A new book for Jos Vos

Jos Vos, who teaches Dutch literature, Theory of Knowledge and World Literature on our IB Diploma programme has just published a new book entitled Yoshino, together with the Dutch photographer Cuny Janssen. It is an English-language anthology of poetry and prose translations (coupled with a travel story written by Jos) about Mount Yoshino, near Osaka in western Japan.

Jos says that “Mount Yoshino is reputed to be one of the most beautiful places in Japan, and numerous legends are associated with it. In the 7th century Japanese sovereigns built mansions on the banks of the Yoshino river, in the 11th century aristocrats went on pilgrimages to the top of the mountain, and ever since then Yoshino has become one of the most popular places to admire the spring blossoms.”

Apart from teaching at St. Clare's, Jos also translates literature from Japanese into Dutch. He's translated many Japanese books over the years and since 2005 he has been working on the translation of the 1,000-year-old novel Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji) by Murasaki Shikibu, which is due out next year.

December