The definitive anthology-unrivalled in scope and content

A millennium and a half old, Japan's poetry is widely known and loved around the world. Covering the earliest primitive period through the Nara, Heian, Kamakura, Muramachi, and Edo periods, right up to the modern day, The Penguin Book of Japanese Verse contains more than 700 poems, including short forms such as tanka and haiku, as well as folk-poetry, and more complex verse with which Western readers may be less familiar. Whether read for pleasure or scholarship, this accessible translation displays the full wit, sorrow, and subtlety of Japanese poetry and will remain the authoritative volume for years to come.