Saibara

Saibara, a form of Japanese folk song formalized in the Heian Era, are simple poems of everyday life that were set to music. Courtiers would sing the songs in the Kyoto and Nara regions to entertain the upper class. Inbar’s translations help us see these earthy, often erotic slices of everyday life anew.

Born in Jerusalem and raised in Brooklyn, TOMER INBAR studied writing at Binghamton University and has an MA in Classical Japanese Literature from Cornell University and law degrees from New York University. He founded and edited Camellia, an experimental literary journal (1989-97), and has published translations of Saibara, a genre of Japanese folk song formalized in the Heian period. Inbar currently is an attorney at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, representing charities and other nonprofit organizations, and lives in Park Slope.