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Kawano Yūko stands in the forefront of Japanese post-war women tanka poets. An intensely personal writer who always enlivens her poetry with events from her own life, Kawano has had a long and distinguished career spanning 40 years. She has published books of essays & criticism. During her many years as a high-profile professional poet, Kawano has taught tanka composition at community colleges and on television, lectured all over Japan, and served as a judge for many tanka contests. ‘The Time of This World’ contains translations by Amelia Fielden and Saeko Ogi of 100 tanka selected by well-known poet and critic, Oshima Shiyō, from 13 of Kawano’s major collections, ranging from the passionate love lyrics of her earliest book Like a Forest, Like a Wild Beast, to the thoughts of a young mother living temporarily in the USA; from the mature reflections of My Tanka Diary, to The Maternal Line, where she is confronting the death of her mother, and the resurgence of her own cancer, first diagnosed in 2000.