Frank Watson is our guest today. He is the editor of The dVerse Anthology released earlier this month. Tell us about yourself, Frank.
I’m 38-years-old and living in New York, after spending the first 25 years of my life around Los Angeles, California. I first developed a love for poetry in college and wrote some that was published in the college’s literary journal, but then didn’t write for a long time as I pursued a business career that led me to Chicago and then New York. From college until around 27, I almost exclusively read business books, in particular, those that were finance and investment oriented.
As I became more steadied on my career path, I began to feel the need to reignite my creativity and intellectual stimulation that I had enjoyed earlier in my life. I had always been fascinated with history and international culture, having been a history and economics dual major in college, so I decided to study Japanese, which I developed to an intermediate level. This means I could read with the help of a dictionary and have conversations in broken Japanese with native speakers. After that, I studied a little Chinese, but never developed the spoken proficiency I have in Japanese, though I can read a good portion of the poems as many characters are similar to those in Japanese. I’ve also dabbled a bit in many other languages, but never became fluent in anything but English.
How long did it take you to learn Japanese? Have you ever been to Japan?
It took about two years to speak Japanese at a basic level. I actually went to Japan for the first time after two years of studying and found myself pleasantly surprised to be able to have a fairly long conversation in Japanese with a staff member of the traditional inn I was staying at. When I stopped people and asked directions they could actually understand me, though with some trouble. Unlike in Europe, many Japanese do not feel comfortable with spoken English. Of course, my vocabulary is limited and my grammar is poor.
Only in Japanese, though. Below are some examples of Frank’s poetry.
| she spoke but the mask wrapped so tight that no one heard |
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| she did not want to face the sky but it came down anyway |
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| she dreamed of snow, he dreamed of beach— a peaceful glow they could not reach |
| on a night when everyone is dancing a lone woman prays |
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| as time folds everything else folds with it |
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| I tried to swim away but the undertow of her kiss compelled me to stay |
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| I pray in secret And somehow, somewhere, I am heard |
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| she drinks the sweet acid of his words until he corrodes her soul |
Have you always written poetry?
About three years ago I realized that something was still missing in my life and as I thought about what it was, I remembered that I had always wanted to be a writer and poetry was the most natural thing for me to write. Despite all the other pursuits over the years, I had always read poetry–much more so than fiction, for example. I started a blog, Follow the Blue Flute, and a Twitter account and began writing haiku and other poems. As haiku was the most fascinating form to me, I started translating Basho.
Then I learned about the HyakuninIsshu, a classic anthology of five-line tanka poems, and ended up translating the whole volume and publishing it in a book, which I called One Hundred Leaves. At the same time, I learned about the many talented poets writing on Twitter and dVerse and created my first anthology, Fragments. After reading more of the work of the poets on dVerse, I felt that there were many amazingly talented poets out there just as good as any I’d read in contemporary poetry books, so I approached Brian and Claudia with the idea of The dVerse Anthology to showcase them.
We are so glad you did.
After translating hundreds of poems, I felt inspired to focus my effort on creating original poetry, most of which takes the form of haiku, tanka, and other micropoetry that I post on my Twitter account, @FollowBlueFlute. The instant feedback is both gratifying and useful and I have a lot of fun participating in back-and-forth poetic exchanges with other poets, where I write a haiku and they respond with their own haiku, and so on. Sometimes we get several different people creating a long chain of haiku. This is a modification of a traditional Japanese back-and-forth poetry game called renga.
What’s your favorite kind of music?
I listen to jazz all day long on Pandora while at work…. intermixed with a little classical, pop, and oldies.
Any other hobbies or interests you’d like to share?
I also like live jazz, traveling, learning foreign languages, art, movies, silly comedy, hiking the trails of national parks, Central Park, the beauty of the Grand Canyon, Mad Men, rugby, and anything martial arts (UFC, boxing, kung fu, karate, jiujitsu, tai chi, etc.). Oh, and Belgian beers. Did I mention jazz? 😛
What are your plans and aspirations concerning poetry, Frank?
