Link to Table of Contents
The Tale of Genji
I’ve been carrying around Genji for maybe a week now; hesitating to resume. Today I finally started and was overwhelmed with all the names and connections. Hard to recall who is whose real father/son and how many of the women are married to Genji. Genji’s secret son, the emperor, has suddenly abdicated and now Murasaki it asking to become a nun. It seems like all these people could save themselves a lot of trouble and social climbing if they simply became nuns and monks at the start. Though their social lives do seem like a great deal of pointless work.
P620 New Herbs - The Rokujo Lady is quite a character. Isn’t this the second of Genji’s women she has “possessed” and nearly killed? His first wife she did kill. Again (I believe) I wonder if this was a common belief at the time or merely a literary flourish? Are there any common illnesses that could pass for possession? A high fever or consumption of some unexpected poison might do this. Or could this be an interpretation of a mental condition? HERE is something about this story. It tells the story but doesn’t answer my questions about what their basis might have been.
This is an interesting section of the book. All of Genji’s “seductions” sound more like rape to modern ears and now Genji’s best friend’s oldest son has “seduced” the pathetic (but pretty) young wife Genji has been saddled with. And Genji has found out. He’s actually being quite good about it, though he does give Kashiwagi, who knows he knows, a very subtle hard time. This has apparently undermined Kashiwagi’s health. (And the Third Princess is pregnant). So he already has a brother who is actually his son and will now have a child who is not related to him at all. He did, however, steal one of his friend’s natural daughters just to make the connections between these two families all the more complicated.
I had also forgotten that he has taken over the residence of the dead lady who is now demonically possessing Murasaki. Or trying to. At the moment she seems to be trapped in a medium. That would be an interesting part to play if this were a film and the medium was an established character (which isn’t really the case here.)
Evening Mist
Yugiri, Genji’s son, has been presented as “better” than the rest in terms of his behavior toward women but, alas, Murasaki has lead us astray. It’s true he hasn’t actually raped the Second Princess (his dead best friend’s widow) but he has ruined her reputation as well as his own. Murasaki seems to be revealing him as, if anything, worse than his father in the complications resulting from his actions.
Though it has to be recalled that his friend, Kashiwagi, also has a lot to answer for as he forced himself on, and impregnated, the Third Princess, Genji’s wife, which led to his death and the widowhood of the Second Princess. Being an Emperor’s daughter doesn’t get you much, it seems. And their father really went out of his way trying to protect them.
(From some time ago now) I’m having a really hard time getting back into Genji. I mean hard. I’ve been carrying it around but still haven’t read a page. I have to finish it. *Doesn’t go for the book*
Early Ferns
The tale of the two most annoying Japanese princesses continues. They make Fanny Price seem like a libertine. I mean, Fanny actually speaks to people! What next?
The Ivy
I’ll give the author of this part of the work credit for Kaoru’s natural perfume. When it was first mentioned I thought it was simply a way of giving a character a quality even above that of Genji, but it works into the story so often. Surprising the ignorant and making it impossible for Kaoru to conceal his presence -- or recent presence -- from those in the know. Still, he seems something of an ass compared to Genji, and I’m not exactly fond of Genji.
The Eastern Cottage
Kaoru, it would seem, will not be happy until he ruins the lives of all the Prince’s daughters. The one he fell for starved herself to death, he “married” her sister to Niou who has now married another princess. Now a third, half, sister turns up and Kaoru has carried her off just as Genji did with Murasaki. I do long for a Lydia. Actually there was a sort of Lydia but we lost track of her long ago. No one was very interested in her interest in men. It would almost seem that there would have been a kind of protection in being thought to be an adventurous woman. Now that would have been an interesting character to read.
I’ve finally found a good article about rape and marriage in The Tale of Genji (HERE ) This was really interesting. I hadn’t actually thought about Kaoru dooming the eldest sister, but it is true. But what does it mean that Kaoru, with morals that transcend (in sometimes destructive ways) those of his times, has that distinctive odor? Also, I recognize this logic of sexual responsibility from my own youth. My Ôigimi was not better pleased by my reticence. Now that’s something I didn’t expect to find in The Tale of Genji.
Still, it’s curious that the Western chaperone tradition was so much more effective -- not just the older relations but saddling the girl with younger siblings or cousins. I’m not sure even Genji would be able to get around a bunch of kids.
