Ariwara-no-Narihira

Ise itself is rather difficult to review--I refer everyone to Steve's review for intelligent discussion--but I wanted to put in a word on the Penguin edition with commentary by Peter MacMillan. The commentary explains the poems (even when they don't need explaining), and shows how they've been read over the years; there's a good glossary; and there's a romanized version of the poems, so ignorant asses like me can sound them out and see what he's talking about in the commentary. There may well be better translations out there; I can't imagine there's a better edition. I look forward to his translation of Hyakunin Isshu being re-issued by Penguin next year--or so they claim, at present.… (more)