For the Fighting Spirit of the Walnut (New Directions Paperbook)

Winner of a PEN Translation Fund Award: A lyrical, supercharged, dizzying collection in a unique bilingual format: like two halves of the walnut, the English text meets the Japanese half way.

The radiant subway. The wall that clears up, endless. A thundering prayer of steel that fastens together the days, a brush of cloud hanging upon it, O beginning, it is there—your nest. Thus the keynotes of Hiraide's utterly original book-length poem unfold—a mix of narrative, autobiography, minute scientific observations, poetics, rhetorical experiments, hyper-realistic images, and playful linguistic subversions—all scored with the precision of a mathematical-musical structure.