Ilya Pushkin
was a Russian Jew who lived in Jerusalem, Israel.He was a self-taught "nihonbiiki" – a person who is in love with Japan and its culture. He wrote poems in Japanese, as well as thrillers and romances in Hebrew, with the theme of Japanese-Israeli relations. Also, he has written several textbooks for the Japanese language.
His poems, though written in Japanese, are not considered to be Japanese poems, and are not an attempt of imitating the art of the Japanese verses. His poems are merely written by a Western man, with an influence of Japanese aesthetics.
The poet composed in Japanese because he is in love with the inspiring language; he was enthralled and enchanted with the gentleness and the refinement that is a part of Japanese aesthetics.
The protagonist of Pushkin's Japanese Tales finds himself in a constant journey in search of a wonderful Japanese woman, who seems to always slip away from him. The stories take place in Jerusalem, Paris and Tokyo, the writer's favorite cities. Pushkin has also written some conversation manuals Russian - Japanese and Hebrew - Japanese in order to aid the communication in daily conversation, and to build a basic, polite and correct Japanese dialogue. The manuals include grammatical explanations and as well as a Japanese-Russian (and Hebrew) dictionary.
Japanese lyrics
Japanese stories
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Conversation manuals
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