Translations by Toshio Kimura,
Mike Davey, Tosh Ruwhiu, Artūras
Šilanskas, Marianna Lázár, Judit Vihar,
Dietmar Tauchner, Petar Tchouhov,
Toni Piccini, Glyn Strange, Cristina
Fonollosa and Manuel García Verdecia.
In Transit is a collection of haiku inspired by my travels. I keep a notebook in my pocket everywhere I go and these are like sketches of the places I’ve been. The translators are friends that I met on my journeys and all are excellent poets. My intentions for this book were to showcase these poems, but when I returned home from Europe in 2010 the earth shook and changed my worldview.
On September 4th 2010 at 4.35am Canterbury, in the South Island of New Zealand, experienced a 7.1 magnitude earthquake and there have been thousands of aftershocks since. The tragic events of February 22nd changed our city forever and the loss of life magnified the damage to our buildings as well as our spirits. Two weeks later the terrible tsunami and earthquake in Japan was devastating beyond belief, but also humbling to see how the Japanese continued to retain their dignity, despite the overwhelming destruction.
The latest big aftershock in Christchurch was on my birthday, June 13th. I feel a kind of kinship between New Zealand and Japan after we have shared in these experiences and have decided to dedicate and donate all sales of this book to earthquake relief in both countries. This will be my birthday gift and I plan to celebrate with my Japanese friends at the 2nd Tokyo International Poetry Festival.
Kia kaha,
Doc Drumheller
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