Thinking about this piece, I’m not so sure about some of this. Besides the rape of Oborozukiyo that the author alludes to, there are similar rapes of women who are supposed to be protected by powerful men: Genji of his father’s favorite wife and Kashiwagi of Genji’s princess. Not to mention Niou seducing Kaoru's Ukifune.
P994 Well this at least is new. Having now been literally carried off by both Kaoru and Niou, Ukifune finds herself trapped in a Country Western Song -- caught between two loves. Take that Lydia. Or should I say Elizabeth -- imagine if Elizabeth had been lovers with both Darcy and Wickham? Wait, this is really more like Bridgit Jones, now that I think of it.
P1006 Kaoru has discovered that Niou is after his daughter of the Eighth Prince so, obviously, Kaoru is regretting not moving on Niou’s wife, the other surviving daughter of the Eighth Prince. Everyone, or at least Niou and Ukifune, are rendered ill by desire or indecision. Which reminds me a bit of Mrs Bennett. Someone could write something interesting on the origin of illness in The Tale of Genji. (And of course, someone has, see HERE but this doesn’t cover the love angle. The “mother love” angle is interesting though. ) And HERE is another one, even more disappointing. The other one goes in one direction, this one doesn’t really go anywhere.
The Drake Fly
No, Ukifune doesn’t starve herself to death like her half sister, she drowns herself in the river. It’s suggested, or at least Kaoru thinks, all this is because he was drawn back into life after first associating with the Eighth Prince because of religion. The Buddha has caused these half sisters to die to teach him a lesson. Religious thinking is so odd. There’s also the other interpretation, that all this has happened because he isn’t man enough to force himself on these women and then take care of them as wives or concubines.
Niou, of course, was a more immediate cause of this girl’s death and he is more torn up about it. I would compare him to Willoughby and Kaoru to Brandon. That works even better as Kaoru is the “general” while Brandon is the “colonel”. The parallels between Austen and Murasaki are really amazing.
So now I’ve searched on “the tale of genji and jane austen” and found I’m not the only one to note the similarities, but many people describe Murasaki as a combination of Austen and Proust. That one doesn’t leap out at me.
The chapter ends with both butterflies sniffing other blooms, but both still rather obsessed with the 3rd daughter. It’s curious that Kaoru is now taken with the sister of both his princess wife and of Niou while Niou is still “ill” over the loss of his wife’s half-sister. Of course Kaoru is also still interested in the surviving daughter of the Eighth Prince who is also Niou’s wife. It’s a very incestuous little circle. (And I think Kaoru and Niou are thought to be related but they actually aren’t, but I could be wrong about that. At least they aren’t related through Genji, which the world thinks is the case. Actually that could be wrong too as there’s an ex-emperor who is actually Genji’s son and I’ve lost track of his offspring.)
At Writing Practice
Alas, it seems Ukifune wasn’t even able to drown herself properly. And this is the girl our two heroes are so smitten with. She has now been carted off by a bishop and some nuns. I did wonder when no body was found. We were assured the river would carry the body to the sea. Now who’s going to fall in love with her? As if she doesn’t already have too many lovers.
I was right. Someone caught a glimpse of her hair and is now besotted. I’m reminded of a line from "Ten Things I Hate About You", “What is with this chick? She have beer flavored nipples?” I don’t think the line is from Shakespeare.
The Floating Bridge of Dreams
P1090 It’s over. She was not molested a third time, I’m surprised to report, but the ending leaves everything up in the air. I thought Kaoru might join Ukifune in taking vows. I thought he and Niou might come to blows or take their respective complaints to the Empress. But nothing. Kaoru has learned that Ukifune still lives and tried to make contact with her, sending one of her young brothers he had taken in his service, but the girl still refuses to admit anything or speak to anyone. She is universally annoying.
After a thousand and ninety pages you do expect some kind of resolution to the story. I suppose we have to suppose that the Tale reflects life itself in not having a proper conclusion. At least it is over and I never have to read it again.
Genji
A Branch of Plum
“ ‘We live in a degenerate age,’ said Genji.” According to the book, everything, perfumes and calligraphy in particular but also fabrics, were better in the past. And this is the 10th century. How often have people thought they weren’t living in a degenerate age?
I’m at my new favorite Peet’s again, the one at 8th Street and Brannan, and just finished the first volume of Genji. Besides the superior chairs, decor in general, and clientele, what sets the cafe apart is the music they play. I wouldn’t say it’s the finest jazz, but it is quite good jazz, and far better than the more common hits from the ‘60s.
