La poésie veut quelque chose d'énorme de barbare et de sauvage.(Poetry craves something enormous, barbarous and wild).-DiderotI would much rather meet Murasaki than I would the quirky and observant Sei Shonagon or the sexually charged, emotionally volatile, religiously inspired Nijo, fun though those two might be, as the more substantive woman of the tradition. It would take some time breaking down her barriers, but once through them the culture she'd impart would be tremendous. I know I am of a like mind with her when she complains and gossips in her diaries (in order to instruct us) about Sei Shonagon,(she's) dreadfully conceited. She thought herself so clever and littered her writings with Chinese characters; but if you examined them closely, they left a great deal to be desired. Those who think of themselves as being superior to everyone else in this way will inevitably suffer and come to a bad end, and people who have become so precious that they go out of their way to try and be sensitive in the most unpromising situations, trying to capture every moment of interest, however slight, are bound to look ridiculous and superficial. How can the future turn out well for them?Well enough that Sei Shonagon is used as an example in Japanese schools today as the epitome of excellent style in expression. But I think that despite that we could still have some good laughs about the silliness and illusions these children are being taught as we banter back and forth knowingly about the accessible cast.Translation Issues This has been an outstanding reading experience for me despite the English versions being a major barrier to enjoyment. Begun over two and a half years ago I've been reading it slowly, slowly, at a kind of pace as if I've been living within Murasaki's court. Now that I've almost finished the tale I feel that I can finally begin to read her in her splendor: after having read the first 400 pages in the Royall Tyler translation, the second 400 pages in the Arthur Waley translation, the next 150 pages or so in the Edward Seidensticker translation I realized just last month while browsing the Yosano Akiko modernization at Schoenhof's in Harvard Square that the years of studying Japanese have actually born some fruit. With great joy I discovered hers isn't so difficult to read - Yosano Akiko's own letters, essays and poems actually contain more classical elements than her version of Murasaki. With this one I can feel rest assured that the poems will be poems and not the weird approximations that we find with the English. Waley, for instance, pitches up the tone when the prose shifts to poetry so that there are many thees and thous and hithers and thithers, as we are brought back to some corner of Elizabethan England to look for a match. Tyler turns Murasaki's poetry into bland prose - you can skip past these "poems" and nothing would be lost. Seidensticker pretty much admitted in his memoir (which I read last month) that he has little interest in poetry to begin with (an astonishing thing to reveal). There's an unintentionally telling and amusing anecdote in his memoir that says while translating Kawabata he would often ask the novelist for explanations of his ambiguities... only to get blatantly ignored: you picture Kawabata thinking, if you cannot handle these on your own what are you doing translating us?I have spent the past two years plus, basically, reading no more than a one thousand page introduction to Murasaki's tale. But the English translators have done the unimaginably difficult thing of translating The Tale of Genji in its entirety and they do offer an approximation so perhaps it's bad form criticizing the results. As approximations of the original the translation issue is not with style but of receiving a difference in kind. There's the complete absence of poetry, for one. And for Murasaki as an incomparable observer of male and female character where is the wit and the sense of humor? Waley hints at it, especially with the passages where the noisy, young lady-in-waiting is featured about halfway through: "She could be seen at any hour of the day running this way and that at full speed (and usually in the wrong direction) with a zest never equaled in the annals of this ancient house". Seidensticker sticks to a factual retelling while Tyler's slothful prose doesn't appear equipped to handle the ironies that are undoubtedly there (not to mention that he often employs court names and rank instead of character names, a fidelity to the text I found extremely confusing). With Tyler this lack of verbal dexterity is especially deflating, since he has done such excellent scholarly work which is presented as helpful footnotes at the bottom of each page (the Chinese poems from which Murasaki is drawing, for example). Tyler's English is the least readable, though some would say Waley's is, but if you've ever read Scott-Moncrieff's À la recherche du temps perdu Waley's prose will not be a problem. His aim is creating the psychological atmosphere first (similar to one that is found in Madame de La Fayette's La princesse de clèves), so that the sentences aren't really all that important once you recognize the world Murasaki has created. You read his sentences so as not to be able to quote them. If you're looking for "what-happens-to-who-and-when only" then Seidensticker's is excellent - but it feels like what you'd get if you retold Shakespeare through Hemingway's prose: not only have you stripped away all the excitement but it feels like the psychology isn't telling the whole story. Yosano Akiko's ironical touch in her poems is magnificent, especially when describing those kinds of faithful men who would preserve their sense of well-being over sexual excitement (once again, a quality sacrificed when she's turned into an English person through translation), so I proceed