Customer Reviews

Ariake: Poems of Love and Longing by the Women Courtiers of Ancient Japan

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Ariake is (inadvertantly) a companion volume to Song of the Kisaeng - a wonderful book of Korean courtesan poetry. I highly recommend reading both as the interplay of the differing sensibilities enhances the value of each.

Ariake in its own right is a beautiful book ... once I got past the inside covers of pink - the collage illustrations by Grant have a wonderful interplay with the text, repeating themes with a Japanese feel. The poetry is excellent and well translated. They retain a simple language with proscribed conceits while working as poetry in English.

An example: "In the blackberry / Night I saw you one last time, / But I let you go / Without meeting you at dawn, / And now I have learned regret."

For the technically inclined, the poems are wakas (31 syllable poems 5-7-5-7-7).

Ariake is a most wonderful book to read over and over again. Rae Grant's sensitive collages, which combine symbolic images and unusual textures, perfectly complement the brief but emotionally charged poems of court ladies, some named and some anonymous, in Heian Japan. This book is a goldmine of poignant imagery from a thousand years ago; but it can still elicit of the modern reader, perhaps, the same urgent emotions. I am repeatedly amazed by the freshness of the words. What marvelous translators must have worked on these poems! For the historically minded, Liza Dalby beautifully and concisely introduces the era and the circumstances of women during the Heian period.

I bought this from Amazon as a present for Mother's Day, and it just arrived -- what an absolutely stunning book! It looks handmade, the collages are beautiful, the poems strong and elemental and touching -- extremely cool, the kind of book you keep by the bedside. Somebody obviously took a great deal of care.

The heart of the thing, though, are the poems themselves, which are wistful, sensual, melancholy, ecstatic -- amazing what can be said so thoughtfully in five short lines, and amazing, too, the universality of emotion expressed by these women centuries ago.

This is a precious little book that those who have loved (and lost) will not want to let go of. Longing is felt very strongly when you read these little, zen-like poems. The illustrations are nice, but I would have liked more poems. The book is a beautiful object. It looks very handmade.

Ah, the bewitching age of dynasties never fails to fascinate with the lovely and lyrical verses of longing...These poems have that passionate elegance - a spark that is about to burst into flame. The collages make for a truly exquisite gift. Read this with a lover - or a potential lover! Try writing your own! Like desire itself, I found myself wanting more.