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Guests from Far Places (Gaste von Weither) ed Sakamoto Yukio (Kohjin), Morosaws Iwao, Inui Hiroyuki, Kansai UP 1999, ppl40, ISBN 4-87354-276-6 Y1400 (£9)

This lavishly-produced large paperback contains six versions of an Autumn renga produced by 10 professors of language or literature: six Japanese, two German and one from each of USA and UK. Each verse of the renga was translated into the other two languages as they went along; and then all three versions were revised. There was some dispute over the revisions and both the original and the revised sets are given. There is an extensive running commentary in three languages and personal essays by some participants.

Guests from Far Places was awarded 2nd place in the BHS Sasakawa Prize Awards. It uses the fixed moon and blossoms positions creatively, has seasonal verses and flows in great harmony (whatever the disputes in the commentaries). No-one tries to do too much; it is a group of litterateurs aware of the traditions and being cross-culturally polite, in the relaxed Autumn mood before work starts again after summer travels:-

Nevertheless, there are striking and surprising turns and stretches which are deep and lively, eg vv 7-12:-

The last six verses (the kyu) are resonant and come to climax and resolution. The writers were working in three languages and many of them were new to renga. To have produced according to plan is an achievement; the result is pleasing and worthwhile.

The revisions have some interest. Only 10 of the 36 Japanese verses were changed, but in English and German all were but 4 or 5. For the German, I can say only that what is lost on the roundabouts seems gained on the swings; but the revised English version is clearly inferior. The new language is more explicit and awkward, is weighted with designs on the reader and spoils the flow in the links, giving preference to the verse before or after. It’s a clear demonstration that simple language and understated links are best.

Guests from Far Places comes on the heels of Three Cockerels (BS 10/4), also a sequence in English by mainly Japanese writers. However, the latter’s bright scenes are not renga: not because there are more willow-pattern derivatives than in Guests from Far Places, but because a ginko sequence cannot link. There’s fun to be had in stringing ginko verses: it gives them a second run and may reveal them more fully. But it is misleading to claim that this patchwork quilting is renga: it’s what a set of slides is to a video. The slides can be arranged attractively, but they’re without the live connections of renga, whether as a game or an art. Guests from Far Places, on the other hand, is the real thing.