Translations of 19 no and nine kyogen plays seeking to 'produce English poetry which reproduces the texture of the Japanese' . . . an experiment in translating the 'untranslatable' word play which provides so much of the effect of no in the original. --Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese

Japanese noh theatre or the drama of "perfected art" flourished in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries largely through the genius of the dramatist Zeami. An intricate fusion of music, dance, mask, costume and language, the dramas address many subjects, but the idea of "form" is more central than 'meaning' and their structure is always ritualized. Selected for their literary merit, the twenty-four plays in this volume dramatize such ideas as the relationship between men and the gods, brother and sister, parent and child, lover and beloved, and the power of greed and desire. Revered in Japan...