elaginus against the sky"
• 2004 - Kodansya Prize for essay authors for the collection of essays "Forgotten Past"
• 2004 - Akivara Prize for the collection of poems "The Secret"
• 2006 - Kobayashi Prize for a collection of literary essays "Actual Issues of Fiction"

• Yoji Arakawa // Voices of things. Post-war Japanese poetry of Gendaysi / Transl. A. Valley. - M .: Rainbow, 1989 .-- S. 202-214. The collection includes poems “Support the branches of a plum tree”, “Bartok’s face”, “Why not try?”, “Road-ways”, “From grandfather to grandson”, “Tokyo story”, “Missing you,” “About the southern sky” , "Blue-eyed winter", "Meet the sunrise."

• Yoji Arakawa // Strange wind. Contemporary Japanese poetry / Per. I. Motobryvtseva. - M .: Foreigner, 2003 .-- S. 58—72. - ISBN 5941451660 . . The collection includes poems “Kyrgyz awl”, “Part of a musical work”, “Among the Mitsuke greenery”, “Propping up the plum”, “Life”, “The finished symphony”.

Poetry collections

• “On Corrupt Women” (娼婦 論, 1971 )
• Maritime Station (水 駅, 1975 )
• The Haribara (針 原, 1982 )
• “The color of sleep in a moral society” (倫理 社会 は 夢 の 色, 1984 )
• The Heroine (ヒ ロ イ ン, 1986 )
• The Holmes Machine (ホ ー ム ズ の 車, 1987 )
• Campulung Comedy (笑 う ク ン プ ル ン グ, 1991 )
• “The miner turned on the light” (坑 夫 ト ッ チ ル は 電 気 を つ け た, 1994 )
• The Life Path (»世, 1997 )
• “Elaginus against the sky” (空中 の 茱萸, 1999 )
• The Secret (心理, 2005 )
• “The Double Star Before Your Eyes” (実 視 連 星, 2009 )

Selected Essay Collections

• “Calling from the Abyss of IQ ” (ア イ ・ キ ュ ー の 淵 よ り, 1979 )
• “Variations on the analysis of poems” (詩論 の バ リ エ ー シ ョ ン, 1989 )
• “Introduction to Secular Life” (世間 入門, 1992 )
• “I love literature” (文学 が 好 き, 2001 )
• The Forgotten Past (忘 れ ら れ る 過去, 2003 )
• “Poetry and the word” (詩 と こ と ば, 2004 )
• “Actual issues of fiction” (文 芸 時評 と い う 感想, 2005 )
• “Introduction to Literature” (文学 の 門, 2009 )

• Selected Poems (Japanese)