November 9, 2024

Entertaining Modern Adaptation of Classical Japanese Romantic Poetry

This book adapts several poems from the Japanese literary classic 万葉集, translating them from classical Japanese into a combination of 奈良弁 and 若者言葉. All of the chosen poems center around love.

Format: The book starts with the translation into modern Nara-ben (which is similar to Kansai-ben), with the original poem in classical Japanese on the following page. Both poems have furigana. There is then a short explanation of the poem and the people involved, if known. Finally, the poem's author, sender, and intended recipient are included.

Difficulty: I can't read classical Japanese, so I only phonetically read some of the original poems. As for the modern adaptations/translations, I enjoyed piecing together the Nara-ben and reading the poems' supplementary information. While the explanations were usually 1-3 sentences long, I did look up more information about the more dramatic and entertaining historical figures if I didn't already know about them.

Enjoyment: I sped through this in only a couple of days. It's not very text dense and it was a fun experience to read poetry in Japanese and to compare the modern translations to the classical Japanese. I laughed a lot while reading the poetry, as some of it was very silly and dramatic. I'd definitely like to revisit it if I ever study classical Japanese.

Gradings:12
1
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on November 9, 2024
similar in difficulty to第四間氷期L39
on November 9, 2024
easier than献灯使L39
on November 9, 2024
harder thanとかげL36
on November 9, 2024
easier thanAll You Need Is KillL36
on November 9, 2024
similar in difficulty to彼岸花が咲く島L35
on November 9, 2024
similar in difficulty to歴史をこじらせた女たちL35
on November 9, 2024
on November 9, 2024
harder thanあんL30
on November 9, 2024
on November 9, 2024
on November 9, 2024