JANE HIRSHFIELD ON

IZUMI SHIKIBU
[Although the wind]

                                                translated by Jane Hirshfield

Although the wind
blows terribly here,
the moonlight also leaks
between the roof planks
of this ruined house.

​Jane Hirshfield, writing “some of the most important poetry in the world today,” according to Naomi Shihab Nye's description in The New York Times, is one of American poetry's central spokespersons for concerns of the biosphere. She explores shared fate and interiority with equal allegiance.  A former Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and the founder of Poets For Science, Hirshfield is the author of nine collections of poetry, including most recently Ledger (Knopf, 2020). Her books have received the Poetry Center Book Award and the California Book Award; The Beauty (2015), was long-listed for the National Book Award and Given Sugar, Given Salt (2001) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.  She's the author also of two now-classic collections of essays on poetry's infrastructure and craft, Nine Gates and Ten Windows, and editor and co-translator of four books presenting the work of world poets from the deep past. Other honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller foundations and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The TLS, Poetry, and ten editions of The Best American Poetry. Her work has been translated into over fifteen languages. In 2019, she was elected into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.