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()(ÕÌ@In ancient times the Japanese had a special reverence for song, believing it to be the mysterious vehicle of a clanLs spirit and prosperity. As the independent clans were gradually brought under the overlordship of the ancestors of the present imperial family, one of the principal tributes demanded of them was their songs. Included in the present book are twenty-one of the earliest Japanese songs still extant --short, graceful lyrics so beautifully and sympathetically translated that they still seem as fresh and vital as in those faraway days of their first singing. These were only recently brought to light in a remarkable scroll called the LKinkafuL and dated A.D.981, an important discovery that has increased the scanty knowledge of JapanLs ancient past. For most of these are folk songs, already centuries old when first put in writing, and in them we have the yearnings and dreams, the joys and sorrows, of the ordinary people of those legendary times, not the dynastic doings of lords and emperors, though these too appear in other of the songs. No less charming than the ancient poems are the twenty modern woodblock prints made especially for this book by HAKU MAKI, one of JapanLs foremost print artists. Like so much of MakiLs work, these too are based upon ancient calligraphy, used not for its meaning but for the abstract visual joy it is, and this new series is sure to increase MakiLs already impressive artistic stature. In this happy juxtaposing of ancient poems and modern art, the present seizes the past, neither dominating the other, to create a unity between words and illustrations that is only too rarely achieved. The circumstances of the discovery of the Kinkafu scroll and the background of the poems themselves are briefly recounted in the introduction, while a longer essay and detailed commentaries at the back of the book provide still further information, making this a book for general reader and specialist alike. The commentaries also give the original Japanese of the poems and more literal translations for readers who might enjoy Llooking over the translatorsL shoulders as they work.L The Translators both bring much training and experience to the present work : William Elliott, M.A.(Chicago), lived in Japan for eight years, teaching English literature at Kanto Gakuin University, and has published much of his own poetry ; he now teaches at Linfield College, Oregon. Noah Brannen, Ph.D.(Michigan), teaches at International Christian University, Tokyo, and has written widely in his fields of Japanese linguistics, literature, and religion.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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