HADANO, Kanagawa Prefecture--Poet Taro Aizu is still trying to adjust to his newfound fame overseas.
HADANO, Kanagawa Prefecture--Poet Taro Aizu is still trying to adjust to his newfound fame overseas.
Aizu is the pen name of the native of Fukushima Prefecture, where the nuclear crisis continues to exert a critical impact on people’s lives. His verses that pay homage to Fukushima Prefecture are drawing praise from haiku lovers and other artists around the word.
The 60-year-old resident of Hadano published a collection of poems this spring that lovingly describe his hometown.
Titled “My Fukushima,” the privately printed work contains his poems that have been translated into English, French and other languages. Aizu's Facebook page also promotes his works.
Aizu was born in Aizu-Misato, Fukushima Prefecture, and moved to Tokyo after he graduated from high school. He majored in French literature at university.
He has released a succession of works while teaching English at a high school.
The 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster that transformed local scenery and fertile farmland in the prefecture into a waste zone left him feeling something had been ripped from his soul.
Aizu said his heart ached when he visited the cities of Iwaki and Soma, where many homes were swept away by the towering tsunami and debris remains to be cleared because of the nuclear accident triggered by the event.
“It was frustrating as if the hometown in my mind had been destroyed,” he said. “I felt I had to preserve (the scenery of Fukushima) by composing poems based on my feelings for Fukushima.”
Aizu has since been creating haiku and gogyoshi (five-line poetry) featuring common scenes from the four respective seasons in Fukushima Prefecture. He focuses on the rural landscape and people’s feelings for the land they inherited from their ancestors.
“Although (the term Fukushima) is now strongly associated overseas with images of the nuclear crisis, I want to show the true beauty of Fukushima using the power of poetry,” Aizu said.
In January 2012, he began presenting English and French versions of his works on his Facebook account under the title of “My hometown, Fukushima.” His poetry quickly caught the attention of foreign haiku aficionados who translated them into other languages.
One of Aizu’s friends in the Netherlands sent a message praising his works. In the message, the friend said he had never been to Fukushima but was able to imagine beautiful scenery around the time following rice planting when he read Aizu’s poems.
Urged by readers of his poetry, Aizu in March last year released an e-book of his poetry. It was translated into seven languages with the help of friends from Germany, Italy and Spain.
The key poem in the book praises the “takizakura” weeping higan cherry tree in Miharu, Fukushima Prefecture, that is a government-designated natural monument. It is believed to be over 1,000 years old and regarded as one of the three prominent cherry trees of Japan.
In English, the poem goes:
We'll sing a song
And dance again
Around the blossoms
In our hometown,
Fukushima, Fukushima.
The five-line poem was translated into 35 languages, including Mongolian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Turkish, Arabic, Ukrainian and Russian. All the translated versions of the work are included in the book.
“I felt the desire to enjoy the beauty of flowers of one’s hometown together with his or her family members and friends is universal,” Aizu said. “My poetry has helped people learn the sorrow of Fukushima, where bonds with nature and families are being lost.”
Inspired by Aizu’s poetry, foreign musicians, painters and photographers overseas have created works featuring his works to express their feelings for Fukushima.
Special exhibitions themed on artworks related to Aizu’s poetry have been held in the Netherlands and Germany. Additional exhibits are scheduled to be held in Portugal in October and in France in February next year.
“I did not imagine my works would spread across the world and win people’s sympathy to such an extent,” Aizu said. “I will continue presenting the situation surrounding Fukushima.”