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Strong in the Rain: Selected Poems
Kenji Miyazawa's magical tales have been translated into many languages, adapted for the stage and turned into films and animations. 'Strong In the Rain', the title-poem of this collection, is now arguably the most memorised and quoted modern poem in Japan.
128 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 2007
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1045 people want to read
About the author
Kenji Miyazawa
985 books335 followersHis name is written as 宮沢賢治 in Japanese, and translated as 宮澤賢治 in Traditional Chinese.
Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933) was born in Iwate, one of the northernmost prefectures in Japan. In high school, he studied Zen Buddhism and developed a lifelong devotion to the Lotus Sutra, a major influence on his writing. After graduating from an agricultural college, he moved to Tokyo to begin his writing career but had to return home to care for a sick sister. He remained in his home in Iwate for the rest of his life. One of his best-known works is the novel Night on the Galactic Railroad, which was adapted into anime in the late twentieth century, as were many of his short stories. Much of his poetry is still popular in Japan today.
Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933) was born in Iwate, one of the northernmost prefectures in Japan. In high school, he studied Zen Buddhism and developed a lifelong devotion to the Lotus Sutra, a major influence on his writing. After graduating from an agricultural college, he moved to Tokyo to begin his writing career but had to return home to care for a sick sister. He remained in his home in Iwate for the rest of his life. One of his best-known works is the novel Night on the Galactic Railroad, which was adapted into anime in the late twentieth century, as were many of his short stories. Much of his poetry is still popular in Japan today.
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July 13, 2017
Kenzi Miyazawa died in 1933 of tuberculosis. Only 37, he was known only slightly as writer in his lifetime, primarily for his stories for children (in fact, this is how I myself first encountered him, with Night of the Milky Way Railway). Today he is considered one of the greatest Japanese poets of his generation, although, unusually, his recognition came through media and popular attention rather than the Bundan literary establishment.
A devout Nichiren Buddhist, Miyazawa almost entirely avoids the sexual and romantic themes that were prevalent in the poetry of the time. His writing is centered on the natural world, using nature themes even when discussing social and political ideas.
Politicians
They're just a bunch of scaremongers
Raising alarm wherever they can
And drinking their fill all the while
fern fronds and clouds
the world is that cold and dark
But before they know it
These fellows
Rot all on their own
Are washed away by the rains all on their own
Leaving nothing but silent blue ferms
The some lucid geologist will come along and put this on record
As the Carboniferous Age of man
His posture in the cover photo by Oshiima Hiroshi seems to have been characteristic, which makes sense given how many poems are about him walking outside and thinking.
Another significant influence on his writing was the early (age 24) death of his favorite sister, Toshi, also from tuberculosis. Miyazawa wrote several poems about her death, and also some in which her voice speaks to him from the woods. This one is one of his best known, after the titular poem.
THE MORNING OF LAST FAREWELL
O my little sister
Who will travel far on this day
It is sleeting outside and strangely light
(fetch me the rainlike snow)
The sleet sloshing down
Out of pale red clouds cruel and gloomy
(fetch me the rainlike snow)
I shot out into the midst of this black sleet
A bent bullet
To gather the rainlike snow for you to eat
In two chipped ceramic bowls
Decorated with blue watersheds
(fetch me the rainlike snow)
The sleet sloshes down, sinking
Out of sombre clouds the color of bismuth
O Toshiko
You asked me for a bowl
Of this refreshing snow
When you were on the point of death
To brighten my life for ever
Thank you my brave little sister
I too will not waver from my path
(fetch me the rainlike snow)
You made your request to me
Amidst gasping and the intensest fever
For the last bowl of snow given off
By the world of the sky called the atmosphere the galaxy and sun
The sleet, desolate, collects
On two large fragments of granite blocks
I will stand precariously on them
And fetch the large morsels of food
for my sweet and tender sister
Off this lustrous pine branch
Covered with transparent cold droplets
Holding the purewhite dual properties of water and snow
Now today you will part for ever
With the deep blue pattern on these bowls
So familiar to us as we grew up together
(I go as I go by myself)
You are truly bidding farewell on this day
O my brave little sister
Burning pale white and gentle
In the dark screens and mosquito net
Of your stifling sickroom
This snow is so white everywhere
No matter where you take it from
This exquisite snow has come
From such a terrifying and disarranged sky
(when I am born again
I will be born to suffer
Not only on my own account)
I now will pray with all my heart
That the snow you will eat from these two bowls
Will be transformed into heaven's ice-cream
And be offered to you and everyone as material that will be holy
On this wish I stake my very happiness.
I happened across a German translation of this poem (I'm guessing translated from the English above rather than the Japanese) by Anja Greeb, so I'm adding it for any readers who prefer that language.
Since I know hardly any Japanese and haven't heard the poem read aloud (Hey, wouldn't it be a great idea to package translated poetry volumes with recordings of the poems read in the original language? Do publishers ever do that?) I can't address how accurate the translations are. I would guess that the sound is pretty dissimilar and that Pulvers was going for meaning.
