Kenneth Rexroth has been trying for decades to accomplish what has been regarded as an impossible task—rendering Japanese and Chinese poems into acceptable English verse without losing the effects of the original. And he comes nearer to achieving the impossible with each new volume. [One Hundred More Poems from the Japanese] is a sequel to One Hundred Poems from the Japanese…. The new volume differs from the old in several aspects. With the exception of the haiku and some classic nature poems, the theme is always love—earthy, frankly sensual love. A girl in contemporary poems sings with astonishing candor the joy of lovemaking. The sorrow of parting at dawn and yearning for the lover are conveyed with subtlety and delicate beauty in the ancient tanka and with directness and sensuality in the folk songs and the modern tanka of poetess Yosano.

Stylistically, the translations are generally...