This week author and translator John Stevens joins us from Hawaii. Stevens has penned many books over his long exalted career, mainly books dealing with Japanese martial arts, poetry and biography.
“A book should be enlightening for the writer, and for the people reading it.” —John Stevens
Ep. 21 Show Notes:
Podcast host Amy Chavez starts off the show mentioning the books of Stevens’s that she has read: The Marathon Monks of Mt. Hiei; The Essence of Aikido: Spiritual Teachings of Morihei Ueshiba; Dew Drops on a Lotus Leaf: Zen Poems of Ryokan; and Mountain Tasting: Haiku and Journals of Santoka Taneda. Yet this is only a fraction of the works that Stevens has produced over his lifetime.
Stevens explains his translation style and how he manages to capture the essence of haiku in his translations, and names Arthur Waley as an exemplar of the craft.
“A good translation has to be good literature, fine literature.”
Stevens talks about his first book, One Robe, One Bowl (Tuttle Publishing).
His second book was Mountain Tasting: Haiku and Journals of Santoka Taneda (White Pine Press). Of his books on aikido, he says the most popular has been The Art of Peace: Teachings of the Founder of Aikido (Shambhala) which has over 2,300 ratings on Amazon and has been further translated into over 20 languages.
Amy reads a poem from Dew Drops on a Lotus Leaf (Shambhala), which prompts Stevens to talk about his passion for poetry and translation:
“If you don’t feel the passion and the poignancy, then it’s not a translation.”
When talking about the writing process:
“Writing a book should be enlightening, for both you writing it and for the people reading it,” says Stevens. “My writing was an extension of my [Aikido] practice.”
Other popular books by Stevens are The Essence of Aikido: Spiritual Teachings of Morihei Ueshiba (Kodansha International) and The Marathon Monks of Mt. Hiei (Echo Point Books & Media)
Stevens tells a story of going to Sendai to meet a master Aikido teacher, Shirata-sensei, in Yamagata:
“I’d arrive at the dojo, no one was there. He was there. He was never not there. And he was sitting, meditating. I learned something: that if you’re a teacher, you’ve got to be there all the time.”
The author and translator also talks about his book Lust for Enlightenment (Shambhala) and why it was controversial, as well as Tantra of Tachikawa Ryu: Secret Sex Teachings of the Buddha (Stone Bridge Press).
More recently, Stevens has been working with art exhibitions and writing their exhibition catalogues. He is currently working on a display in Spain centered around the Kyoto poet and Buddhist nun Rengetsu at the Gothic Monastery of Pedralbes in Barcelona on until May 27, 2022. If you need a primer before you visit, get a copy of Stevens’s Rengetsu: Life & Poetry of Lotus Moon (Echo Point Books & Media). The Barcelona exhibit (which has been open to the public since November 2021 and is titled “La lluna de Lotus” in Spanish) includes 36 ceramic pieces and 30 paintings and calligraphy samples by this female artist. See how the exhibition developed in this short video:
Lastly, Amy asks Stevens for his favorite books on Japan
Poetry and Zen: Letters and Uncollected writings of R.H. Blyth by R.H. Blyth and Norman Waddell
Zen and Japanese Culture by Daisetzu T. Suzuki
The Unknown Craftsman: A Japanese Insight into Beauty by Soetsu Yanagi and Bernard Leach
Don’t miss John Stevens next book: The Art of Budoh: Painting and Calligraphy by Japanese Masters (Shambhala, Dec 2022)
More Books by John Stevens:
Seeing Zen (Floating World Editions)
Sacred Calligraphy of the East (Echo Point Books & Media)
Extraordinary Zen Masters; A Maverick, A Master of Masters, and a Wondering Poet (Echo Point Books & Media)
Budo: Teachings of the Founder of Aikido (Kodansha USA)
The Secret Teachings of Aikido (Kodansha USA)
The Heart of Aikido; The Philosophy of Takemusu Aiki (Kodansha International)
Wild Ways: Ikkyu (White Pine Press)
Philosophy of Aikido (Echo Point Books & Media)
And many, many more!
The Books on Asia Podcast is sponsored by Stone Bridge Press. Check out their books on Japan at the publisher’s website. Amy Chavez, podcast host, is author of Amy’s Guide to Best Behavior in Japan and the upcoming The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island (May 24, 2022). Don’t miss out on upcoming episodes with authors and translators on Asia; Subscribe to the Books on Asia podcast.