April is here and that means National Poetry Month is here! Today we are sharing a new poetry book with you all about cats!! It is a book full of haiku about cats. If you don't know what a haiku is, it is a Japanese poem. The book for today is Japanese Haiku for Cat Lovers complied and illustrated by Manda and translated and introduced by William Scott Wilson. This is a perfect book for cat lovers as well as poetry lovers!
About the Book:A lyrical celebration of cats through the timeless beauty of Japanese haiku and brush art.
This beautifully illustrated volume presents 82 cat-themed haiku by Japan's most celebrated poets—including Basho, Issa, Shiki, Buson, Soseki and many others.
Beautifully compiled and illustrated by award-winning artst Manda, and translated by bestselling author William Scott Wilson, this collection pairs classic verse with evocative artwork.
Free audio recordings of each haiku in both English and Japanese are available online.
The passing year!
The cat hunches down
on my lap.
—NATSUME SOSEKI
A night of frost;
opening the window to the cries
of an abandoned cat.
—ISSA
This charming edition makes a perfect gift for poetry lovers, cat enthusiasts and anyone captivated by the austere beauty of haiku.
From Me:
This is a fun book that gathers haiku about cats and puts it in one place. The haiku are written in both English and Japanese. As haiku are typically short all of these are. They are about different activities and characteristics of cats. Typically, a haiku has five syllables in the first line, seven in the second and five in the third. The English translation of these haiku does not follow this. If using this book in a classroom setting it could be an interesting discussion as to why.
The haiku are fun and interesting to read but what I liked the most was the introduction. It shared a bit of the history of cats in Japan and cats in the Japanese culture. It also introduces the idea of a cat haiku and the most common poet in the book, Issa. The illustrations throughout the book are also beautiful and share a bit of Japanese style art.
This book makes the perfect gift for cat lovers everywhere! It is also the perfect Mother's Day or Father's Day gift for those cat parents in your life! It is an interesting introduction to Japanese poetry and Japanese culture for a class as well. Or it is the perfect book to read a bit of poetry for National Poetry Month!
