By Hillel Wright

Arts & Culture Jul. 12, 2008 - 03:26PM JST ( 6 )

“Japanese for Daydreamers” is a poetry chapbook and, according to a note by the author on the publishing page, “…a response to the popular language textbook, ‘Japanese for Busy People.’”

Chapbooks — works of less than 50 pages, folded and stapled or sewn rather than bound, and often the first publication by a new or emerging poet — have become increasingly popular over the past 20 years. There are several good reasons for this trend. Since books of poetry are a notoriously tough sell, most publishers are reluctant to produce them. The chapbook, however, can be made cheaply and in limited editions. That gives young poets a chance to get in print, be read, and perhaps even reviewed. Chapbooks have become a category of collectibles, with some editions by authors who have gone on to successful careers fetching prices far beyond their original modest cost.

This fact alone is a good reason to invest in a copy of “Japanese for Daydreamers,” since this reviewer predicts good things to come for young Judy Halebsky. The other, more important reason is that the book is filled with uniquely original, skillfully crafted and entertaining poems.

Originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halabsky currently resides in Tokyo and is a research scholar in Japanese literature at Hosei University. Her poems employ a shrewd understanding and clever execution of the nuances of both Japanese and English language and literature, with a talent and sense of humor far beyond the range of the typical scholar or translator.

Halebsky’s poems often incorporate kanji, which she deconstructs in English, or famous haiku, which she insightfully reinterprets. A good example is “Woman Under Trees.” After three short stanzas that set the scene — a high school girl’s relationship with her mother—she inserts three kanji constructions that contain onna (“woman”) followed by ironic haiku-like verses in Japanese and English:

海女 amame
ocean woman:
a woman diving for shells

雨女 ameonna
rain woman:
a woman who brings rain

姦 kan
three women:
wickedness and mischief

and concludes:

these words flood into the river
they are trees that rise uprooted
they are butterflies in the trees.

In “Zen Monks Talking Big,” Halebsky begins by reproducing a famous haiku by Basho, first in Japanese then in romaji, and then goes on to comment humorously before sardonically deconstructing the haiku with one of her own:

Basho played softball, second base
he slept with nuns and had to leave town…

watching the lightning
those who share simply
are noble

…

high brow talk
over the lightning
such a pity.

Although most of the poems reference Japanese literature, especially the works of Basho, Halebsky connects with her Canadian roots and college days in California with poems like “Pigs in a Blanket”:

Marina lost her Rolex at the beach

another girl lost her bikini top

Laverne’s got his lotto tickets spread out all over the counter
I’ve got a short stack with blueberries and Cool Whip

…

the guy across the aisle wants to know who all is in my class
he says he wants to sleep with everyone.

Just like Basho.