A review by storyoflife
The Poems of Nakahara Chuya by Chūya Nakahara

dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

i have never widmet myself to a collection of poems as such. And i do not regret this to have been my first. 
The household name that is Nakahara Chuuya peaked my interest first, when I watched and read a lot about the japanese names that were used for characters in the series Bungou Stray Dogs. The character called Nakahara there was one of my favorites then and when I started looking into the famous geniuses behind these names i wanted to start with this Nakahara.

I think the context the book gives in the foreword is most important to understand the meaningful connection Nakahara Chuuyas life has with his poems and the topics he writes about, like the death of his child(ren) and one sided love. I notice with humour that the seasons and mornings and evenings are the most likely topics and titles for his poems, but i enjoyed them as much as did the other -nothing felt repetitive.

The emotions, humour, melancholy and imagery he displays in his work are beyond beautiful and i could connect with lots of his poems because of these aspects. 
I would be remiss to not seek out more of Japans poetry.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death