Japanese poetry BML

The collection features tanka and haiku from more than 180 authors; including those whose works were included in the famous anthology "Hyakunin isshu" ("One Hundred Poems of One Hundred Poets"). This anthology is included in the book in its entirety. The original of each poem is given in Russian transcription, followed by one or more translations with comments that allow one to get an idea of ​​both the author and the circumstances under which the lines he composed were written. Almost every poem in the collection is illustrated with an original Japanese print. Among these drawings are works by such masters as Hokusai, Yoshitoshi, Hiroshige, Harunobu, which makes this anthology a unique publication.
Traditional Japanese culture demonstrates many amazing phenomena in architecture, painting, literature and applied arts. Poetry, with its short forms tanka and haiku, is no exception. It may seem strange to a Western reader how one can admire poems that have only five, or even three, lines and no rhymes at all. The 20th century Japanese poet, translator and literary critic Moichi Yamaguchi, in his book on Japanese poetry, compares such traditional versification with impressionism in European art. The lines of haiku resemble three points on which the entire landscape they describe, which appears in the reader’s head, is firmly anchored. The outstanding Japanese poet of the 17th century, Takarai Kikaku, once wrote this haiku: “Swinging, swaying // On a banana leaf // Little frog.” What are these lines about? About the transience of life? About the tenacity with which one must face challenges? About how small we are compared to the formidable forces of nature? Each reader may have his own associations.