Customer Reviews

The Tale of the Heike

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Translations of Japanese and Chinese classics are often hampered by the archaic language used in the originals. This was not the case here and the translator has achieved a balanced fusion of great story-telling and accurate presentation of the text. This is no small achievement since the Heike tale is populated by many diverse characters some of whom are only mentioned once whereas others have great influence on the plot despite their brief appearances.

I have found that the best way to read the book is to treat oneself to the episodic nature of the chapters. This reflects the original format of the story; that it was expressed in minstrel style story-telling by the "biwa-hoshi" in nightly recitals. As such each segment of the story can be treated like individual pearls in a string, each complete and entertaining by its own merit but strung together to form the whole epic saga of the Heike. Attempts to read the book in the style of a conventional Western novel with its continuous narrative will result in frustration since the story seem to take many didactic excursions and side plots. This may also have been the rootcause to the earlier frustration of another reviewer who encountered too many characters to comprehend at one single reading. A similar experience can be found if a first time reader tries to read the Bible continuously from Genesis to Revelation.

The other great challenge in this translation is in its reference to the characters of the story. The long titles accorded to each individual felt cumbersome and unnecessary at first but as I continued reading I began to appreciate that the original narrators of the tale were relating to the traditional Japanese audience, not the modern reader. As such the titles and honorifics were not only essential but required for reasons of protocol. Many listeners in feudal Japan were related or held similar positions to those described in the story. This realization helps the reader to savour the vintage of this work.

The book also helps to lift a veil over 12th Century interaction between Japan and China. The narrators often recited characters from ancient China as part of the shared heritage of Japanese perceptions of honor and duty. The exchange of ideas and cultural practices between the two empires comes across as very vital and alive at that period as expressed by the presence of a Chinese physician during Taira no Shigemori's death. My initial fascination about the extermination of the Taira (from reading the story of Earless Hoichi from Kwaidan by L. Hearns) have been greatly enriched by the full account of the Gempei Wars found here in the Tale of the Heike. The sense of karmic justice where the terrible fate that befell the Taira clan was a direct result of the evil deeds of Kiyomori was all but pervasive in this book. Great reading!

As one of Japan's most important pieces of historical literature, the Tale of the Heike provides a glimpse into the last days of the courtly Heian period, just as it was replaced by the Kamakura Shogunate at the end of the Twelfth Century. Those readers accustomed to stories of Sixteenth-Century samurai will find this an interesting change of pace. The sensibilities revealed in the narrative provide an interesting insight into the thought processes of the people of medieval Japan.

McCullough's translation is very good; her prose is compact, but maintains the poetic quality of the original texts with a minimum of distracting footnotes.

McCullough's rendition of this classic Japanese tale of warfare is, compared to other translations I've studied, the most eloquent and poetic available to westerners.

One of the jewels of the Japanese prose presented in this translation from the commonly accepted final version of Kakuichi Gogenbiwa.

There is probably no other work more influential in the Japanese literature than the one presented here. It is a must read book should you want to learn about the Japanese medieval history and mentality. This work is presented in it's original tale genre of monogatari (story telling) but in order to get the best of your reading pleasure it is important to understand that this work was conceived to be played along with an instrument called the Heike Biwa resembling what it could be ancient epic poems by minstrels in the medieval Europe.

The tale is about the struggle between the clans of Minamoto and Taira for the control of Japan during the XII century, in the Heian period (794-1185). A period where the samurai spirt, the bushido, flourished.

This book is interesting if you want to know some history of the Japanese culture, It is a translation of another book and it is very close to those writings.

i read the book and thought it was very very good sometimes it was hard to follow the plot.translating this book must have been very hard to do for i should now because Helen C. Mccullough was my wonderfull Grandmother.She taped herself and i used to watch her on tape as she translated the book to english. even if she was not my grandmother i still would have thought the book was good it gave me a new love for Japense lituire. did i spell that right? oh while i recommend this book to any one.

The translation for this books seems to be very good thus far, and it didn't take long at all to recieve it.

But Helen McCullough left me feeling like not all the translations made it through with all their meanings intact. I realize such a minor point should not keep me from rating her a 5, but the poetry of Japan has so much expression (and double meaning; see Genji) that I felt left out of the story.

I had to read this book for a course I took in Japanese civilization and culture. I found it very hard to follow even with some background. There are so many differnt names in just one paragraph that it is impossible to keep track of them all, let alone try to figure out what is going on.