eagerly, onward, exhilarated, as the tale exists today within her hands. These versions do have their value, though. I'd recommend you compare the three versions next to each other to find out which one is the most appealing. I would also say that it's not absolutely necessary to read all one thousand pages plus to get a sense of Murasaki's genius given that the tale isn't plotted in a post-1789 democratic-era sense (that a novel must have a beginning, middle and an end). At some point "the main character" Genji fades from the scene and then the next generation takes over, almost becoming another tale altogether. For a sampling I would recommend the chapter focusing on Genji and his relation to his wife Aoi (chapter 9, called "Aoi"), or the ones dealing with his exile (chapters 12 and 13, called "Suma" and "Akashi"), or one of my favorite chapters, the one where great music is to be played in a concert, spring has appeared, and Genji, caught in the middle of a myriad of feminine sensibilities is at a loss for which woman to spend the night with (the short chapter 23, called "Hatsune" - Waley's version is the one to read).Murasaki's Genius 紫の かがやく花と 日の光 思ひあはざる ことわりもなし (紫に輝く花と日の光が思いたがう道理がない。)Make no mistakeWhen the light of the day shinesOn the violet MurasakiThe flowering is brightInvoking us to its truthYosano Akiko's translation of Murasaki starts with this poem she wrote as a kind of honorary gesture to the woman who set the standard for all Japanese literature to come. The word Murasaki is "a violet flower," and it has been here much longer than the day. So many 20th century poets and novelists have cut their teeth on her work. Higuchi Ichiyo, for one, who when she wrote in her diary the following she had Murasaki in mind, "Still, if one writes but a one-page piece that appeals to the human heart and depicts human sincerity, how dare we say it has no literary value? I do not desire to live lavishly by dressing splendidly and dwelling in a grand house. I am attempting to establish a thousand-year legacy as a writer; why would I tarnish it with (writing that is a kind of) temporary extravagance?" And it looks like Ichiyo is well on her way: more than a hundred years later she appears on Japanese currency. Out of all the genius men and women of literature I am reading now, then, Murasaki Shikibu intrigues me the most. The genius of Shakespeare - great actor, businessman and poet - is something I can easily visualize, even though there is little to say about his biography in relation to his work. "Murasaki Shikibu" was not her given name at birth. Her father was enough of a poet and close enough to power to have a small selection entered in an imperial anthology. Her brother, though essentially lazy, was positioned well enough to become Minister of War. Like Margaret Fuller and Virginia Woolf her father's influence on her education was significant. Through him she sharpened her intelligence based on close readings of the classics of Chinese literature. Like Nijo three centuries later, Murasaki appears to have tried to secure her family's place in the cosmos on her own, since her father didn't realize his talents as much as he should have. A familiar pattern emerges of fathers whose intelligence was superior for their daughters but not superior enough to create lasting art on their own. When Murasaki was born and when she died is guesswork. We know she was born of the great Fujiwara clan who ruled the court, but as close as this clan was to power birth didn't guarantee influence. How well individuals married determined the political environment and she served more than she stood out. Her husband was a much older man, had at least three wives that gave him children. He was a flamboyant character, and the records show that his high-handed methods as provincial governor caused disturbances "among the people". It is considered unusual that we have any records at all of these ladies-in-waiting. Murasaki was one, but her diaries show that it pleased her to keep plenty of distance between herself and the other women of the court ("So all they see of me is a facade. There are times when I am forced to sit with them and on such occasions I simply ignore their petty criticisms, not because I am particularly shy but because I consider it pointless. As a result, they consider me dull.") Eventually she became well-placed at the court due to her writing abilities, which was evidence that she might be an excellent tutor of the next generation of leaders. The walls of the imperial court were as claustrophobic as the Japanese workplace is today, where everything is noted and self-analysis is required (in this sense, poetry was and is the perfect vehicle for discovering truths of an enclosed environment, a way for circumventing everything from the ritual and the spontaneity of life that keeps "our world" a place of illusion). Her husband dies, and then not long after that she begins writing a tale that shapes the culture of her country for the next one thousand years. But at least up until the year 1100 - ironies abound - her daughter was known as the much greater poet.Murasaki might not have stood out at court, but she knew exactly the nature of power. A glance could tell you everything about an individual's place in the power structure. But what set apart a glance from Murasaki to those easily flattered or impressed and who tend to express themselves that way is that she could see straight through to the nature of a person's substance. Much is made of the rules and formality of the Heian court where Murasaki resided, but I think we'd be fooling ourselves if we think we don't have these intense strictures ourselves. Our rules are embedded in a much looser social structure, but when considering the way we apply for power through a resume where one's entire life work must fit on a single page, the