[/floatr]TIME: The Timeless 100Fujiwara no Teika (1162-1241) was, by most accounts, a horrible bully. The Japanese nobleman lived through the country's violent transition from the Heian aristocratic era to the martial Kamakura shogunate, and was surly, severe and infamously ugly, as if malformed by the turbulence of his times. But as a poet and editor, Teika has transcended the ages. He compiled Japan's most influential and long-lasting anthology of poems: the Hyakunin Isshu...The poems have penetrated the culture so deeply that some Japanese still play a centuries-old card game (karuta) based on them...An excellent new translation of these poems makes clear why they have mattered so much for so long. "One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each: A Translation of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu" by Peter McMillan reveals the vivid emotions that have kept the heart of the collection beating all this time...more...
