The taste of things, I tasted too early

"The Taste of Things, I Tasted Too Soon" is a collection of poems by Ishikawa Takuboku, "Japan's National Poet." Zhou Zuoren's translation is simple and elegant, bringing Ishikawa Takuboku's lonely, passionate, and sensitive heart to life on the page. These crystalline poems by Ishikawa Takuboku are sketches of his state of mind, containing both joyful leaps and bitter tremors. He transformed the things we overlook in life into beautiful and sorrowful existences, reaching directly into people's lonely and fragile hearts.