way we fashion a glance still counts for everything. I know that for myself I can pretty much tell the quality of a writer by no more than a glance at a few of her pages. The recognition of the glance, according to Murasaki as expressed in her diaries,At normal times of informality, you can usually identify someone who has been less than careful about her appearance, but on this occasion everyone had tried as hard as possible to dress well and to look as attractive as the next. Just as in a beautiful example of a Japanese scroll, you could hardly tell them apart. The only difference you could detect was between the older women and the younger ones, and then only because some had hair that was thinning a little, whereas others still had thick tresses. Yet, strangely enough, it seemed that one glance at that part of the face which showed above the fans was enough to tell whether or not a person were truly elegant. Those who still stood out among such women were indeed exceptional (Bowring tr.) The Nature of a MasterpieceI have seen Murasaki's great male hero Genji described as a philanderer (or even more hysterically, a rapist), which makes me feel bad for those advocating this view, for the limited experience they must have had in their sexual relationships, real, imagined or otherwise. Murasaki explores love in all its tenderness and violence without flinching. As soon as Genji reaches maturity he never forgets any of the women who have touched his heart. He appears to suffer much more than he copulates. For creating a male hero like this Murasaki herself must have been exceptional. There are plenty of tears in this tale, but not any more than the guilt and regrets we find expressed in Jewish and Christian literature. Outside of translation issues, another huge barrier to enjoyment for the present-day reader is to find a way to read the tale outside of our economically privatized, middle-class conception of love. It may be hard to believe, but there was once a day when men and women went for lovemaking outside of the risk-averse, contraceptive version we practice today, a time when "no" didn't ALWAYS mean "no", and when the act was enjoyed on its own terms without having to let everyone in the world know who you are with. On the nights when Genji was away, Murasaki used to make her women read to her. She thus became acquainted with many of the old-fashioned romances, and she noticed that the heroes of these stories, however light-minded, faithless, or even vicious they might be, were invariably represented as in the end settling down to one steady and undivided attachment (Waley tr.)Much suffering on Genji's part is attributable to his appreciation of beauty on this earth which makes him very attractive to the women of the court. As a form of appreciation his sense of beauty is vast but it is also restless. And like all the men of the court it is situated within a world of political maneuvering.Nor did anyone make much effort to break in on her seclusion, for suitors are in general more attracted to girls with fathers who can back their interests than to a fatherless one immured in dull seclusion. It was however just the accounts of her strange and depressing existence that had excited Niou's interest, and he was determined to get into contact with her (Waley tr.).Simone Weil described beauty as a fruit which we look at without trying to seize it. The same goes for an affliction which we contemplate without drawing back from the pain. These two meditations when placed together fit Murasaki's vision perfectly.Onward then to the heart of Murasaki's vision! It will take up the rest of my life to reach her in her own language but here's one steady and undivided attachment I do not mind settling down with.___________________________________Explanation of images in spoiler.(view spoiler)[They are from fashion photographer Izima Kaoru and I believe highlight an important aspect of Murasaki's themes as they exist in contemporary life. There is nothing quite like a meditation upon the death of beauty at the moment it happens. Izima is simply putting into human form the sources of nature found in traditional Japanese poetry. When asked, "What do you think is the most poetic thing about death?" Izima answered "That death is the beginning of a legend as much as the end of a story, a way to fix the proof of his or her life as something universal into people's memories." It is the women and not the photographer who have staged their death scenes with Izima's cooperation in the ongoing series "Landscapes with a Corpse". For those unfamiliar with these famous Japanese actresses and models it is probable these images will be viewed abstractly, and maybe for that reason will appear disturbing. But for someone like myself who have followed their roles with fascination and pleasure, their imagined deaths were disturbing in the way intimacy is when it abruptly ends. 1) Kimura Yoshino wears Alexander McQueen, 2007. 2) Koizumi Kyoko wears Sybilla, 1993. 3) Hasegawa Kyoko wears Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, 2003. (hide spoiler)]