New Herbs
Just when you think the “romantic” complications at Rokujo (Genji’s primary residence) couldn’t get any more convoluted, they do. One of Genji’s brothers, the former Emperor, is ill and withdrawing to a religious life as he prepares for death, and the best way he can think of to protect his favorite daughter (who is very young but even more immature) is to marry her off to Genji -- who isn’t even particularly interested in her. At the age of 40 (or 39) he is now saddled with a child bride to look after.
The poor man would rather spend his nights with Murasaki, but he’s concerned about hurting the feelings of the former Emperor. And his new wife, who is only known as “the Third Princess,” is revealing herself to be something of a twit.
This reminds me of what I imagine the sad reality of the Islamic martyrs’ Seventy Virgin reward would actually be like.
But fear not. Genji is still Genji and is now chasing after one of his new wife’s kins women, a woman he has a romantic past with. The lesson being, I suppose, when your romantic relationships get too complicated, chase after someone else.
“The world has an unpleasant way of gossiping about people in high places. How, everyone asked, was Murasaki responding to it all? Some lessening of Genji’s affection seemed inevitable, and some loss of place and prestige. When it became clear beyond denying that his affection had if anything increased, there were those who said that he really ought to be nicer to the princess. Finally it became clear that the two ladies were getting on very well together, and the world had to look elsewhere for its gossip.”
After describing, in considerable detail, the presents and display of two spectacular events in a row organized first by Murasaki and then by Akikonomu (the Empress for whom Genji acts as guardian, without hitting on her for once) we get this, “...We have all read romances which list every gift and offering at such affairs, but I am afraid that they rather bore me; nor am I able to provide a complete guest list.”
After praising the short chapters, this “New Herbs” chapter is endless and even divided into two parts. And lots of things are even happening, births and deaths as well as the usual romance. Genji’s daughter has now given the crown prince a son. And after learning of this, the daughter’s grandfather -- the Akashi Lady’s funny father -- has broken entirely with the world and gone off into the mountains to pray and die.
Leaving the “world” behind is something much talked about in this book. Genji wants to do it but keeps getting pulled back in. (Godfather 3 reference) The Former Emperor, the father of the Third Princess, is doing this, but the Akashi Lady’s father is the most extreme. This would seem to be a consequence of the Buddhist influence on Japan at this time. It isn’t that different from the Christian emphasis on the Next Life, and seems to be ignored in general about as much.
Everyday impressionism
I set down the book and pensively turned my gaze to the street outside the Market Street Peet's. I was enjoying the vagueness of seeing the street with my reading glasses on. And then it occurred to me that I could go even more impressionist by simply taking off my glasses entirely. Better. Semi-translucent blotches of color.
I can spot the crazies walking past even when they are just blotches of color due to the way they move.
Windows
I had to print out some documents this morning so I fired up my Windows machine. Before I could do any work it had to complete the installation of the “April” OS update. Since this is late July, I can only hope they mean April 2018. This process took forever. Having some previous experience with this nonsense, I did other things while waiting. I did my daily exercises. I shaved. I brushed my teeth and changed my clothes. I washed out the compost toter. I swept all the carpets and tile surfaces in the building. I changed my clothes again. I addressed the envelopes for the HOA mailing I was going to print out.
How is it, one wonders, Google can update the Chrome OS without my being aware of it and Microsoft can’t? Maybe Microsoft just doesn’t care? When the process was finally complete, Cortana seemed to be gone. I feel bad about this. I never once engaged Cortana. I could have said “Hi.” Unfortunately, all the questions I thought to address to Cortana included profanity, which seemed even ruder than ignoring her. “Why does the software for displaying files and folders on my computer seem NOT to be part of the fucking OS but some slow add-on? Why do I have to force an update of the list of files it shows me when I’ve just opened the list (when trying to select a file to enclose with an email for example)? Are you people all high or just stupid?”
Link to Table of Contents
Genji
Something I’m really enjoying about this book is the short length of many of the chapters. They can be as short as a page or two. Almost like prose haiku. Genji is continuing to be an overly attentive guardian to Tamakazura. He is her music instructor now. I’ve learned to trust Murasaki S., but I do wonder what she’s about here. Tamakazura’s father has discovered another daughter by-blow (the Omi Lady) and brought her to his house, where she has become a source of amusement to everyone. Tamakazura and her ally within Genji’s household, we are told, now appreciate the wisdom of her not going directly to her father, but this seems a bit contrived as the two young women would seem to be nothing alike. And of course then her half brothers wouldn’t be falling in love with her -- not clear to me if they have actually seen or conversed with her.
