The rescue of the unpublished and irreverent haikus of the prostitute poet

While searching for the voice of a free, irreverent, and unknown woman to star in the new edition of the Pepe Sales Independent Art Festival in Girona, known for rescuing strong, characterful figures with unsettling stories, Consol Ribas came across a haiku that "burned like a secret": ~BK_SLT_NA
As
a ripe persimmon"

Visibly moved, Ribas explains that this is how she discovered the poet Suzuki Shizuko, a woman who, in post-World War II Japan under US occupation, broke with the rules of haiku and "made it her refuge." Shizuko was little known even in her own country, partly due to a reluctance to acknowledge the institutionalized sexual violence of the postwar years. The co-director of the Pepe Sales Festival had to undertake an exhaustive search to be able to read her work. She consulted newspaper archives and came across a symposium featuring Jaime Lorente, a writer and professor from Toledo, passionate about haiku and Japanese culture. He had self-published a translation of Shizuko's haiku, which, far from simply describing landscapes, beauty, and seasons in a traditional style, championed a fiercely independent poetry in the first person, achieving the remarkable ferocity of creating beauty in a harsh life and climate.

Born in 1919, Shizuko came from a well-to-do family with access to education, and published her first book of poetry before everything changed due to World War II. In a context of great hardship, where food and water were scarce, a red-light district was created in Japan for American soldiers who were no longer fighting but occupied the country. "It was where they did drugs, went with women, and enjoyed their triumph," recalls Ribas. And it was in this situation that Shizuko became panpan girlShe was a companion to American soldiers. She fell in love with an African American soldier, Clark, and when he died in the Korean War, she disappeared forever at the age of 33. That's why the few who know her and honor her memory call her "the one." poet prostitute wave ghost poet

Some theories suggest she changed her identity. Others that she committed suicide. Some that she drowned. The truth is, her body has never been found. And in Japan, despite the success of the second book she published just before disappearing in 1952, she has been forgotten. "The Japanese don't usually censor, they forget," Ribas points out. With Lluís Llamas, also a driving force behind the La Prenda Cultura Foundation and co-director of the Pepe Sales Festival, they immediately knew she should be this year's focus to "promote reflection on sexual violence in war contexts." But they also knew that a translation of her haikus into Catalan was necessary to explore her "more activist" side. That's when the Girona language academy Somos Japón, run by Arisa Okura (who has lived in the city for over twenty years) and Hisano Miura, came into play. With the help of 52 students, they took on the challenge of translating each of the poems.

Translation in record time

Only one piece remained to be fitted: the book's publication. And Jon López de Viñaspre, of Lapislázuli Publishers, which already has a line of works by Ko Tazawa, the great Japanese Catalan philanthropist, took care of it immediately. The first translation of Suzuki Shizuko's work has just been published under the title of The panpan girl poetJaime Lorente, who discovered her verses, emphasizes her "stark and direct" poetry, while López de Viñaspre recalls the context of sexual slavery that Japan experienced in the mid-20th century. But, despite the suffering, Okura believes it's important to remember that Shizuko "was a cultured person who defined herself as a haiku poet: she played the role of a prostitute, but she never forgot her voice, who she was." This is an aspect that they have kept in mind during the record-time translation—just three months, during the summer of 2025—of the haiku.

A community of volunteers also joined the festival this year. Last week, the Japanese New Year was celebrated at the La Mercè Cultural Center in Girona with over 900 people, and this Saturday, January 24, the Pepe Sales Festival kicks off with a huge, irreverent party featuring more than 100 artists. It will run until February 4, with a very varied program: from film screenings to...anime From Sunday to an experimental fusion concert featuring different artists on Tuesday. For those interested in learning more about the era in which Shizuko lived and her story, the editor of Lapislázuli will speak on Monday, January 26th at 8 pm under the title The rebellious voice of haikuThis will be accompanied by a reading of her texts. And on Thursday the 29th, there will be an open debate on women in Japan. Because although Shizuko's voice was silenced almost 125 years ago, for Pepe Sales, "her message and advocacy" are more relevant than ever.