Customer Reviews

Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing

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"Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing" is an excellent translation by professors J. Thomas Rimer and Jonathan Chaves of a classic work of XIth century Japan: the Wakan Roei Shu.

The book is, as the title states, a mixture of poems in japanese (waka) and chinese (in this case, you have fragments of T'ang dinasty continental poets and others (called kanshi) by Japanese courtiers writing in Chinese). The selection is very classical and high-quality, including authors like Bai Juyi/Po Chü-I, Sugawara no Michizane and Ki no Tsurayuki.

This collection, as stated, is a classic, and had a very high importance for later Japanese works. Much of the Chinese poetry quoted by Heian writers comes from compilations like this one. In fact, almost all of the Chinese poems in 'Genji Monogatari' are here. The Wakan Roei Shu was also extensively quoted and used later in the Noh theatre plays.

Now to the specific translation. It is a wonderful piece of nice scholarship. It includes an introduction, some nice essays (about the relation of the text and the music to which the poems where sung; its impact in Japanese literature; the frequent calligraphic use of the text for artistic copies...). Many poems have embedded notes that explain tricky intertextual and cultural references. It has useful indexes and glossaries for each language and style. And it makes a clever use of typography, with three different versions to rapidly distinguish T'ang poems, kanshi and waka.

Overall, a wonderful piece of academic work, which is very entertaining to read, also. It would be nice if more translations like this one appeared.