Genji’s day-to-day life as a Chancellor and older person longing for a life of retirement seems quite similar to his younger days except that now he maintains a compound full of past, present, and possibly future paramours. He is currently living with two daughters of men he knows and associates with, and I don’t think either of them are aware of this, I know Tamakazura’s father doesn’t know. Not sure about Murasaki’s father. (Yes he does. This comes out later when Tamakazura is mated off with the husband of another of his daughters.)
This would be a fascinating book to read with a feminist book club... though I would be a little concerned for my own safety.
A few words about the binding of this edition of the book. The cloth cover is quite lovely, the spine is covered in purple cloth -- wisteria purple being Murasaki’s color and the meaning of the name. The majority of the cover looks like handmade paper or very subtle marbling and there’s a leafy symbol in gold at the top right of the front cover. Haven’t been able to determine what it means as yet, but it is quite handsome.
All in all a very good looking book. The work is divided into two volumes which fit into a hard case which I haven’t looked at as yet.
Days later: I just noticed that the Knopf borzoi is embossed into the back of the cover. Lovely touch.
The Royal Outing
The Omi lady is yet another character who could have been written by Jane Austen. She has some Mary Bennett about her and perhaps a little Mrs Elton as well. If someone were to do a version of Genji set at a much later date, she could be the half-American daughter who doesn’t get Japanese customs. And Lydia Bennett! This only struck me at the end of The Cyress Pillar, but it’s probably the most apt. I retract the other suggestions and will go with Lydia.
As appalling as some of the gender relations are here, when you remember this is the 10th century it’s an amazingly civil society. A European equivalent would probably be even more appalling.
Purple Trousers
Besides the brevity of these chapters, the other remarkable thing about them is that almost nothing is happening. Mostly a series of interviews with poetry, where either Tamakazura or Murasaki are concealed behind screens or in another room and communicating through one of their women. I’ve started to imagine additional chapters in which the young lady is tipsy and flatulent. And her poems are rude limericks.
Bastille Day
Aside from our not having a single toter to help with carting around our equipment and the bags of trash, this event went quite smoothly. Most of the day was on the boring side. The turnout seemed better this year, I suspect because of the World Cup, with all the French expats feeling more French than usual. (See also notes on the following day.)
The entertainment started at 4:00pm -- maybe earlier than last year -- and was mostly cover bands. The last group was the best. They played popular music from the 1960s sung in French. I always hope for “French” music I haven’t heard before but always get the usual hits from the ‘60s but in French. The musicians were older guys, but the two singers were young women dressed in what I would describe as Carnaby Street fashions. They looked quite smart; and sang well.
Since we are so much aware of our bad luck, I have to mention an instance of quite striking good luck. Recology provided us with four, six yard dumpsters for the event. This would give us one dumpster for each trash stream plus a spare if we ran out of room for something -- or we could have made one a dedicated cardboard dumpster. Except that when we (not me personally) arrived, one of the dumpsters already contained a bunch of trash and a wheelchair. “We” sorted everything else, but left the wheelchair.
At the end of the day we locked up the dumpsters so people don’t steal even more of the recycling and, more importantly, don’t contaminate what we’ve sorted. These dumpsters are quite battered, so if was hard to get even one of the two possible locking points to work for the three dumpsters we had used. But, finally we got them locked up and turned to the dumpster we had left empty except for the wheelchair. This one was so mangled we could do nothing with it. We so lucked out.
AIDS Walk 2018
(I think my 3rd AIDS Walk)
Walking down my hill on the way to breakfast and then work, I saw a mass of people blocking Powell Street opposite the Sir Francis Drake Hotel and heard, for the second day in a row, the strains of Le Marseillais. And that was how I learned the French had won the World Cup.
AIDS Walk has always been a mess and last year it was a disaster. I had to stay over an extra two hours past the end of my shift just to get things in order so we could finally leave. But I complained and made a bunch of suggestions and, surprise, I was listened to. This year was almost easy.
There were still a half dozen or more trash boxes provided by a lubricant company on the field, but they were mostly backstage or on the periphery. Scores of these satanic objects were collected early on and tossed into recycling -- I had been harping about these boxes for the previous 24 hours.
