Customer Reviews

1000 Poems from the Manyoshu: The Complete Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai Translation

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This is the first book I have ever reviewed without actually haven't seen it, but I am sure that Amazon and readers will bear with me. As I write this, I have on my desk a copy of a book entitled _The Manyoshu: One Thousand Poems Selected and Translated from the Japanese_ . . . . . (Tokyo: Published for the Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai by the Iwanami Shoten, 1940). It has lxxx ( = 80) pages of introduction, 502 pages of text, and 5 unnumbered pages of maps. Donald Keene's Seeds in the Heart, p. 179, refers to the following reprint: "Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai. Manyoshu. New York: Columbia University Press, 1965." There is surely good reason to conclude that all three books are essentially the same.

This pioneer translation has a fine reputation and I am pleased to see that it is again available in print, and at a very reasonable price. The new Dover edition is listed as being 464 pages long. This is somewhat shorter than my version, but it is reasonable that some of the original material may have been dropped or reduced in size. Although this is the work of a "committee" -- and we all know the definition of a "camel" as "a horse designed by a committee," this committee was fortunate to have had among its members the English poet Ralph Hodgson (1871-1962) who lectured in Japan (1924-38; see Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia), and is cited on p. viii of my edition for having "revised" the "tentative translations."

I highly recommend this reprint and I commend Dover for making it available again.

Indeed, the title of this book is very deceiving, and the previous review didn't comment the fact that this book isn't the complete Man'yoshu, but a selection. Of course, you may say the title numbers the poems, and if you are an expert on the subject, you know that the Man'yoshu has over 4.000, but not everybody has the information, and the subtitle (The Complete Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai Translation) will very quickly lead you to error.

That being said, this edition has its virtues. It is a polished and careful translation, with introduction, maps, biographies and nice indexes. Nevertheless, if you abhor of uncomplete translations (it is my case, and I was mistaken in my purchase - should have checked more carefully) check the net for the only English version there is: Mr. Honda's The Manyoshu : A New and Complete Translation (by Hokuseido Press).

This book presents 1,000 poems out of a total of over 2500 in the original collection. It represents a good beginning for someone who would like to get a taste of the beginnings of Japanese poetry.