■ Explanation
This book is Arthur Lloyd's faithful translation of Dichtergrüsse aus dem Osten : japanische Dichtungen, a lengthy (97-page) collection of the poetry translated into German by Karl Florenz, who called Japan "the eastern land," and was published in the form of a "chirimen-bon" (i.e., Crepe-paper book). The depth of Florenz's knowledge of Japanese poetry may be gathered from the fact that he subsequently authored a history of Japanese literature published back in Germany.
The book consists of six chapters devoted to poems on affections, poems on nature, poems on life, court poetry, miscellaneous poems, and epic poems, respectively. It contains many verses from the Man'yoshu, the earliest extant anthology of Japanese verse, which Florenz highly esteemed, including long poems and envoys by Yamanoue-no-Okura, Otomo-no-Yakamochi, and unknown authorship. Florenz also selected poems by Mibuno Tadamine and Ki-no-Tsurayuki from the Kokin Wakashu, Collection of Ancient and Modern Japanese Poetry. As contemporary specimens, he included a poem inspired by the earthquake of 2 October 1855 and another on the medieval night-time attack at Okehazama as exemplifying new styles of poetry. The value of this collection is further enhanced by the elegant illustrations on every page, produced by Shoso, Yoshimune, and Kason.
The book has the English translation of the preface by Florenz, which is not found in the German edition in the collection of our library, as well as a page-by-page list of the illustrations and the illustrators who made them at the end.
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