Poetry
Man'yōshū
万葉集
Anonymous · 759
Synopsis
Twenty books and more than four thousand five hundred pieces, mostly short poems, with some two hundred and sixty long poems and four pieces in Chinese. Emperors and aristocrats, officials, soldiers sent to guard the frontiers and peasants write in it, and one reads songs from the Eastern provinces; more than two thousand pieces are anonymous. World History Encyclopedia notes in it sadness, separation, solitude and unrequited love, distributed among miscellaneous pieces, lovers' exchanges and elegies.
Context
The most recent dated piece is from 759, and the bulk covers the years 600 to 759; World History Encyclopedia speaks of four centuries of poetry. Ōtomo no Yakamochi is generally held to be the compiler, or the last of a series, and he is credited there with nearly four hundred and eighty pieces. The poems are written with Chinese characters used in part for their sound, a system that bears the name of the collection and from which the kana derive. The meaning of the title remains debated. René Sieffert translated it into French between 1997 and 2003.
Who it is for
To be read in fragments, from one book to another; the complete French translation comes with a commentary.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the oldest surviving anthology of poetry in Japanese, it has been translated into English several times since 1834.