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ManâyÅshÅ« (Book 5)
A New Translation Containing the Original Text, Kana Transliteration, Romanization, Glossing and Commentary
Series: - ManâyÅshÅ«, Volume: 5
Editor / Translator:
This is the second volume to be published in the 20-volume set. It includes 114 poems (104 tanka, ten choka), traditionally considered to be the zoka genre, although some of them can be classified as benka, since they deal with death and sorrow. It also contains two poems in Chinese. The volume has several long introductions (all written in Chinese) to the poems that follow. All the poems in this volume were composed between AD 724 and 733, which represents a much greater homogeneity in comparison to books one to four. Most of the poems were written by Yamanoue-no Okura (AD660-733), one of the greatest ManâyÅshÅ« poets, who was possibly a Korean from Kudara (Paekche), or at least a descendant of Kudara immigrants to Japan. The spelling system in this volume is predominantly phonographic, with only a few exceptions. In addition, the spelling system appears to reflect Early Western Old Japanese, as demonstrated by Bentley (1997, 2002). The same can be said about its overall grammatical features.
Alexander Vovin (1961-2022) was a Russian-born historical linguist and philologist who held appointments at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts in St. Petersburg (1983-89), the University of Michigan (1990-94), the Miami University (1994-95), and the University of Hawaiâi (1995-2013). His last position was as Directeur dâétudes at the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales at the Centre de recherche sur les langues de lâAsie Orientale in Paris (2013-22). Vovin was the author or editor of about 25 books and published well over 100 academic articles. He was also the founding editor of the International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics (Brill).