Misuzu Kaneko

Shell of Moon and Sun Poems by Misuzu Kaneko: translated by Yukari Meldrum and Alice Major

Kaneko Misuzu was born in 1903 and died tragically young at the age of 26. In her short career as a poet, she wrote 512 children's poems. Not all of them were published during her lifetime, but in 1983, a children's literature scholar discovered one set of the three notebooks that had been given to Misuzu's brother who kept them over 50 years. Now, Misuzu's poems are loved by Japanese readers regardless of their age. Alice Major and Yukari Meldrum, two poets in Edmonton, Alberta, spent a number of afternoons trying to polish the translations that Meldrum had done in order to bring the beauty of Misuzu's poems.