Translator’s Note These poems are from the Japanese anthology Ogura Hyakunin Isshu 小倉百人一首, which is more simply referred to as Hyakunin Isshu, meaning One Hundred Poets, One Waka Poem Each. It is a work of great literary-historical significance, and remains one of the most widely read and translated Japanese texts today. How can I translate […]

This piece is adapted from the author’s keynote address for the “Empires in Motion: Colonial Diasporas & Cultural Production in the Shadow of the Japanese Empire” Conference held on March 21, 2022, at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. In the address, titled “Poetic Narratives of a Stateless ‘Zainichi Saram,’” Zhong Zhang discusses, among other […]

Originally published in Japanese in the December 2016 issue of Hangro (抗路). Collected in Zhong Zhang’s poetry collection, The Poetry Monument (詩碑, 2017). Reprinted with permission from the author. Read “A Zainichi Poet Reflects on Life as a Stateless Saram (無国籍サラムを生きる在日詩人の想い),” an essay by Zhong Zhang and translated from Japanese by Tanya Barnett, Andre Haag, and […]

This piece is part of the Climate notebook, which features art by Katrina Bello.