Man'yoshu ─ A New English Translation Containing the Original Text, Kana, Transliteration, Romanization, Glossing and Commentary

Vovin (East Asian languages, U. of Hawai'i-Manoa) continues his new English translation of the earliest and largest Japanese poetic anthology, dating to 759 AD. He explains that it is also the most important compendium of Japanese culture per se produced during the Asuka period (195-710) and most of the Nara period (710-784). Book five is of particular importance for the history of the Japanese language and the history of Japanese literature, he says, is dominated by the two outstanding poets Opotomo-no TaNpito and Yamanoupe-no Okura, and contains a number of examples of exquisite Chinese prose. He includes the original text, kana, transliteration, romanization, glossing, and detailed commentary. There is no index. Global Oriental is an imprint of Brill. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Alexander Vovin, Professor of East Asian Languages at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, has published extensively on Japanese, Ainu, Korean and Tungusic, as well as other languages of East and Inner Asia. Among his major works are A Reconstruction of Proto-Ainu (Brill, 1993), A Reference Grammar of Classical Japanese Prose (RoutledgeCurzon, 2003) and Nihongo Keitoron no Genzai/Perspectives on the Origins of the Japanese Language (co-edited with Osada Toshiki, the International Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, 2003).