Shiffert, Edith Marcombe

Biography

The Time of Our Lives The circuses we get Are our own lives. The fight for survival is Our own tyranny and Our own entertainment. Edith M. Shiffert

These lines spring from Edith Marion Marcombe Shiffert, Canadian born poet and translator of Japanese haiku masters. Her books are inspired by the natural and human worlds, and the aesthetic, philosophical and literary traditions of Japan. Many call her a religious poet, but she rejects such labels by stating; "I have no religion. It's a religious feeling that holds me, watching the birds or the sunshine moving on leaves. To me that's religion..."

She was born in Toronto, Canada, in January 19, 1916 to John Benjamin Marcombe and Annie M. Drew. The family immigrated to United States when Edith was only three. Growing up in Rochester, New York and Detroit, Michigan, she frequently attended concerts, art museums and libraries with her father. These activities sparked her interest in Greek philosophy, Shakespeare, as well as Buddhism and Japanese culture. She was very responsive to poetry from early on, and as a teen began to write poems about music and imagined landscapes.

In 1936 her family moved to Redondo Beach, California, where she worked as a secretary to Dr. Hans Nordevin von Koerber, the head of Asian Studies Department at the University of Southern California. Encouraged by the von Kroebers, she spent many hours in Dr. von Koerber's study reading translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry.

During these years, Shiffert also gave regular readings of her poetry on local radio stations, and saw her first poems published in various newspapers and journals. In her early twenties she became known as the "young poet" in local writing circles.

In 1938, at the age of twenty three, Edith traveled to Hawaii, a visit which lasted until 1945. In 1940 she married Steven Ricardo Shiffert, whom she had met in a writers' group in California, and became a U.S. citizen. Throughout the war years she frequently assisted her husband in surveying the local mountains for the United States government. Together they explored the island, its volcanoes and natural life. Later on some of these experiences were included in a published set of poems, For a Return to Kona: Island Poems (1964). While enjoying the simple life and natural beauty of the area, she furthered her studies in Chinese and Japanese culture by attending lectures and performing arts events at the University of Hawaii, the Art Academy, and libraries.

Back on the main land the couple first lived for short periods in Alaska (1947-1949) and San Diego, California (1954-1956), before finally settling in North Bend, Washington, where they built a two story log cabin on twenty five acres of wilderness at the base of Mt. Si. Already in her forties, Edith attended the University of Washington, Seattle from 1956 to 1962, specializing in Anthropology, Far Eastern Studies and Creative Writing. Her teachers included Theodore Roethke, Louise Bogan, and Leonie Adams. While at school she published her first collection of poetry. In addition she was active in Seattle with the magazine Poetry Northwest and gave regular poetry readings at the city library, University, public radio stations, and on TV. Her first book, In Open Woods (1961) is based on her hiking and backpacking experiences in Alaska, Hawaii, and the Cascade Mountains.

Since 1963 she has lived in Kyoto, Japan. She was initially invited to teach English at Dashisha University. After five years of residence, she accepted a position at Kyoto Seika University as a professor of English where she taught until her retirement in 1983. She divorced Steven Shiffert in 1970, and married Minoru Sawano in 1981.

In Kyoto she has steadily published poetry and collaborated in multiple translations. Her first collection of poetry written abroad was The Kyoto Years (1971), which contains poems influenced by Buddhism and her studies of Japanese literature. The same year she teamed up with Yuki Sawa to publish Anthology of Modern Japanese Poetry (1971) and Haiku Master Buson (1978), which was the first book in English to feature writings of Buson. Some other translation work includes Chieko, and When a Bird Rests & Other Tanka by Taeko Takaori both published in 1974. Stimulated by exposure to Buson's writing, Shiffert put out her fourth set of poems A Grasshopper, which was published as a chapbook by White Pine Press in 1976. This was followed by The New and Selected Poems (White Pines Press, 1979), A Way to Find Out (Raiju Press, 1979), Kyoto Dwelling (C.E. Tuttle Co., 1987), When at the Edge (White Pine Press, 1991), and Forest House with Cat (Unio Corp, 1991). Two of her most recent works include The Light Comes Slowly (Katsura Press, 1997), and the Ninth Decade (Katsura Press, 1999), which feature illustrations of traditional ink paintings by Kohka Saito, a renowned artist of the genre.

Today Edith Shiffert is one of several American poets currently living and writing in Kyoto.

From the guide to the Edith M. Shiffert papers, 1916-2001, (University of California, Santa Cruz. University Library. Special Collections and Archives)