How to Read a Japanese Poem

by Steven D. Carter

How to Read a Japanese Poem offers a comprehensive approach to making sense of traditional Japanese poetry of all genres and periods. Steven D. Carter explains to Anglophone students the methods of composition and literary interpretation used by Japanese poets, scholars, and critics from ancient times to the present, and adds commentary that will assist the modern reader.How to Read a Japanese Poem presents readings of poems by major figures such as Saigyō and Bashō as well as lesser known poets, with nearly two hundred examples that encompass all genres of Japanese poetry. The book gives attention to well-known forms such as haikai or haiku, as well as ancient songs, comic poems, and linked verse. Each chapter provides examples of a genre in chronological order, followed by notes about authorship and other contextual details, including the time of composition, physical setting, and social occasion. The commentaries focus on a central feature of Japanese poetic that poems are often occasional, written in specific situations, and are best read in light of their milieu. Carter elucidates key concepts useful in examining Japanese poetics as well as the technical vocabulary of Japanese poetic discourse, familiarizing students with critical terms and concepts. An appendix offers succinct definitions of technical terms and essays on aesthetic ideals and devices.

Genres: Japan, Poetry, Literature

604 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 11, 2019

About the author

Professor of Japanese literature

Steven D. Carter has written eleven books and numerous articles on pre-modern Japanese literature and is an award-winning translator. He has received numerous academic awards, as both a scholar and a teacher. At Stanford he teaches courses in pre-modern Japanese literature and language.

Professor Carter's research interests include: Japanese poetry, poetics, and poetic culture; the Japanese essay; travel writing; historical fiction; and the relationship between the social and the aesthetic. His most recent book is Haiku Before Haiku: From the Renga Masters to Basho (Columbia University Press, 2011).

Before coming to Stanford in 2003, Professor Carter taught at UCLA, Brigham Young University, and UC-Irvine, serving as chair of the East Asian Languages and Literatures Department at the latter institution for 10 years.

He began his study of Japanese language and culture as an undergraduate at Brigham Young University, receiving his BA in Japanese with minors in English and history in 1974. He received an MA and PhD from UC-Berkeley, concentrating on classical and medieval Japanese poetry. His interest in Hiroshima dates to a visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and Museum in 1969, during one of the hotter periods of the Cold War.

Reviews

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding overview of the basic genres of Japanese poetry. Has two excellent appendices: one is a glossary of Japanese poetic terms, the other a brief explanation of poetic devices.