Here is a painting inspired by his poems:
"The Forest" by Yuji Kobayashi, 2011
The titular poem "Strong in the Rain" comes last in this collection, so I will end my review with it.
A devout Nichiren Buddhist, Miyazawa almost entirely avoids the sexual and romantic themes that were prevalent in the poetry of the time. His writing is centered on the natural world, using nature themes even when discussing social and political ideas.
Politicians
They're just a bunch of scaremongers
Raising alarm wherever they can
And drinking their fill all the while
fern fronds and clouds
the world is that cold and dark
But before they know it
These fellows
Rot all on their own
Are washed away by the rains all on their own
Leaving nothing but silent blue ferms
The some lucid geologist will come along and put this on record
As the Carboniferous Age of man
His posture in the cover photo by Oshiima Hiroshi seems to have been characteristic, which makes sense given how many poems are about him walking outside and thinking.
Another significant influence on his writing was the early (age 24) death of his favorite sister, Toshi, also from tuberculosis. Miyazawa wrote several poems about her death, and also some in which her voice speaks to him from the woods. This one is one of his best known, after the titular poem.
THE MORNING OF LAST FAREWELL
O my little sister
Who will travel far on this day
It is sleeting outside and strangely light
(fetch me the rainlike snow)
The sleet sloshing down
Out of pale red clouds cruel and gloomy
(fetch me the rainlike snow)
I shot out into the midst of this black sleet
A bent bullet
To gather the rainlike snow for you to eat
In two chipped ceramic bowls
Decorated with blue watersheds
(fetch me the rainlike snow)
The sleet sloshes down, sinking
Out of sombre clouds the color of bismuth
O Toshiko
You asked me for a bowl
Of this refreshing snow
When you were on the point of death
To brighten my life for ever
Thank you my brave little sister
I too will not waver from my path
(fetch me the rainlike snow)
You made your request to me
Amidst gasping and the intensest fever
For the last bowl of snow given off
By the world of the sky called the atmosphere the galaxy and sun
The sleet, desolate, collects
On two large fragments of granite blocks
I will stand precariously on them
And fetch the large morsels of food
for my sweet and tender sister
Off this lustrous pine branch
Covered with transparent cold droplets
Holding the purewhite dual properties of water and snow
Now today you will part for ever
With the deep blue pattern on these bowls
So familiar to us as we grew up together
(I go as I go by myself)
You are truly bidding farewell on this day
O my brave little sister
Burning pale white and gentle
In the dark screens and mosquito net
Of your stifling sickroom
This snow is so white everywhere
No matter where you take it from
This exquisite snow has come
From such a terrifying and disarranged sky
(when I am born again
I will be born to suffer
Not only on my own account)
I now will pray with all my heart
That the snow you will eat from these two bowls
Will be transformed into heaven's ice-cream
And be offered to you and everyone as material that will be holy
On this wish I stake my very happiness.
I happened across a German translation of this poem (I'm guessing translated from the English above rather than the Japanese) by Anja Greeb, so I'm adding it for any readers who prefer that language.
Since I know hardly any Japanese and haven't heard the poem read aloud (Hey, wouldn't it be a great idea to package translated poetry volumes with recordings of the poems read in the original language? Do publishers ever do that?) I can't address how accurate the translations are. I would guess that the sound is pretty dissimilar and that Pulvers was going for meaning.
Here is a painting inspired by his poems:
"The Forest" by Yuji Kobayashi, 2011
The titular poem "Strong in the Rain" comes last in this collection, so I will end my review with it.
Strong in the rain
Strong in the wind
Strong against the summer heat and snow
He is healthy and robust
Free from desire
He never loses his temper
Nor the quiet smile on his lips
He eats four go of unpolished rice
Miso and a few vegetables a day
He does not consider himself
In whatever occurs . . . his understanding
Comes from observation and experience
And he never loses sight of things
He lives in a little thatched-roof hut
In a field in the shadows of a pine tree grove
If there is a sick child in the east
He goes there to nurse the child
If there's a tired mother in the west
He goes to her and carries her sheaves
If someone is near death in the south
He goes and says, "Don't be afraid"
If there are strife and lawsuits in the north
He demands that the people put an end to their pettiness
He weeps at the time of drought
He plods about at a loss during the cold summer
Everyone calls him Blockhead
No one sings his praises
Or takes him to heart . . .
That is the kind of person
I want to be
July 7, 2019
Introduction, by Roger Pulvers
--Preface to 'Spring and Ashura'
--Stop Working
--Love and the Fever
--Curse of the Lightscape of Spring
--Scenery and a Music Box
--Ippongino
--Departure to a Different Road
--Jealous of the Dawn
--Granddaughter of a Celebrated Buddhist Monk
--Night
--My Heart Now
--The Winds Are Calling by the Front Door
--Speaking with the Eyes
--Now There Is Nowhere to Turn for Money
--Am I Destined to Die Today
--We Lived Together
--Whatever Anyone Says
--Politicians
--If I Cut Through These Woods
--Early Spring Monologue
--The Story of the Zashiki Bokko
--Shouldering the Flowers of the Narcissus
--Around the Time When the Diluvial Period Ended
--Reed Cutter
--In Delirium
--Today Without Fail I
--Ambiguous Argument Concerning Spring Clouds
--Sapporo City
--Smoke
--Spring
--Village Girl
--A Dwelling
--Shadow from the Future Zone
--On the Train
--The Sun and Taichi
--Hill Daze
--Valley
--Mount Iwate
--An Impression
--The Swordsmen's Dance of Haratai
--Pine Needles
--The Morning of Last Farewell
--Burning Desire's Past
--The Sun Sheds Slivers of Topaz
--The Tsugaru Strait
--The Petals of Karma
--An Icy Joke
--January on the Iwate Light Railway
--High Grade Mist
--Cloud Signal
--A Report
--Clearing
--Romance
--Strong in the Rain
Commentary on the Poems
--Preface to 'Spring and Ashura'
--Stop Working
--Love and the Fever
--Curse of the Lightscape of Spring
--Scenery and a Music Box
--Ippongino
--Departure to a Different Road
--Jealous of the Dawn
--Granddaughter of a Celebrated Buddhist Monk
--Night
--My Heart Now
--The Winds Are Calling by the Front Door
--Speaking with the Eyes
--Now There Is Nowhere to Turn for Money
--Am I Destined to Die Today
--We Lived Together
--Whatever Anyone Says
--Politicians
--If I Cut Through These Woods
--Early Spring Monologue
--The Story of the Zashiki Bokko
--Shouldering the Flowers of the Narcissus
--Around the Time When the Diluvial Period Ended
--Reed Cutter
--In Delirium
--Today Without Fail I
--Ambiguous Argument Concerning Spring Clouds
--Sapporo City
--Smoke
--Spring
--Village Girl
--A Dwelling
--Shadow from the Future Zone
--On the Train
--The Sun and Taichi
--Hill Daze
--Valley
--Mount Iwate
--An Impression
--The Swordsmen's Dance of Haratai
--Pine Needles
--The Morning of Last Farewell
--Burning Desire's Past
--The Sun Sheds Slivers of Topaz
--The Tsugaru Strait
--The Petals of Karma
--An Icy Joke
--January on the Iwate Light Railway
--High Grade Mist
--Cloud Signal
--A Report
--Clearing
--Romance
--Strong in the Rain
Commentary on the Poems
September 28, 2021
Even with the commentary on each poem by the (clearly talented & devoted) translator, I don't think I really understood an average of more than 20% of the riches herein. But some poems are more accessible, and gorgeous, even on the surface, and some lines just blew me away.
From Preface to "Spring and Ashura:" "The blue sky was awash with colourless peacocks."
From "Scenery and a Music Box:" "The water is a gently flowing body of glue/ I am prepared to meet my death/ In this excessively lucid landscape."
From "Shouldering the Flowers of the Narcissus:" "Children on their way to school/ Screaming like shrikes/ Burst from the morning sun."
I think I especially admire him because he's not only a poet, not only a man who wants to be the kind of person who is strong in the rain, but he's also a scientist, and there are relevant references to modern physics and to electricity in some of his poems.
I'd love to read more if only I could find his works in my library.
From Preface to "Spring and Ashura:" "The blue sky was awash with colourless peacocks."
From "Scenery and a Music Box:" "The water is a gently flowing body of glue/ I am prepared to meet my death/ In this excessively lucid landscape."
From "Shouldering the Flowers of the Narcissus:" "Children on their way to school/ Screaming like shrikes/ Burst from the morning sun."
I think I especially admire him because he's not only a poet, not only a man who wants to be the kind of person who is strong in the rain, but he's also a scientist, and there are relevant references to modern physics and to electricity in some of his poems.
I'd love to read more if only I could find his works in my library.
December 16, 2023
this was probably the densest collections of poems i’ve read but it was still really good. a lot of reverence was felt within each poem. I feel like there was something so sad yet comforting about these poems like there was a feeling of not being able to put some of these feelings into words but you could still sense what was there
February 2, 2010
Amazing poems about nature - and a few of them about deep love for author´s deceased younger sister (these ones are very sad, but beautiful). I adore it!
Kenji Miyazawa was really great poet.
Kenji Miyazawa was really great poet.
March 4, 2018
I think I'm a fan now...
I read the poems twice to be sure I understood them a bit at least and I only found the commentary after I've read all of them, but they surely have left a great impression...
I read the poems twice to be sure I understood them a bit at least and I only found the commentary after I've read all of them, but they surely have left a great impression...
April 23, 2022
The commentary at the end of the book regarding Kenji Miyazawa's philosophy of thought on consciousness is insightful and might be of interest to scientists and philosophers alike as well as the general reader.
Read
March 16, 2025The sun sheds slivers of topaz
The petals of karma
The petals of karma
June 6, 2016
My head responded to a man whose lives he painted were each and every space of value in a great chain, a great landscape of longings and yearnings, and the occasional achievement.
November 25, 2016
Beautifully strange lyricism.
"Miyazawa Kenji: Selections" might be a better introduction to Kenji's style.
"Miyazawa Kenji: Selections" might be a better introduction to Kenji's style.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews