THE TALES OF THE HEIKE, translated by Burton Watson, edited with an introduction by Haruo Shirane, glossary and bibliographies compiled by Michael Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006, 216 pp., illustrated, $24.50 (cloth).

The "Heike Monogatari," that famous account of the events that led to the downfall of the Heike clan and the ascendancy of the Genji, covers the years between 1131 and 1331, but is mainly concerned with the 18 years between the premiership of Kiyomori, head of the Heike, and the destruction of that clan at the battle of Dan-no-ura.

These events are presented in great detail and there is an abundance of violent action, but the work is most distinguished by its tone. This is frankly elegiac. We view the events from a distance; morality is allowed to intrude from time to time; the fall of the Heike is seen with an ethical eye; and the lesson of the eternal evanescence of all things is detected in many an incident.

One of the reasons is that the Heike story was originally oral literature. It was a kind of ballad-chronicle chanted by biwa-playing storytellers. It was not until the early 14th century that it was transcribed, and even that original work has not survived. What is now regarded as the most authoritative text dates from 1371, a revision of this transcription.