My near term poetry goals are to publish a collection of my work and edit the dVerse Anthology again next year. I am also planning on inviting 2-3 poets to publish their collections with the publishing firm I started, Plum White Press LLC. “Plum White” is the literal translation of the name of the classic Chinese poet, Li Bai (李白).
Here is an announcement hot off the press.
I just launched a new poetry magazine called Poetry Nook Magazine, which I hope will be monthly, depending on the amount of quality content submitted.
If you’re interested in submitting, there is more information and submission
guidelines here: https://poetrynook.submittable.com/submit
Simultaneous submissions and prior publication (with credit) is acceptable. Any form or free verse is also acceptable. Any length is acceptable, from a one line to five pages. For those of you who do art, there is an option for art submissions, where you can also submit haiga (the combination of a picture with a haiku).
Accepted poems will also be eligible for the next anthology I puttogether. I was very happy with the quality of work submitted for ThedVerseAnthology and hope to have another forum to showcase the poets’ work on anongoing basis as well as provide the opportunity to build publicationcredit.
If you’d like a copy of The dVerse Anthology, it is widely available. Here is the description, followed by links to order paperback and/or Kindle worldwide.
From America to Nigeria, Germany to Malaysia, and all around the world. One voice in the dark joins another, then another. Soon there is a chorus of voices and the night comes alive. No two voices are the same and each adds depth to the song. Soon it spreads and people in the next town are singing, then in the next country, and then in all the continents of the world. Different languages where the words don’t sound the same, but the heart unites as one. The song is not just the one you hear, but the one that plays “connect the dots” along the veins in your arm—as you inhale and—join in.
Explore the world of contemporary poetry through the eyes and words of over ninety poets from around the world. Drawn primarily from the poets contributing to dVersePoets.com, The dVerse Anthology features the unique voices and styles of poets as they delve into topics as varied as love, family, travel, conflict, loss, and much more. Take a peek and see what the poets have to offer about the pulse of life in modern society.
Paperback & KindleAvailability:
The dVerse Anthology: Voices of Contemporary WorldPoetry (Amazon US)
The dVerse Anthology: Voices of Contemporary WorldPoetry (Amazon UK)
The dVerse Anthology: Voices of Contemporary WorldPoetry (Amazon France)
The dVerse Anthology: Voices of Contemporary World Poetry (Amazon Germany)
The dVerse Anthology: Voices of Contemporary WorldPoetry (Amazon Spain)
The dVerse Anthology: Voices of Contemporary WorldPoetry (Amazon Italy)
Kindle-Only Availability:
The dVerse Anthology: Voices of Contemporary WorldPoetry (Amazon India)
The dVerse Anthology: Voices of Contemporary WorldPoetry (Amazon Japan)
The dVerse Anthology: Voices of Contemporary WorldPoetry (Amazon Brazil)
The dVerse Anthology: Voices of Contemporary WorldPoetry (Amazon Canada)
We appreciate all you do, Frank, and look forward to what’s next! If any of you have questions for Frank, feel free to ask them in the comments.
dVerse 
Thanks Laurie for another great interview – and to Frank for his answers, his openness and all his work on the Anthology. The poetry magazine looks like an interesting venture too – I might have something to submit in due time.
Your welcome.
this is a clear, refreshing interview. thank you, Laurie. Frank- I am among the many who appreciate your concentrated efforts towards the dVerse Anthology, and I look forward to reading Poetry Nook Magazine!
Me, too.
woohoo… wonderful to see frank in the pub tonite… ah…i had the pleasure to meet him in person a while ago… twice actually… ha… i really appreciate the work you put into the dVerse anthology frank.. you did a wonderful job and also excited about that new mag you started… way to go… a wonderful interview laurie!!
How lucky to have met another poet from dVerse.