Artist: Toshiaki KatoWithout stories like these about the old days, though, how would we ever pass the time when there is nothing else to do? Besides, among these lies there are certainly some plausibly touching scenes, convincingly told; and yes, we know they are fictions, but even so we are moved and half drawn for no real reason to the pretty, suffering heroine. We may disbelieve the blatantly impossible but still be amazed by magnificently contrived wonders, and although these pall on quiet, second hearing, some are still fascinating. Lately, when my little girl has someone read to her and I stand there listening, I think to myself what good talkers there are in this world, and how this story, too, must come straight from someone's persuasively glib imagination- but perhaps not.This reading of the Tale of Genji, my second, was through a glass darkly. The first time through, I had a superficial understanding of what was going on, and it was so foreign and so different to my previous conceptions of human behavior that I gave up a third of the way in. This time, I have a basic understanding of the course of events, but little understanding of why they happened. Court rituals, titles, poetry, all pass by in a bare haze, even with all of the summaries and glossaries in the back of the book. I read only in the most minimal meaning of the word, and there was very little understanding of the text and the characters.Despite this general lack of understanding, however, there are brief flashes of brilliance which help me to understand why this book has such long-lasting appeal. The cited part above, in Chapter 25, is one of the first appeals on the meaning of fiction, and how such stories have a greater meaning beyond just passing the time. This, perhaps, is Murasaki's own justification for this novel idea, and the sort of idea which endures long after her. But still the book is so alien that I am confused by it. The first section of the plot concerns the Shining Price Genji's sexual escapades with a variety of women. Some of these have the air of young romance, but others are in so different from our idea of 'romance' that I was left completely distant from them. This is not only a matter of cultural norms, but some things which I personally found disgusting - rape and pseudo-incest among them. This is supposed to be romance? There is a gap of one thousand years between us and this novel. Is human nature really so different that we could not understand what all this is? Or is it just being overwhelmed by technical details, and forgetting the emotions which underlie the story? I suspect many of us will remain outside the pavilion forever, left to only gaze at the flowers.
What do You think about The Tale Of Genji (2002)?
This edition focuses more on scholarship and language than it needs to, and risks making the translator's work, difficult in the best of times, all to visible to the reader. It's almost as though Roayll Tyler's saying, "This beast of a novel from a thousand years ago is too impossible for a western reader to understand, so I'll footnote and explain everything."While many reviews tout this edition as more "user friendly" than the previous edition, the writing is just not very good. Royall Tyler, the translator, tries for accuracy in his translation, but as a result the readability suffers. For example, he attempts to leave the subject unidentified in some sentences (which is common in Japanese), and he goes way overboard on the footnotes.Some of the information is helpful like the extensive notes on the tanka poetry found throughout the novel, but some footnotes are absolutely worthless: in one paragraph, we learn that the mistress of the emperor has died, leaving behind their son. In the very next paragraph, it states "Such partings are sad at the best of times," which Tyler footnotes to tell us, 10. The death of a parent.I mean, come on, she just told us the mother died so it's obvious!!Also a minor pet peeve, the illustrations often have very little to do with the actual story or characters, they merely give a visual of one of the many details of the text. It ends up feeling more like a textbook than a novel.
—Toshio
Considered by some to be the first novel (not including the The Golden Ass or Satyricon), the Tale of Genji is an incredible (and long) work written during the late Heian era, the so called classical period of japanese literature.Born to an official of the court, the book's author would have lived and interacted with the aristocrats, princes and ladies-in-waiting that make up this tale. As a result, the book provides a vast amount of insight into the courtly life and behavior of the Heian era ruling class, the way they addressed each other, their daily rituals, their festivals, religious events... etc.The book doesn't really have a plot, each chapter is episodic, it (the book) can roughly be divided into two parts; the first one dealing with the life of Genji, his many love affairs and escapades, the second (the last 200 pages or so) with the lives of two of his descendants. I could see why some people could find it a bit repetitive, reading about Genji's constant conquests and what not, but it's also a fascinating tale about a man and his life, and the life of his extended family. It's impressive how she could write hundreds of characters, not lose track of them and somehow make them all fit into the scheme of things. Royall Tyler's footnotes and annotations really help flesh out the story. Many of the events, tales and poems that the characters constantly refer to would go over people's heads, and that would diminish the experience, the book simply would not have been the same.Advice? You better like long books and poetry. I felt like I read the entire Kokin Wakashu while also reading the book.
—Eadweard
i hate this book only a little less than i hate 'twilight'. the historical and literary significances are really impressive (it was the first novel written - and by a woman, for that matter), and it's the source of pretty much everything we currently know about heian court life, but genji is the wimpiest, rapiest protagonist ever. he is literally so mind-crushingly whiny, childish and just plain unlikeable that in my opinion, he ruins what is otherwise a pretty compelling story.also, he rapes more women than you could shake a stick at, and for some reason everyone's pretty cool with it because he's so physically beautiful and perfect at everything ever. this might be the first novel ever written, but it also includes the first and one of the most grating mary sues ever created.
—Smenkhare
