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The Kokinshū by Torquil Duthie

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The Kokinshū

Selected Poems

Torquil Duthie

Columbia University Press · Print & ebook · May 23, 2023

Reading lane: Japanese Poetry

Winner 2023-2024 Japan-U.S.

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At a Glance

Who It's For

Good for fans of PoetryGood for readers who enjoy Japanese Poetry and Japanese Literary Collections.

Book Details

Authors
Torquil Duthie
Publisher
Columbia University Press
Published
May 23, 2023
Format
Print & ebook
Theme
Japanese Poetry · Japanese Literary Collections
Reading lane
Japanese Poetry

Affinity

Publisher Categories

  • Japanese Literary Collections

  • Japanese Literary Criticism

  • Japanese Poetry

About This Book

Winner 2023-2024 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature, Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture Compiled in the early tenth century, the Kokinshū is an anthology of some eleven hundred poems that aimed to elevate the prestige of vernacular Japanese poetry at the imperial court. From shortly after its completion to the end of the nineteenth century, it was celebrated as the cornerstone of the Japanese vernacular poetic tradition. Th...

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Winner 2023-2024 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature, Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture Compiled in the early tenth century, the Kokinshū is an anthology of some eleven hundred poems that aimed to elevate the prestige of vernacular Japanese poetry at the imperial court. From shortly after its completion to the end of the nineteenth century, it was celebrated as the cornerstone of the Japanese vernacular poetic tradition. The composition of classical poetry, other later poetic forms such as linked verse and haikai, and vernacular Japanese literary writing in its entirety (including classic works such as Murasaki Shikibu’s Tale of Genji and Sei Shōnagon’s Pillow Book) all draw from the Kokinshū. This book offers an inviting and immersive selection of roughly one-third of the anthology in English translation. Torquil Duthie focuses on rendering the poetic language of the Kokinshū as a whole, in such a way that readers can understand and experience how its poems work together to create a literary world. He emphasizes that classical Japanese poems do not stand alone as self-contained artifacts but take part in an ongoing intertextual conversation. Duthie provides translations and interpretations of the two prefaces to the Kokinshū, which deeply influenced Japanese literary aesthetics. The book also includes critical essays on various aspects of the anthology and its history. This translation helps specialist and nonspecialist readers alike appreciate the beauty and richness of the Kokinshū, as well as its significance for the Japanese literary tradition.

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