Thank you for the lovely interview of Frank Laurie ~ I am excited about the new magazine project you have launched and can’t wait for the upcoming D’verse Anthology 2012. I have always admired your Japanese and Chinese translated poems and wondered how proficient you were in these languages. I have studied Nihonggo for a year and gave up, and never attempted Chinese as it is very complicated. My question is do you have your translated work reviewed by someone to make sure the original meaning is still retained? Thanks for all your hard work on the D’verse Anthology.
oops, I meant for 2014
hehe… I do that sometimes, too… time flies by so fast
For the book I published, One Hundred Leaves, I did it mainly on my own, but I had a native speaker familiar with classic Japanese poetry review it. He pointed out several pronunciation errors and a few mismatches between the pictures and the poems (the pictures correspond to the poems). The translations themselves were pretty accurate because I double-checked with several other translations and because there is a lot of room for interpretation in many of them, so there is usually not one correct translation.
With the Chinese poems, most of the ones I’ve done so far have been on my own, but recently I found someone to provide notes for the characters whose meaning would not be accurately reflected in a dictionary. Chinese poems are actually much easier to translate than Japanese poems because the grammar is simple and you can look up all the characters and words in a dictionary. The complicated part is historical allusions, cultural context, archaic words, etc.
For the Manyoshu, a native speaker is helping me with a literal translation because the poems are so archaic and the translation limited, so I can’t do it on my own.
On the other hand, my goal is not to create a perfectly accurate academic translation; I’m trying to make a poem based on a classic poem and brought to life in English. In fact, the more I translate, the more I feel that a literal translation does not bring out the life in the original. In other words, it is hopeless to recreate the sound, life, and meaning of a poem in English, so you have to decide what is the most important aspect that you want to emphasize. I’ve come more into the camp of emphasizing the life of the poem–using its imagery, concepts, way of thinking, etc., but essentially creating a new poem in English.
I agree, its more than just translating the words but also creating your own unique response and voice ~
Thank you for the response Frank ~
That is so true and I go by this principal when I rewrite and retell Malay Hikayat legends. Literal translation kills nuances so you really have to study the context the originals were written in.
How interesting Ninot ~ Now I wish I was more serious about speaking/learning Spanish as I want to read the original works by Pablo Neruda. Lovely to see you here ~
I love Pablo Neruda’s poetry. Just reading it aloud in Spanish sounds nice even if you can’t understand the words. Well worth learning enough Spanish just to appreciate a dual language book of his poetry, especially 100 Love Sonnets.
Yes, I have been mulling over if I should buy only the English translated ones or buy with both Spanish and English verses ~ Thanks for the suggestion Frank ~
Such a good interview, Laurie, and now I have a new appreciation for Frank. The dVerse Anthology is great. I sent a copy to my 92 year old Mom (who has dementia). Her caregiver said she read it all day. Don’t know how much she grasped, but she seemed happy. And I love Japanese poetry form.
Aww, that’s sweet. I’m glad she enjoyed it.
That’s lovely, I’m so happy to hear it!
Your Haiku are exceptionally poignant, Frank. And the anthology you made is exceptionally well done from the feel of the paper to margins and size of type and content and order and thus it provides added pleasure to this reader. Thanks, Laurie, for inviting Frank back.
Yes, the anthology is exceptional. Thanks for stopping by, Susan.
Thank you, Susan!
A big thank you to Frank for putting up with me!
My love of poetry has been rekindled lately and my introduction to dVerse and the dVerse Anthology has been a real pleasure. Really enjoyed learning more about Frank, his journey and loves. Great interview.
Hope to see you sharing in D’verse one time Kathryn ~ Lovely to see you here ~
Hi, Kathryn… hope to see you link up tomorrow night for OLN.
Thank you, Laurie, for all your hard work in putting this interview together!
Your welcome… I enjoy doing it.
Loved this interview and getting to know Frank a better. It was a pleasure working with you Frank on dVerse Anthology and look towards many years of poetry collaborations!
You have inspired me. I might try translating French poetry one day…
I did learn Katakana at one time, and could sing along to Mayumi Itsuwa’s songs reading the lyrics in Japanese…sadly I never pursued it. My late grandfather could speak Japanese quite fluently, being a teacher during WWII.
