Now You Can Enjoy Reading Great Japanese Literature – in Japanese!
Here is a range of dual text Japanese-English books that offers intermediate and advanced students of Japanese an excellent way to experience Japanese literature in the original tongue from across the centuries.
Each volume listed here contains everything you need to read, study and appreciate the stories and poetry that it contains. The original Japanese is supplemented with furigana and/or romajiM to help with pronunciation and kanji recognition. English translations are provided by scholars of Japanese, in many cases by the leading translator of Japanese into English for our generation, Donald Keene. Vocabulary lists and notes are also provided, which means that you will have everything you need to enjoy some of the best quality Japanese literature all in a single volume, no matter which Japanese author you with to read.
Japanese Literature in the Original Tongue
Exploring Japanese Literature presents five stories by Yasunari Kawabata, Yukio Mishima and Jun'ichiro Tanizaki.
The stories cover the poignancy of romance between a wealthy Tokyoite and a provincial geisha in Kawabata's "Snow Country Miniature"; the ecstatic frenzy of a couple committing ritual suicide in Mishima's "Patriotism"; the amoral antics of a playboy aesthete trying to fire up his flagging zest for life in Tanizaki's "The Secret".
The book features a page layout designed for maximum accessibility. On each two-page spread, the original Japanese is printed in large type on the left-hand page, with the corresponding English translation on the right and a custom dictionary covering nearly every word running along the bottom of both pages.
Breaking into Japanese Literature features seven graded stories covering a variety of genres: whether it's the spellbinding surrealism of Natsume Soseki's Ten Nights of Dreams, the humor of Akutagawa Ryunosuke's fable of temple life ("The Nose"), or the excitement of his historic thrillers ("In a Grove" and "Rashomon"), you are sure to find a story that appeals to you in this collection.
The unique layout -- with the original Japanese story in large print, an easy-to-follow English translation and a custom dictionary -- was created for maximum clarity and ease of use. There's no need to spend time consulting reference books when everything you need to know is right there in front of your nose.
To make Japanese literature fun, Breaking into Japanese Literature also has some unique extra features: mini-biographies to tell you about the authors' lives and works, individual story prefaces to alert you to related works of literature or film, and original illustrations to fire your imagination. Best of all, MP3 sound files of all the stories have been made available for FREE on the Internet.
Read Real Japanese Fiction offers aspiring Japanese readers:
* 6 short stories in vertical text with translations of all the complex passages
* Japanese-English dictionary for quick lookup, tailored to your needs
* Notes explain subtleties of nuance, usage, grammar, and culture
* Free CD with audio narrations performed by a professional actress
* Profiles of the individual writers place the stories in context
Read Real Japanese Essays offers:
* 8 stimulating essays with translations of all the complex passages.
* A Japanese-English dictionary for quick lookup, tailored to your needs.
* Notes to explain subtleties of nuance, usage, grammar, and culture.
* A free CD with audio narrations performed by a professional actress.
* Profiles of the individual writers to place the works in context.
A Hundred Verses from Old Japan is a lovely dual text translation of a traditional 13th Century anthology of Japanese waka poetry, the Hyakunin isshu. The 100 poets are each represented by one poem for the anthology. In many cases the poets were active a long time before the anthology was compiled.
Each poem is printed in Romaji (NOT Kanji, unfortunately), and an English translation. The poems are accompanied by charming line drawings. A brief note is included to give some background to each poem.
"One of the most fascinating women Japanese literature has produced."
Akiko Yosano (1878-1942) was a poet, feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, active in the late Meiji, Taishō and early Showa eras. Her real name was Yosano Shiyo. She is one of the most famous, and most controversial, post-classical Japanese female poets.
In 1901, Yosano published her first volume, Midaregami (Tangled Hair), a collection of 400 tanka. (A tanka, the most popular form of Japanese poetry for 1,200 years, consists of five lines with syllable counts of: 5-7-5-7-7. ) Midaregami brought a passionate individualism to the traditional tanka genre, unlike any other work of the late Meiji period.
Akiko Yosano's Tangled Hair had a sensational impact on Japanese literature. This highly praised translation, first published 30 years ago, is available once again. In this new edition, Yosano's tanka appear in their original Japanese, in roman transliterations, and English translations along with a new preface and notes.
"Whose words are these, that bade me untie the sash of my robe?"The Man'yoshu contains some of the most beautiful love poems in ancient world literature.
The poems are startlingly frank and exquisitely sophisticated as the lovers address each other in a language that is fresh and immediate, filled with astonishingly rich natural imagery. The visual clarity is such that thirteen centuries seem to melt away, as if these poems had been written yesterday.
The poems are presented in the original Japanese, with romaji and English translations.
Alongside each poem is an illustration by Miyata Masayuki, the renowned artist discovered by the great modern novelist Tanizaki. Powerfully and exquisitely erotic, the illustrations compliment the beauty of this book.
"The peaks of clouds Have crumbled into fragments - The moonlit mountain!"The Narrow Road to Oku is about as close to perfection as one can get. First you have Matsuo Basho, Japan's greatest poet, chronicling his 150-day journey into Oku to visit the grave of his mother.
Translating this masterpiece is Donald Keene, possibly the greatest modern translator of Japanese.
In addition, Miyata Masayuki has created stunning works of Kiri-e, 'torn paper art' to illustrate the poems.
"The Narrow Road to Oku" was the last of Basho's five travelogues, and he finally attained the essential balance between observation and inspiration, between prose and poetry. He visits the Tokugawa Shrine at Nikko, the famed Bridge of Heaven at Matsushima and the ancient Ise Shrine.
The original Japanese text is presented alongside Keene's translation.
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is a Japanese classic retold by Yasunari Kawabata, Nobel Prize winner, with modern illustrations. An early Helan-period (794-1185) prose work about a supernatural being found by a bamboo cutter and brought up as his daughter. Text is presented in bilingual Japanese-English format alongside original, full-color kiri-e paper cut-out illustrations.
"Masayuki Miyata's bright, bold illustrations perfectly complement this elegant bilingual edition, and Keene has outdone himself in finding English equivalents for the outrageous puns that punctuate the story."
