Joy, Despair, Illusion, Dreams
Twenty Plays from the Nō Tradition
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Columbia University Press
Published:9th Apr '24
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Nō drama, which integrates speech, song, dance, music, mask, and costume into a distinctive art form, is among Japan’s most revered cultural traditions. It gained popularity in the fourteenth century, when the actor and playwright Zeami (1363–1443) drew the favor of the shogun with his theatrical innovations. Nō’s intricacies and highly stylized conventions continue to attract Japanese and Western appreciation, and a repertoire of some 250 plays is performed today.
Joy, Despair, Illusion, Dreams presents a selection of Nō plays, magnificently rendered in English by Royall Tyler, an eminent scholar and translator of classical Japanese literature. It includes both canonical and lesser-known works of Zeami’s, as well as anonymous works. Several are outside the established repertoire, offering glimpses of Nō before the tradition was codified in the Edo period, and have not previously been translated into English. An introduction describes the structure, formal features, and performance conventions of Nō plays, and brief essays precede each work. Through Tyler’s authoritative scholarship and keen ear for the subtlety and beauty of the language, Joy, Despair, Illusion, Dreams gives Anglophone readers access to the complex art of Nō.
Rightly celebrated for his magnificent English renderings of TheTaleofGenji, TheTaleof the Heike, and other classic Japanese texts, Royall Tyler has struck again with another set of sparkling translations of plays from the Noh drama. The great medieval playwrights subtly spoke from, to, and of the heart; Tyler lets them sing. -- Paul S. Atkins, author of Revealed Identity: The Noh Plays of Komparu Zenchiku
It is hard to see how Royall Tyler could improve on perfection, but in this latest offering from our most talented Nō translator, a revised translation of twenty Nō plays, Tyler achieves an ideal combination of elegance and accessibility. Including seven non-repertoire (bangai) plays, three additional essays, and several translations of engi (temple origin legends), this book is highly recommended as a classroom source for understanding Nō in Zeami’s time. -- Susan Blakeley Klein, author of Dancing the Dharma: Religious and Political Allegory in Japanese Noh Theater
ISBN: 9780231214773
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
360 pages