SOURCE: Aston, W. G. “Japanese Poetry Generally—The ‘Manyōshiu’—Works in Chinese.” In A History of Japanese Literature, pp. 24-52. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1899.

In the following excerpt from his survey of Japanese literature, Aston summarizes the principal characteristics of the Man'yōshū and offers several translated examples of the poetry it contains.

Nara Poetry

While the eighth century has left us little or no [Japanese] prose literature of importance, it was emphatically the golden age of poetry. Japan had now outgrown the artless effusions … [of a previous era], and during this period produced a body of verse of an excellence which has never since been surpassed. The reader who expects to find this poetry of a nation just emerging from the barbaric stage of culture characterised by rude, untutored vigour, will be surprised to learn that, on the contrary, it is distinguished by polish...