| NOTA |
(★)(「In vain is my life Like a word written on water. Praying to the gods, I have vowed That I´ll meet my darling love」〜Despair and hope are two emotions commonly voiced by poets in the Man-yooshuu, the oldest and most important collection of Japanese poetry. Although written over thirteen hundred years ago, the poems retain a rare freshness, an oroginality that delights and fascinates even today. Part of the collection´s originality is due to its variety of authors, from members of the aristocracy to commoners from the lowest ranks. The poems cover a wide range of content and expression, from court poets´ highly polished verses to anonymous poems that read like folk songs. Poems about love are common but the treatment of love varies from anguished pining to wondrous celebration to bitter denunciation. What the various Man-yoo poems do have in common is emotional fire, amazing candor, and eloquent expression of feeling not found in later Japanese poetry. It is these characteristics that have earned the Man-yooshuu a constant and devoted readership over the centuries. ◆For ´Written on Water´, Takashi Kojima selected five hundred examples from the 4,516 poems that make up the Man-yooshuu. His translations are polished, lively, and original. Notes and introductory pages provide important background information but for the most part the poems speak for themselves, even thirteen hundred years after their conception. This new translation is a welcome introduction to one of the masterpieces of Japanese literature.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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