Word: fuku
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...centerpiece of the volume is Fuku, an 87-page autobiographical odyssey that combines verse and narrative. The title is attributed to an African word used by Latin-American peasants to describe con men and exploiters. Yevtushenko has a little list, starting with Christopher Columbus, whom he evokes as a gold-hungry conquistador and an impatient actor on the set of a television mini-series (" 'When will this all end?!' grumbled Columbus, feeling his face to see if his gray beard had come unglued. 'Somebody, bring me a gin and tonic...
...well-traveled poet visits Santo Domingo, where the series is being shot. Elsewhere, he alludes to his own movie, The Kindergarten, about his childhood in the Siberian town of Zima Junction. Fuku and the film share events and images of Yevgeny...
...favorite word: he uses it as a prod, a goal, a signpost and an explanation. Fashion fits into his vocabulary only as a practicality. "The semantics aren't important," he explains. "But in Japanese, we have three words: yofuku, which means Western clothing; wafuku, which means Japanese clothing; and fuku, which means clothing. It can also mean good fortune, a kind of happiness. People ask me what I do. I don't say yofuku or wafuku. I say I make happiness...
ISSUN BOSHI, THE INCHLING by Momoko Ishii, illustrated by Fuku Akino (Walker; $3.50). Another old Japanese fable, handsomely illustrated. The hero is no bigger than a man's thumb and is resigned to life as a paperweight for a beautiful princess. But then he slays a dreadful demon, and guess what his reward is? A wish on a magic mallet transforms him into a full-size man and he marries the princess to live happily ever after...
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