Thank you Laurie!
Frank is an inspiration, isn’t he? Very intelligent.
hey i met this guy…smiles….very cool interview you two…sorry i got mired down at work and i am showing up late…frank you did a great job on the anthology and it is a ton of work as well….saw your new mag the other day…very cool…and thanks for inviting us to submit as well….
you def do some amazing stuff with translation as well…
Hope you have a good week, Brian.
Frank, I have a confession to make: for a while I thought you were the author of another blog I was following featuring translations of Hyakunin Isshu
http://100poets.wordpress.com/about/
But I’ve now had a proper look at all the links and realised that it must be someone else. Well done on braving a translation from Japanese – I studied Japanese at university a long time ago, but find it very hard to read things in the original.
Exciting to hear about all your editing, translation and writing work. I love these interviews and finding out more about each of the names that I come across weekly.
What an inspiration… maybe translating some Swedish poetry one day.. there are so much poetry that could inspire and inflame our souls. I just placed an order for the anthology.
Cool!
Goodness, Frank, I thought you were much older! You seem to have done so much and to be so wise about matters poetic. Very interesting interview. Thanks to you and Laurie. 🙂
Coming in late after working the weekend, sorry!
How interesting to learn the path that Frank has followed finally brought him full-circle, from college writing, through business career and back to the amazing writing he does now. Frank, I follow you on Twitter and would love to learn more about the type of Haiku you write. It is different than the 5-7-5 syllable count that we all seem to learn to begin with, and the lack of that specific structure seems to make the flow softer, more natural. Have read some lovely pieces from you.
Again, I extend my sincerest thanks for bringing Anthology to fruition. You did a fantastic job compiling it, no easy task I’m sure with the number of submissions! Will look forward to the next one, and to checking out the new magazine!
All the best!
Thank you, Ginny! People are most familiar with 5-7-5 haiku, which is a parallel to the syllable count in Japanese (there are actually slight technical variations–Basho wrote haiku of greater than 17 syllables–but it’s a good approximation). However, in general Japanese words have more syllables than the equivalent in English, so translators and English haiku writers found that following the 5-7-5 form leads to a wordier English poem than the equivalent in Japanese. As a result, most published English haiku now contains fewer syllables than the 17 syllables in a Japanese haiku. Likewise, most English tanka contains fewer than the 31 syllables in a Japanese tanka. This takes into account more appropriately the difference in language structure between Japanese and English.
Another way to look at it is that a typical Japanese haiku contains 5-6 substantive words plus some grammatical particles. If you look at a haiku for its substantive content rather than its syllable content, what is important is the singular focus on an image and the contrast or cutting word that adds meaning to the image. You’re trying to convey a poetic idea in only 5-6 verbs & nouns, plus whatever grammar and particles you need to make it work in English. I don’t actually count the words or syllables, but generally follow the principle of 1-3 substantive words per line, try to make the image as sharp as possible, and try to have a contrast that adds meaning to the image.
If you really want to get technical about it, a haiku focuses on something from nature whereas a senryu focuses on something related to humans or emotions. Otherwise, they follow the same structure. Out of convenience, I call everything a haiku.
This Wikipedia page has more details on how poets have approached haiku in English: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku_in_English
Yes, when your youth was revealed is was a surprise. You are so very accomplished for a youngster. Loved the interview. Laurie always does a super job at moderating & facilitating them. Your third Anthology sounds promising; hope dverse does the promo on it too, so that we can do some submissions to you. I tried to submit a poem to the POETRY NOOK link-up, but it does not accept documents from Pages on a Mac, I guess. I emailed you with the particulars & the fuss.
Thanks Laurie, great interview! I really enjoy your work Frank, and I enjoyed getting to read more about your writing journey. Haiku is one of my poetry first loves too. The dVerse Anthology turned out amazing! Thanks for such a great opportunity and all the hard work you’ve invested. Looking forward to the upcoming endeavors!