A Hundred Autumn Leaves

Book excerpt: A Hundred Autumn Leaves is an annotated liberal English translation of the hundred poems of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu -- a thirteenth century Japanese anthology. It surveys and tracks Japanese history through the eyes of the hundred poets, and presents medieval history from a completely different niche. It interprets and analyzes the poems for the lay English reader and also contains short biographical notes on all the hundred poets. For all who wish to know how Japanese poetry developed, how mythology, history and poetry played a game of hide and seek in the minds of Heian Japanese poets, how the perfect Haiku or a perfect Tanka is created; if you want to get an access into the world of poets and emperors and empresses of Heian Japan, this is not a wrong choice.