personality: janak sapkota – poet internationally recognized but shadowed in the motherland
article published in a blog post by ram kumar shrestha
janak sapkota is from nepal, currently a postgraduate science student in finland. he has published lights along the road, a collection of haiku co-authored with the american poet suzy conway. he won the smurfit samhain international haiku prize 2006 and the seventh annual ukia haiku competition 2009. while on a writing residency at cló cheardlann na gcnoc, donegal, ireland, he published full moon, a limited edition haiku with irish- language translations by gabriel rosenstock and images by danielle creenaune. he is, therefore, an internationally recognized poet, however; shadowed in his own motherland and this is just an attempt to bring him among nepali community
“a young nepalese contemplative poet with a prodigious talent for writing haiku, is a visionary mediator between the self and the spirit. in his haiku of radiant light and rare insights he marvels at the mystery. he is attentive both to the world and to the word. he is truly alive to the awe, to the awesomeness of the creation.”
he has published lights along the road, a collection of haiku co-authored with the american poet suzy conway. he won the smurfit samhain international haiku prize 2006 and the seventh annual ukia haiku competition 2009. while on a writing residency at cló cheardlann na gcnoc, donegal, ireland, he published full moon, a limited edition haiku with irish- language translations by gabriel rosenstock and images by danielle creenaune.
his haiku have appeared internationally in journals, magazines and newspapers such as the shop, shamrock, lishanu, fri haiku and notes from the gean. his recent collections include whisper of pines (original writing, 2012) a bilingual english-irish edition with gabriel rosenstock and a firefly lights the page (sanaSato, finland, 2012), a bilingual english-finnish edition by arto lappi.
what other people say about janak?
how curious it is that a nepalese haikuist –someone from the buddha’s territory – should present us with this haiku. tradition has it that the buddha’s first inkling into the nature of conflict – and his mission to find the remedy for all conflict – came from such a sight, witnessed as a child, and now so succinctly sketched for us here by janak. relish these haiku and senryu. they come from the purest source!
– gabriel rosenstock
janak achieves a deep interpenetration with nature in these finely engineered haiku, ably translated by rosenstock who is at his best
when in the presence of the mystic interface of the east.
-seán mac mathúna
if God created the world, janak sapkota traces his mysterious ways and reveals them in three-line poems. his distinct sensibility has
added to haiku spirit something new the like of which cannot be found among most of american-led haiku.
-susumu takiguchi
once in a while one reads a good haiku written by a western poet, but many western poets erroneously think that three lines, referably consisting of 5-7-5 syllables, make a haiku. the haiku of nepalese poet janak sapkota offer what most western haiku miss: that delicate eastern flavour, turning a handful of words into poetry, into real haiku.
– germain droogenbroodt
haiku is about movement in a world where we think that we understand stillness. it is about the journey, the passing through. the mind travels. the heart travels. the eye travels. they say that even as he lay dying, the japanese haijin basho was thinking of the next road he would take on his journey, the next words that would frame his frameless insights. having read janak sapkota i can understand why.
-mícheál o haodha
Tobaccoroadpoet
Brief Interview with Janak
Mícheál Ó hAodha