Little Songs of the Geisha

In "Little Songs of the Geisha", Liza Dalby stretches her scholarly wings. She's an anthropologist who went through a year of geisha training as part of her study, learning skills such as shamisen playing and ko-uta, or "little songs". In this volume, she presents twenty-five traditional ko-uta, complete with notes on meanings and inferences lost on most Western audiences, and pointers on Japanese symbolism. Throughout, she brings out overarching themes such as the identification with nature, particularly in the grip of strong feeling. Though some of the songs are poignant and some are disturbing (there's one about rape which paints it as an erotic act), Ms. Dalby does everything I like in a book of poetry. She includes the original language side by side with her translations, and in this case goes one better by including a fine calligraphy hand as well as the typeset romanji. She also includes both Western and Japanese musical notation for one of the shamisen songs, to make it easier to get an idea what they sound like. Even for a reader unfamiliar with Japanese culture, this book is worthwhile.