Transcending the Tautology ‘I am I’

Writing about your recent experiences on social media might be a reasonable means of self-expression, self-advertisement, or self-therapy, but for some it is not necessarily an ideal way to represent “self.” I’ve just read a long interview of the poet Shuntaro Tanikawa, They Call Me a Poet (2007). His simple line caught my eye: “140 letters [of Twitter] is too long for me.” This sounds a little strange because, as you know, he isn’t a haiku poet. While he himself rarely uploads his comments there, Tanikawa has kept his own account for Twitter, and its self-introduction is suggestive, like, “if you doubt I am real, please read my collection of poems, WATASHI [Myself].” For a real poet, even one letter is too long if it is not illuminated with magic of poetry.

Enjoying getting wet with rain,
missing the starry sky,
laughing convulsively at corny jokes,
transcending the tautology ‘I am I,”
I am I.
—Shuntaro Tanikawa “I am I,” translated by W. I. Elliott