Description
Book SynopsisThe first of four monumental volumes that will follow the story of waka, the classical tradition of Japanese poetry, from its beginnings in ancient song to the sixteenth century.
Trade Review"Building a cathedral takes time and determination. And a cathedral
A Waka Anthology is. ...
A Waka Anthology's two volumes do give us a sense of what is possible if one is Edwin Cranston."—Ivo Smits,
Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies"Monumental in size and extraordinary in quality. . . . As a translator, Cranston is unexcelled, both in the uncompromising accuracy of his readings and in his sense of the weight and music of English words."—
Choice.
"A review of
The Gem-glistening Cup is almost superfluous. It is literally without peer. . . . It is a monument that will dominate the field of Japanese literary studies in English for the foreseeable future and beyond. . . . Cranston's translations are as good as one could expect from his excellent versions of the
Izumi Shikibu Diary. . . . This will be the foundation of many courses in years to come."—
Japan Forum"Cranston is one of the finest translators of classical Japanese. . . .
A Gem-glistening Cup makes an invaluable contribution for students of Japanese literature."—
South Atlantic ReviewTable of ContentsA note on numbering and source abbreviations; Introduction; Songs from the Chronicles and Fudoki; Kojiki songs; Nihonshok songs; Fudoki songs; Shoku Nihongi songs; Selections from Man'yoshu; Poems by named poets; Poem exchanges and poem groups of multiple composition; Anonymous poems; The Buddha's Footstone poems; Glossary; Notes; Bibliography; Conversion tables; Indexes.
