Tales and Moonlight and Rain by Ueda Akinari

Fòrum PMJS

Michael Watson comunica:

Columbia University Press is pleased to announce the publication of a
new translation of Tales and Moonlight and Rain by Ueda Akinari and
translated by Anthony Chambers.

"Anthony Chambers, a master translator of modern fiction, has
produced a superb translation of one of the great works of early
modern Japan. The informative introductions, careful notes, and
wonderful style draw us into the incredibly rich and allusive world
of the strange and marvelous that Ueda Akinari has created and that
has inspired many generations of writers and readers. A work to be
savored that deepens with each rereading."
—Haruo Shirane, Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature, Columbia
University

"Anthony Chambers has captured the haunting, emotion-charged
atmosphere of Ueda Akinari's tales. This superb new translation
reveals their central place in the millennium-long tradition of
Japanese fiction."—Howard Hibbett, professor of Japanese literature
emeritus, Harvard University

First published in 1776, the nine gothic tales in this collection are
Japan's finest and most celebrated examples of the literature of the
occult. They subtly merge the world of reason with the realm of the
uncanny and exemplify the period's fascination with the strange and
the grotesque. The title /Ugetsu monogatari/ (literally "rain-moon
tales") alludes to the belief that mysterious beings appear on
cloudy, rainy nights and in mornings with a lingering moon. In
"Shiramine," the vengeful ghost of the former emperor Sutoku
reassumes the role of king; in "The Chrysanthemum Vow," a faithful
revenant fulfills a promise; "The Kibitsu Cauldron" tells a tale of
spirit possession; and in "The Carp of My Dreams," a man straddles
the boundaries between human and animal and between the waking world
and the world of dreams. The remaining stories feature demons,
fiends, goblins, strange dreams, and other manifestations beyond all
logic and common sense.
The eerie beauty of this masterpiece owes to Akinari's masterful
combination of words and phrases from Japanese classics with
creatures from Chinese and Japanese fiction and lore.

About the Translator:

Anthony H. Chambers is a professor of Japanese literature and
literary translation at Arizona State University. He has translated
many works of Japanese literature, both classical and modern, and is
the author of /The Secret Window: Ideal Worlds in Tanizaki's Fiction.