Here, “tradition” is invoked to connect tenth-century conventions—though in the tenth century and beyond, men did write private letters and occasionally even journals in wabun (Japanese prose)—directly to those governing a woman born nine centuries later. The implication that Japanese could never have considered classical Chinese “their own language” is also debatable, and early modern male writers such as Shikitei Sanba, whom Futabatei Shimei cites as an infl uence in “Yo ga genbun itchi no yurai,” consciously strove to represent vernacular speech in their writing. I could continue to list points that troubled me about this anthology, some nitpicky, some more signifi cant. In a sense, though, to do so would be beside the point. Yes, there are problems with the framing and structure of this anthology, and more errors and editorial oversights than one might wish. But it is still an extraordinarily stimulating, creative, and even inspiring collection of frequently brilliant translations. Hats off to Sumie Jones and Charles Shirō Inouye for having the energy, dedication, and perseverance to realize this immensely valuable project. I know I will be using translations from A Tokyo Anthology in classes for many years to come.

中文翻译：

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佐藤春夫与查尔斯·埃克斯利的现代日本文学

在这里，“传统”被用来将 10 世纪的惯例联系起来——尽管在 10 世纪及以后，男人确实用 wabun（日本散文）写私人信件，有时甚至写日记——直接与那些统治九个世纪后出生的女人的人联系起来。日本人永远不可能将文言文视为“他们自己的语言”的暗示也值得商榷，而近代早期男性作家，如二板亭诗明在《Yo ga genbun itchi no yurai》中引用的影响力的 Shikitei Sanba，有意识地努力在他们的写作中代表白话。我可以继续列出让我对这本选集感到困扰的要点，有些是挑剔的，有些是更重要的。不过，从某种意义上说，这样做是无关紧要的。是的，这本选集的框架和结构存在问题，以及比人们希望的更多的错误和编辑疏忽。但它仍然是一个非常刺激、创造性甚至鼓舞人心的翻译作品集。向 Sumie Jones 和 Charles Shirō Inouye 致敬，感谢他们以精力、奉献精神和毅力实现了这个非常有价值的项目。我知道未来很多年我都会在课堂上使用东京选集的翻译。