The Tale of the Heike is Japan's great martial epic: a masterpiece of world literature and the
progenitor of all samurai stories. This major and groundbreaking new Penguin translation is by
Royall Tyler acclaimed translator of The Tale of Genji . First assembled from scattered oral
poems in the early fourteenth century The Tale of the Heike is Japan's Iliad - a grand-scale
depiction of the wars between the Heike and Genji clans. Legendary for its magnificent and
vivid set battle scenes it is also a work filled with intimate human dramas and emotions
contemplating Buddhist themes of suffering and separation as well as universal insights into
love loss and loyalty. The narrative moves back and forth between the two great warring clans
between aristocratic society and street life adults and children great crowds and
introspection. No Japanese work has had a greater impact on subsequent literature theatre
music and films or on Japan's sense of its own past. Royall Tyler's new translation is the
first to capture the way The Tale of the Heike was originally performed. It re-creates the work
in its full operatic form with speech poetry blank verse and song that convey its character
as an oral epic in a way not seen before fully embracing the rich and vigorous language of the
original texts. Beautifully illustrated with fifty-five woodcuts from the nineteenth-century
artistic master Katsushika Hokusai and bolstered with maps character guides genealogies and
rich annotation this is a landmark edition. Royall Tyler taught Japanese language and
literature for many years at the Australian National University. He has a B.A. from Harvard
University and a PhD from Columbia University and has taught at Harvard Stanford and the
University of Wisconsin. His translation of The Tale of Genji was acclaimed by publications
such as The New York Times Book Review .
