Trilingual Renshi

Renshi is a modern version of the traditional Japanese linked poem, Renku. As the 70th anniversary for the end of the World War II approaches and the politicians prepare for their ‘historic speeches’ to be delivered on August 15, 2015, 4 poets from Japan, China and Korea decide to have a Trilingual Renshi session, linking themselves to each other through translation and e-mails. The result is a mandala of 36 poems with the shared themes of ‘Sea’, ‘Rice’, and ‘Sun’. It is at once the celebration of humanity which transcends nation, race, and even language, and the poetic action for the resistance against the world’s entropy.