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Galáxia Floresce na Primavera brings together, in Portuguese, the main poems of Nanao Sakaki (1923–2008), Japanese beatnik writer, mountains and rivers bum, wandering poet and global environmental activist.

With 60 poems written between the 1960s and the 2000s, the book introduces the essentials of Nanao's poetry: his Zen-Taoist humor, his inversions of perspective, time and space, his ancestral influences that serve the future, his acute sense of observation of natural phenomena, the inspirations coming from geology, biology and astronomy, and the acidic insights into the toxic lifestyle and environmental destruction of late capitalism.

Born in Kagoshima, Nanao served Japan in World War II as a radar analyst, occasion when he saw the Nagasaki nuclear explosion with his own eyes. With the Japanese defeat, he found the path of wandering poetry, exploring the heritage of medieval poets such as Bashô and Issa. At the forefront of the counterculture, in the 1960s he founded collectives such as The Bum Academy and Buzoku (The Tribes), inventing alternative lifestyles in remote places in Japan. At the same time, he became friends with American beatniks like Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder and Michael McClure. After that, his poetry traveled around the world, being translated into several languages.

On January 1, 2023, Nanao Sakaki would have turned one hundred years old. To celebrate his centenary, Grafatório organizes the hotsite nanaoglobal.com, in addition to publishing Galáxia Floresce na Primavera. The book, now available for pre-order, has a preface by Gary Snyder and an afterword by editor/translator Felipe Melhado. The revision of the translation is by Maurício Arruda Mendonça. The graphic design of the book features letterpress prints, and is signed by visual artist Guilherme Gerais in partnership with graphic designer Pablo Blanco.

Happy Lucky Idiot
(Nanao Sakaki)

If you have time to chatter
Read books
If you have time to read
Walk into mountain, desert and ocean
If you have time to walk
Sing songs and dance
If you have time to dance
Sit quietly, you Happy Lucky Idiot


Kyoto, 1966


I WANT THIS BOOK!

Release forecast:
July 2023.