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Man'Yo Luster
380 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2002
2 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
About the author
Ian Hideo Levy
17 books3 followersSee also リービ英雄. American-born author who primarily writes in Japanese.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 22, 2011
A beautiful combination of poems from Man'yoshu, a classic collection of Japanese poetry, and photos of nature from the Asuka Nara area. This book is thick and impressive. It's a nice thing to keep around and savor bits at a time. I can't comment on the translation, but unusually, this book includes the original Japanese language versions of the poems, which few English books of Japanese poetry do. It's very nice for advanced students (or intermediate ones like me can try to puzzle out bits and pieces).
February 17, 2026
The Manyoshu is a collection of classical Japanese poems written by various people from many social classes. It is one of the world's oldest texts of classical literature. Apparently, the Manyoshu is made up of 4500 poems. Manyoshu translates to "The Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves."
This edition of Manyoshu is easy and approachable for today's readers. There are photographs for each poem and includes the English and Japanese translation side by side. It is in a nice hardcover jacket. I bet it would be quite hard to read if I was Japanese anyways.
There are poems about love and longing, nature, plum blossoms, Nara (Japan's capital city at the time), Mt. Fuji, etc. I wish they would include some more poems. And perhaps a more academic introduction. Since the poems are all available online anyways I can read more there.
Its a pretty book that is good for beginners to read. I have yet to read the Chinese collection of poetry, Shi-Jing. I've read a bit of The Tale of Genji and oh boy, it was too long and a lot to digest!
I hope I can travel to Japan someday and embrace its traditions and pop culture. I don't think these poems are that much different to Shi-Jing. Lets read more classical Asian poetry!
This edition of Manyoshu is easy and approachable for today's readers. There are photographs for each poem and includes the English and Japanese translation side by side. It is in a nice hardcover jacket. I bet it would be quite hard to read if I was Japanese anyways.
There are poems about love and longing, nature, plum blossoms, Nara (Japan's capital city at the time), Mt. Fuji, etc. I wish they would include some more poems. And perhaps a more academic introduction. Since the poems are all available online anyways I can read more there.
Its a pretty book that is good for beginners to read. I have yet to read the Chinese collection of poetry, Shi-Jing. I've read a bit of The Tale of Genji and oh boy, it was too long and a lot to digest!
I hope I can travel to Japan someday and embrace its traditions and pop culture. I don't think these poems are that much different to Shi-Jing. Lets read more classical Asian poetry!
May 4, 2019
Beautiful words and photographs
Very nicely presented with original poems, translations into modern Japanese and also into English
Not a very large selection despite the large size and weight - there is only one poem for every 2-4 pages and the paper is very heavy
Very nicely presented with original poems, translations into modern Japanese and also into English
Not a very large selection despite the large size and weight - there is only one poem for every 2-4 pages and the paper is very heavy
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews