Are You An Echo?

Are You An Echo?

Juvenile bilingual biography/poetry

"If I say, 'Let's play?'
you say, 'Let's play!'

If I say, 'Stupid!'
you say, 'Stupid!'

If I say, 'I don't want to play anymore,'
you say, 'I don't want to play anymore'.

And then, after awhile,
Becoming lonely

I say, 'Sorry."
You say, 'Sorry.'

Are you just an echo?
No, you are everyone."

The simple seeming poem above spurred over a million volunteers
to muster to help following a 2011 Japanese disaster: the one two
punch of an earthquake and tsunami that left over 200,000 people
homeless. It was a poem that had been saved from obscurity by a
writer's extreme tenacity. Are You An Echo?: The Lost Poetry Of
Misuzo Kaneko by David Jacobson et al tells the fascinating story of
the poem and its creator.
Misuzu was born in 1903 and grew up in a Japanese fishing
village. She was so imaginative she sometimes had difficulty telling
the difference between events she had experienced and ones she'd read
about. She was very fortunate early in life. Her mother managed a
book store. Unlike most Japanese girls of that time, she was able to
stay in school until the age of seventeen. As an adult she became a
popular children's poet.
She died tragically young.
Setsuo Yazaki grew up with a great fondness for a poem, Big
Catch. As an adult poet he embarked on a quest to find more about its
author. Fortunately he was tenacious. In 1982, after sixteen years
of searching, he tracked down her brother who had her diaries which
contained all her poems.
Decades later David Jacobson encountered some of Misuzu's
published work and was astounded that her poetry had not been
translated into English. Are You An Echo? is his beautiful
remediation of the situation. It combines her poems, beautifully
illustrated by Toshikado Hajiri, with the story of their creation and
rediscovery. It's a beautiful addition to multicultural literature.
It just goes to show, as I always say, if you have a library
card and make good use of it, you're never far from discovering
treasures.
Oh, yeah, you probably want to know how the poem inspired over a
million volunteers...
...read the book and see.
On a personal note, I am having a blissful weekend. Yesterday I
stayed to home to write and clean. I made incredible progress in my
studio. It's more beautiful and inspiring together. Today after
church Eugene and I went for a drive. We stopped at Mardens and
Brewer Goodwill. Eugene got clothes. I found the most incedible
Things Remembered musical snow globe in perfect shape!!! Eugene got
it for me. Joey cat is now the happy owner of nine new jingle balls
and a bigger new light up ball. In a few minutes I'm going to heat up
a frozen pizza which is a treat.
A great big shout out goes out to Eugene and our good Joey cat.
jules hathaway


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