One Hundred Poems from Old Japan: A New Translation of the Hyakunin Isshu [With Free Online Audio Recordings]...

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Michael Freiling Fujiwara no Teika

One Hundred Poems from Old Japan

A New Translation of the Hyakunin Isshu [With Free Online Audio Recordings]

Michael Freiling, Fujiwara no Teika

$34.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Tuttle
01 August 2025

Poetry; Poetry anthologies; Asian history

'One of the most respected and oft-quoted compilations of the Japanese poetic canon...

A must-read for anyone interested in Japanese culture or poetry in general.'

William Scott Wilson, renowned translator of Japanese literature

In the pale dawn your coldness as we parted froze my heart nothing now so chills me as morning's early light

Mibu no Tadamine

This completely new translation of the most famous collection of Japanese poetry ever produced, the Hyakunin Isshu (""A hundred poems by a hundred poets""), contains works written between the 7th and 8th centuries that were collected and published by the poet Fujiwara no Teika at the end of that era. The collection is still widely read in Japan today by school children and everyday people.

These poems provide insights on daily life in ancient Japan while addressing universal themes of love, loneliness, aging and the beauty of nature

all highly relevant today.

The poets whose works are featured here include:

Sei Shonagon, author of The Pillow Book Lady Murasaki Shikibu, author of The Tale of Genji Emperor Gotoba, who ruled from 1193-1198 Sugiwara no Michizane, a renowned Confucian scholar

Each poem is presented in the Japanese script with a Romanised version and English translation. An introduction by translator Michael Freiling provides essential information about the collection, an overview of the poems and poets, and reflections on why the work remains so popular in Japan today.

This new hardcover gift edition is illustrated in full-colour with stunning woodblock prints created for the poems by the famous 19th-century artists Hiroshige, Kuniyoshi and Kunisada. Free online audio recordings of all the poems are available in Japanese and English.

Translated by: Michael Freiling
Compiled by: Fujiwara no Teika
Imprint: Tuttle
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 203mm, Width: 140mm,
Weight: 524g
ISBN: 9784805319239
ISBN 10: 4805319232
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 01 August 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Michael Freiling studied computer science at the University of San Francisco, where he also found the time to take poetry classes and became interested in Japanese literature. In 1977, he received a Henry Luce scholarship and was assigned to study at Kyoto University for a year. He spent most of that time studying Japanese and translating Heian-era poetry. He returned to Kyoto years later, in 2014, where he began writing poetry in both English and Japanese. His work has been published in anthologies and in the haiku journals Seashores and Frogpond. In 2018, he was asked to help translate a collection of senryu poems written by Japanese-Americans who were unlawfully imprisoned during World War II; it was published in 2023 under the title They Never Asked (Oregon State University Press).

Reviews for One Hundred Poems from Old Japan: A New Translation of the Hyakunin Isshu [With Free Online Audio Recordings]

""…one of the most respected and oft-quoted compilations of the Japanese poetic canon. Translated with both grace and precision, the poems are elegant expressions of the depth of human emotions blended with evocations of the natural world in which they lived. A must-read for anyone interested in Japanese culture or poetry in general."" —William Scott Wilson, renowned translator of Japanese literature