**NEW EVENT DATE ANNOUNCED!**
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IJA Japanese Book Club is inviting IJA members to join its first in-person Book Club meeting with Irish poet and writer Nell Regan as our guest speaker.
Date: Saturday 21st September 2024
Time: 2 – 4 PM
Venue: ElectroRoute HQ, 2 Cumberland Place, 3rd Floor, Fenian Street Dublin 2, D02 H0V5 – Google Maps
Registration: This event is free but previous registration is required by Monday, 16th September by email: info@ija.ie or phone: 01-6787008.
Book of the month: A Gap in the Clouds | Japanese 100 poets, translated by James Hadley and Nell Regan.
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Event plan
2 PM – arrival & registration
2.15 PM – welcome words:
- Tsugumi Yamamoto, IJA Vice-Chairperson
- H.E. Mr. Norio Maruyama, Ambassador of Japan to Ireland
2.30 – 3 PM – conversation with Nell Regan about the book ‘百人一首 – 100 poems by 100 poets’, and her work translating it into English with James Hadley.
3 – 3.15 PM – sharing of the book’s contents, discussions, Q&A
3.15 – 4 PM – ‘百人一首’ Card game*, networking & refreshments from Gopan Bakery
* ‘百人一首’ Card game
It is a traditional Japanese card game and involves two types of cards: Yomifuda (reading cards) and Torifuda (grabbing cards). The Yomifuda feature a full poem, while the Torifuda have only the second half of the poem. To play, one person reads out the poem from a Yomifuda card, and players compete to quickly identify and grab the corresponding Torifuda card with the matching second half of the poem. The objective is to collect as many cards as possible. The game is popular during New Year celebrations and is also played competitively, helping players improve their memory and reflexes while also exposing them to traditional Japanese poetry.
About Nell Regan
Nell Regan is an award winning poet, translator and non-fiction writer. She has published three collections of poetry and her biography Helena Molony A Radical Life 1883- 1967 ( Arlen House) was a 2017 Irish Independent Book of the Year. Among her awards are a Patrick and Katherine Kavaangh Fellowship, Arts Council Literature Bursaries and she has been a Fulbright Scholar at UC Berkeley and a Fellow at the Iowa International Writers Programme. Her latest book is A Gap in the Clouds: A New Translation of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu with James Hadley (Dedalus Press, 2021) She is currently working on a new collection How to Destroy A Memorial and her co-translation of the Irish language poetry of Micheál Mac Liammóir, Bláth agus Taibhse: Flower and Ghost will be published by Cló Iar Chonnacht. See also: www.nellregan.com
About the book
“A Gap in the Clouds” is a contemporary translation of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, a revered 13th-century collection of Japanese poems. It brings the elegance and emotional depth of one hundred waka by one hundred poets to modern readers, capturing themes of love, nature, and the transience of life. This translation aims to make the ancient poems accessible, offering insights into traditional Japanese culture and aesthetics while maintaining their lyrical beauty. It serves as a bridge between past and present, inviting a global audience to appreciate the enduring relevance of these poetic works.
You can find the book here:
This event is supported by:
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