Conratulatory messages 祝辞
In former centuries and in some countries even today, poetry, music compositions and painting by woman was not allowed. Fortunately, in many countries things have changed and we nowadays can enjoy excellent female poetry such as written by internationally known female poets like Gioconda Belli, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Anna Akhmatova, Ingeborg Bachmann, Margaret Atwood etc. But the situation can still be improved.
The publication of the book Arouse the Wind, Goddesses, a selection of poem by 34 contemporary female poets from all over the world, published by poet-editor Mariko Sumikura, organized by poet-translator Taeko Uemura is therefore most important and laudable. The book contains excellent poetry from Albania, Armenia, China, Denmark, England, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Norway, Romania and Spain. It is unique publication of contemporary international female poetry which surely will fascinate every lover of poetry. I warmly recommend the book, recently published by JUNPA, Kyoto and available at Amazon kindle.
Germain Droogenbroodt
起こせ今、女神の風！
過去数世紀、そして現在でも一部の国では、女性による詩、音楽作曲、絵画は認められていません。幸いなことに、多くの国で状況は変わり、今日ではジョコンダ・ベッリ、シルヴィア・プラス、エミリー・ディキンソン、アンナ・アフマートヴァ、インゲボルグ・バッハマン、マーガレット・アトウッドなど、国際的に知られる女性詩人による優れた女性詩を楽しむことができます。しかし、状況はまだ改善の余地があります。
詩人で編集者のJUNPA理事すみくらまりこが翻訳し、詩人でJUNPA理事の上村多恵子が編集した、世界中の現代女性詩人34人の詩を収録した本「起こせ今、女神の風！」の出版は、したがって、非常に重要で賞賛に値します。この本には、アルバニア、アルメニア、中国、韓国、デンマーク、イギリス、インド、インドネシア、イスラエル、イタリア、日本、ノルウェー、ルーマニア、スペイン、ギリシャ、アメリカ、アルバニア、トルコ、エストニアの優れた詩が収められています。これは、現代国際女性詩集のユニークな刊行物であり、詩を愛するすべての人を魅了することでしょう。京都の JUNPA から１月１５日に出版され、アマゾンkindleで入手できるこの本を心からお勧めします。
ジャーメイン・ドルーゲンブロート JUNPA創設者
Short reflection on World Poetess Anthology "Arouse the Wind, Goddesses" (Kyoto, JUNPA, 2024)
My last long travel as a poet and scholar was at the start of 2020 to Kyoto, Japan, where I was hosted by the Japan Universal Poets Association, JUNPA, and above all by two outstanding Japanese and world poets, Mariko Sumikura and Taeko Uemura. They have become true ambassadors of contemporary Japanese poetic culture in the Western part of the world. (I met them personally for the first time in Como, Italy, in 2015; in 2019 they were participants of a literature festival in Tartu).
I returned from Kyoto via Riga, the capital city of Latvia, to my home town Tartu by bus. A little later it appeared in the news that by the same bus a first person infected with Covid-19 virus had arrived in Estonia, an Iranian man on his way to visit the Estonian capital city, Tallinn. It was on February 26, 2020.
The virus was feared as a plague, a pandemic. Indeed, first it seemed to be unstoppable. People infected by it massively died and those who had a better fate, for a long time suffered from some consequences of ailment, such as for instance failing bodily equilibrium. Still in the summer of 2022 and at the start of 2023, I myself experienced some of such consequences of Covid-19.
However, that tragedy was immediately continued, as the bodily lack of equilibrium was satanically transformed into a mental lack of equilibrium in groups of men of dictatorial-imperial propensities at the top of some militarily powerful regimes. On February 24, 2022, Russian troops brutally invaded Ukraine. A cruel bloody war broke out there, forcing millions of innocent Ukrainians flee their homes and homeland, while hundreds of thousands of people of a sovereign independent country, Ukraine, as well as of the aggressor Russia itself, died or become invalid...
Until today, that tragedy continues, being in part echoed and imitated by another absurd tragedy, the insane conflict between Israel and Palestine.
A mention of this depressing background can be read in the introduction to the Anthology. Taeko Uemura, the current director of JUNPA, writes: "Once again, we must express human vitality, love and hope for the future, and dreams."
Thus the Anthology has become a call to all poets to oppose the evil forces of today's world. These forces are no longer cleverly hidden, rather, they are bold and arrogant, paranoiac "naked emperors" walking here among us, war criminals and terrorists, still at liberty.
There should no longer be any doubt that merely echoing the heavenly ideal of peace is not enough.
Not long ago I was asked to translate into my native Estonian an extensive poem by the Spaniard Federico García Lorca, "Grito hacia Roma" (Cry Toward Rome), written probably at the end of the 1920s, while the poet visited New York. I very much advise everybody, poets-goddesses and poets-gods, to read that poem. It echoes strongest parallels with our world today, a hundred years later.
The poetic bridge of JUNPA came into life thanks to the fruitful cooperation between Mariko Sumikura, Taeko Uemura and the Belgian poet Germain Droogenbroot. The main bulk of the editing and translating work in the Anthology has been made by Mariko Sumikura. Also, in the preceding long series of Japanese-Western poetic dialogues Mariko's talented and self-denying translation-effort has been essential.
The Anthology is a great honor for the poets-goddesses, nine from Japan and the rest, twenty-five, from many other parts of the West and the East. I am happy that among these eminent women's voices there is one by the Estonian Triin Soomets, twice laureate of the prestigious Juhan Liiv Poetry Prize.
My wish and hope is that this extraordinary achievement above all by Mariko Sumikura will be followed, as a great inspiring example, by many other poets, goddesses and gods. In whatever language such anthologies are made and published, we can be sure that they positively "escalate" and consolidate the morally uncorrupt, healthy nucleus of world literature. However invisibly, our toil spreads humankind's spiritual opposition to evil and violence.
Thank you, dear poets-goddesses and congratulations!
Juri Talvet
JUNPAの詩の架け橋は、すみくらまりこ、上村多恵子、ベルギーの詩人ジャーメイン・ドルーゲンブロートの実りある協力のおかげで誕生しました。この詩集の編集と翻訳の作業の大部分は、すみくらまりこが行いました。また、これに先立つ日本と西洋の詩的対話の長いシリーズにおいても、まりこの才能あふれる自己犠牲的な翻訳の努力は不可欠でした。
この詩集は、日本から 9 名、その他の西洋と東洋の多くの地域から 25 名が参加した、詩人女神たちにとって大きな名誉です。これらの著名な女性の声の中に、権威あるユハン・リーヴ詩賞を 2 度受賞したエストニアのトリイン・スーメッツの声が一編含まれていることを嬉しく思います。
私の願いと希望は、とりわけすみくらまりこのこの並外れた業績が、他の多くの詩人、女神、神々によって、偉大なる刺激的な例として追随されることなのです。このような詩集がどのような言語で作成され出版されるにせよ、世界文学の道徳的に腐敗していない健全な核を積極的に「エスカレート」し、強化することは間違いありません。目に見えない形であれ、私たちの労苦は人類の悪と暴力に対する精神的な反対を広めています。
親愛なる詩人女神たち、ありがとう、そしておめでとうございます！
ユーリ・タルヴェット（エストニア）
Goddess project
女神プロジェクト お知らせ
information
”Goddess Summer 女神の夏”
online reading session
Promotion movie is here. Click 日本語 Japanese
朗読会録画ダイジェスト版 Recording digest version
”Goddess Autumn 女神の秋” online reading session
Promotion movie 日本語
Promotion movie English
October 20, 2024 19:00- (Japan time)
Iuliana Pașca
