BOOK OF ASIA
PHILIPPINES, THAILAND , CHINA, INDONESIA , MALASIA, INDIA, JAPAN, KOREA, VIETNAM.
Five Millenniums of Verse from Thirty-three Languages
General Editor - Keith Bosley / New York . Weatherhill . Tokyo
Hardbound - 315 pages
$13.95
TO THE READER
This book presents English translation of poetry from thirty-three languages, ranging in space from Japan to Egypt and medieval Spain
from Indonesia to Siberia-a vast area that may be called the Orient with more cultural than geographical accuracy-and in time from the
third millennium BC to the present day. It is arranged by language, moving roughly from east to west-the opposite direction to most
empire-builders: thus individual traditions are illustrated and the reader can discover cross-currents for himself. Selections from the
"great" Oriental Literature-Chinese, Philippines, Japanese, Indian, Persian, Arab, Hebrew-have been kept to a decent minimum to allow
many other literatures to make a rare (or even first) appearance in English: thus the presence of only four out of some twenty literary languages
in the Indian subcontinent makes possible the introduction of -say-Abkhaz, which in turn is but one of at least seven Northern Caucasian
languages sharing the Nart oral tradition.
POEM FROM THE PHILIPPINES ON PAGE 98 , 99..SPANISH JOSE RIZAL 1861-96 POEMS BEFORE EXECUTION |