Tales of Moonlight and Rain (Translations from the Asian Classics) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Tales of Moonlight and Rain (Translations from the Asian Classics)? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Tales of Moonlight and Rain (Translations from the Asian Classics). Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Tales of Moonlight and Rain (Translations from the Asian Classics) ReviewUeda Akinari's classic work of eerie fiction has been translated before quite a few times and always with obvious dedication and care, but when it comes right down to it this version by Anthony Chambers outdoes the others and will doubtlessly remain the definitive English "Tales of Moonlight and Rain" for some time. Of course, it's hard to go wrong with such a fine series of stories, each of which is really a masterpiece of storytelling; they may be strange, haunting, macabre, mysterious, or whimsical, but they're never dull, and it's no mystery why this Tokugawa classic still grips readers centuries later in Japan and abroad. Still, Chambers' rendition stands out in faithfully capturing Ueda's densely allusive, rich prose style with meticulous care, and indeed this is a key factor in elevating "Ugetsu Monogatari" above a host of other, similar works of the time. In so doing, Chambers has deliberately avoided overtranslating Ueda to sound English or twentieth-century, allowing the 18th-century Japanese flavor of the original to come to the fore. Paradoxically as it may seem at first blush, this makes the stories much more compelling actually. Just compare this passage as rendered by Leon Zolbrod (whose translation I've read and treasured for many years, so please no offense) with Chambers' more accurate rendition:
[ No sooner did he open the door of the sleeping chamber, than a demon thrust its head out at the priest. The projecting extremity was so huge that it filled the doorway, gleaming even whiter than newly fallen snow, with eyes like mirrors and horns like the bare boughs of a tree. The creature opened its mouth more than three feet wide; its crimson tongue darted, as if to swallow the priest in a single gulp.
'Horror!' cried the holy man, as he dropped the flask that he held in his hand. His legs no longer able to support him, he fell over backwards and crawled away, barely managing to escape.
'It's awful. The creature is a god of evil; my prayers are useless. If I hadn't got away on hands and knees, I'd surely have lost my life,' he said, losing consciousness.] (Zolbrod, page 180)
[He advanced toward the bedroom. The moment he opened the door, a giant snake thrust out its head and confronted him. And what a head this was! Filling the door frame, gleaming whiter than a pile of snow, its eyes like mirrors, its horns like leafless trees, its gaping mouth three feet across with a crimson tongue protruding, it seemed about to swallow him in a single furious gulp. He screamed and threw down the flask. Since his legs would not support him, he rolled about and then crawled and stumbled away, barely making his escape. To the others he said, "Terrible! It is a calamitous deity; how can a monk like me exorcise it? Were it not for these hands and feet, I would have lost my life." Even as he spoke, he lost consciousness.] (Chambers, page 178)
The first gets the point across fine, but the second just sort of grabs you somehow.
The extensive and exhaustive annotations, the interesting and informative introduction, and the fine reproductions of the original woodcut illustrations from the 1776 edition all add to the overall reading experience. I found the intro especially interesting in analyzing the total structure of the work, demonstrating that it's far from a random assortment tossed together; kind of like a symphony or a good concept album, each story reflects on and informs the others for a total effect. And in general, this book manages a wonderful synthesis of the scholarly and the literary that does full justice to Ueda's erudite and engaging moonlit, rainy tales.Tales of Moonlight and Rain (Translations from the Asian Classics) Overview

Want to learn more information about Tales of Moonlight and Rain (Translations from the Asian Classics)?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now