Jun Fujita - Tanka: Poems of Exile

A sudden caw, lost in the air,
Leaves the hillside to the autumn sun;
Save a leaf or two curling
Not a sound is here.

Jun Fujita saw tanka as the perfect way to express “a fine and illusive mood, big enough to illuminate the infinity of the universe”. His tanka describe the city seen by an outsider, memorialise the lost home and family of an exile, and describe the solace that loneliness can find in nature. This book features all of his published tanka, as well as his earlier imagistic verse.