Audio only
Length1h 37m
About this audiobook
This collection of Japanese poetry was compiled and translated into English from an anthology known as The Collection of Myriad Leaves, and from a number of other anthologies made by imperial decree between the tenth and fifteenth centuries. This period has come to be considered the golden age of Japanese literature.
In those days, the cultivation of verse was especially considered the privilege of the princely and aristocratic. A poem written by a man of obscure rank was sometimes included in the royal collections, but the name of the author was omitted as a matter of course. The distinctive qualities of classic Japanese poetry are undoubtedly due to the air in which it flourished. The verse is never religious, and sometimes is even immoral, but it is always suffused with a certain hue of courtliness, even gentleness. The language is of the most refined delicacy; the thought is never boorish or rude. There is a sense of self-collectedness also found in the poetry of France and Italy during the Renaissance, and of England during the reign of Queen Anne.
These examples of Japanese poetry exhibit the most exquisite polish, allied with an avoidance of every shocking or perturbing theme; they combine the enduring lustre of a precious metal with the tenuity of gold-leaf. The more vivid emotions of grief and love, as well as the horrors of war, are either avoided or referred to by elegant periphrasis. These ancient anthologies have often been drawn upon as inspiration for poets of more recent times.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★ 3.2 (11)
Includes Goodreads
GenrePoetry
Length1 hr 37 mins
Narrated bySarah Bacaller, Denis Daly
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateFeb 21, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Saundarya LahariUnknown Author3h 16m4.6 (256)$18 · $0.00
The Mesnevi (Annotated)Maulana Jalal al-Din Rumi18h 41m4.5 (4.2K)$2 · $0.00
Songs of a SourdoughRobert W. Service2h 13m4.5 (13.6K)$1 · $0.00
Little Flower of Jesus (Annotated)Thérèse of Lisieux5h 4m4.5 (1.4K)$1.99 · $0.00
The Poems of LeopardiGiacomo Leopardi3h 9m4.5 (3.6K)$2 · $0.00
Nikki Giovanni: Love Poems & A Good CryNikki Giovanni2h 44m4.6 (405)$18 · $0.00
The Complete Poetry of Walt Whitman (Annotated)Walt Whitman19h 58m4.5 (4.2K)$1.99 · $0.00
A Year with RumiColeman Barks5h 56m4.5 (2.6K)$24 · $0.00
Complete Poetry of Rudyard Kipling (Annotated)Rudyard Kipling22h 50m4.5 (2.6K)$3.99 · $0.00
The Complete PoemsPaul Laurence Dunbar12h 40m4.5 (1.5K)$21 · $0.00
The Odes of John Keats - Complete CollectionJohn Keats22h 16m4.5 (1.3K)$1 · $0.00
SonnetsWilliam Shakespeare2h 39m4.4 (128.3K)$3 · $0.00
PoemsEdna St. Vincent Millay2h 39m4.5 (1.3K)$2 · $0.00
PoemsW. B. Yeats5h 6m4.4 (46.9K)$1 · $0.00
Metamorphoses (Annotated)Ovid28h 37m4.3 (80.8K)$2 · $0.00
THE FLOWERS OF EVILCharles Baudelaire2h 28m4.3 (94.6K)$1.99 · $0.00
A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old SoulGeorge MacDonald2h 9m4.4 (839)$2 · $0.00
Paradise Lost + Paradise Regained (2 Unabridged Classics + Original Illustrations by Gustave Doré) (Annotated)John Milton11h 56m4.4 (2.2K)$3 · $0.00
The Ballad of the White HorseG. K. Chesterton2h 43m4.4 (3.8K)$1.20 · $0.00
PORPHYRIA'S LOVERRobert Browning7h 52m4.3 (3K)$1.99 · $0.00
You may also like
The Complete Poems (Annotated)Henry Wadsworth Longfellow38h 8m4.2 (360)$2 · $0.00
Christmas DaysJeanette Winterson9h 9m4.0 (9.1K)$20 · $0.00
The Kojiki, or Records of Ancient MattersAnonymous1h 30m4.0 (4.9K)$1.99 · $0.00
A House Of PomegranatesOscar Wilde 3h 13m4.2 (14.3K)Free
Pistis SophiaGeorge Robert Stowe Mead11h 53m4.2 (665)$1.20 · $0.00
Black Bird, Blue RoadSofiya Pasternack7h 29m4.2 (1.2K)$24 · $0.00
The Enchanted Life of Adam HopeRhonda Riley16h 23m3.9 (7.5K)$40 · $0.00
Gun IslandAmitav Ghosh10h 21m3.8 (6.3K)$20
The Original Poems of Edward Edwin Foot, of Her Majesty's Customs, LondonEdward Edwin Foot7h 45m$2 · $0.00
A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American IndiansH. C. Yarrow6h 50m$2 · $0.00
Occoneechee, the Maid of the Mystic LakeRobert Frank Jarrett7h 18m$2 · $0.00
The Complete Works of Washington Irving: Short Stories, Plays, Historical Works, Poetry and Autobiographical Writings (Illustrated)Washington Irving214h 17m4.5 (17)$1 · $0.00
Englisch lernen Audio - Romantisches GroßbritannienSpotlight Verlag1h$14
The Burial Customs of the Ancient GreeksFrank Pierrepont Graves2h 9m$2 · $0.00
Legends and Stories of IrelandSamuel Lover8h 51m3.1 (17)$1.20 · $0.00
Once Upon A Time, Animal StoriesCarolyn Sherwin Bailey2h 24m$2.30
Big Book of Christmas TalesLouisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, O. Henry, Hans Christian Andersen, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Selma Lagerlöf, Elizabeth Harrison, Beatrix Potter, Susan Coolidge, Anthony Trollope, George MacDonald, Brothers Grimm, L. Frank Baum, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Charles Dickens, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Thomas Hardy, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Booker T. Washington, Anton Chekhov, Armando Palacio Valdés, Alphonse Daudet, Benito Pérez Galdós, Marcel Prévost, Edgar Wallace, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Guy de Maupassant, Saki, Elizabeth Gaskell, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Arthur Conan Doyle259h 46m4.2 (40)$1.99 · $0.00
Tales and StoriesMary Wollstonecraft Shelley13h 52m3.4 (38)$3
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 09Richard F. Burton15h 42m3.7 (27)$2.30
A Russian Christmas PartyLeo Tolstoy43m3.7 (25)$2 · $0.00