SOURCE: "Hagiwara Sakutarō's Fitzgerald," in Prairie Schooner, Vol. 47, No. 2, Summer, 1973, pp. 174-77.

In the following essay, Shults reviews Graeme Wilson's translation of Hagiwara's poetry in The Face at the Bottom of the World, and Other Poems.

To most of us the dark vault of Asian literature would remain forever locked without the work of such men as the aviation expert, diplomat, scholar Graeme Wilson, one of that small band of occidentals literate in Japanese, a language that is often difficult even to those whose native tongue it is.

"Perhaps our greatest modern poet," said one Japanese scholar when asked about Sakutarō's work, "but difficult." Difficult is the word that best describes Hagiwara Sakutarō the man as well as the poet. A photograph, reproduced in the book, shows a thin haggard face, lank black hair, long nose, mouth with a trace of petulence, and head thrown back...