The problem with these boxes are that they are not part of our three stream system. People throw everything into them. And sometimes they aren’t even lined, so you can’t even pull out a bag of trash and sort it. You have to cart around the entire box full of mixed trash.
With these boxes mostly off the field, there were also fewer places for people to throw trash that we had to then sort. This is actually a good thing. When I arrived at 1pm, there was no pile of trash bags at the dumpsters and no one was sorting there. Last year at that point there was already a hopelessly large pile of bags, as volunteers were pulling anything close to a full bag and bringing it to the dumpsters to be sorted. This year, more of our people were sorting on the field and the volunteers were only hauling bags we had pulled and that didn’t need further sorting. The usual system. Yes, it works here too... surprise!
And the post walk entertainment this year was better. As I was walking up to the event, at Sharon Meadow in Golden Gate Park, I suddenly remembered just how awful the entertainment has been in the past. Usually it’s people who are famous (or wealthy) for something else who also have a cover band in their spare time. Last year, maybe, the lead singer really couldn’t carry a tune. But this year the final acts were people known for their participation on RuPaul’s Drag Race. I didn’t know them, but some were spectacularly good, and they could all carry a tune. For the first time I felt bad for the entertainers because so many walkers don’t hang around for the show. In the past this has been a sign of good taste and self-preservation. Plus the wind was getting fierce.
The main drama of the day had to do with someone hiding the keys to a rental truck in a place that was impossible to get to without having the keys. I had nothing to do with this debacle, so I just ignored it. I was cajoled into driving said truck, once the keys had been expensively retrieved, back to U-haul. I was supposed to put a couple gallons of gas into it before returning the truck, but, for the life of me, I could not get the pump to work. It’s probably been over a decade since I’ve bought gas, but you wouldn’t think the process would have changed so much. I still have no idea what I was doing wrong.
Link to Table of Contents
The limits of practice
When I lived in Noe Valley in the late 1980s there was a guy who decided to make some money playing guitar in public or semi-public places (laundromats and taquerias). The only problem was that he was terrible. I moved out of the neighborhood but ran into him again several years later when I was doing an errand in the valley. To my surprise, he had gotten quite good, after years of steady practice.
I thought of him just now as I passed, for the 2nd time today, and in a 2nd location, the street balladeer for the Union Square/Financial District Interzone. He’s been playing and singing for years and has not seemed to improve at all. He makes me miss our street saxophonist who was so good he was pulled in to play at art galleries for their "1st Thursday" events (I remember him playing on the fire escape of one above Grant street) . The only problem, as was finally revealed, was that he was wanted for murder back East. Him I gave tips.
Back to The Tale of the Horn-dog Pervert Genji
Since I have most of a month before I should return to TMM on my other blog, I’m resuming The Tale of Genji. While the previous, abridged version I was reading ended where it seemed like Genji was about to change his ways, this, not surprisingly, hasn’t happened. His complicated love life continues as before.
Here's the edition I'm reading now:
The Tale of Genji
by Murasaki Shikibu Translated by Edward Seidensticker
Alfred A. Knopf, 1978
The Morning Glory
I just ran into something interesting, Genji is currently courting Princess Asagao who has resigned her position of high priestess of Kamo, and she is refusing to even see him. He sends her a morning glory with “sad, frostbitten little blooms” to indicate how badly she is treating him. The footnote says, “Asagao means ‘morning glory’ in modern Japanese. The name derives from this chapter....” Was this work as influential as Shakespeare in Japan? How well is it known today? Time for a visit to Wiki.
I had forgotten that Fugitsubo is the name both of his mother and his great love, and the mother of his secret son, who is now Emperor. Though I should say, one of his great loves. It sounds like reading Genji, for the average Japanese speaker, is a bit like reading Beowulf. Most people require a translation. But my comparison with Shakespeare may be apt. Though the book is probably better known to the average Japanese reader now than it was in the past because there are more and better translations.
The Maiden
There is a long quote in which Genji is defending, to his son’s maternal grandmother (I had forgotten this son existed), his decision to not promote the boy to a higher rank but to send him to university instead. He is to gain, “a good, solid fund of knowledge. It is when there is a fund of Chinese learning that the Japanese spirit is respected by the world...” I do not know enough about the Heian era in Japan to know if this represents a Confucian preference for merit over simple preference based on birth. But what’s interesting is the footnote the follows “Japanese spirit” that informs us that this was the first appearance of the phrase “Yamato-damashii” in Japanese literature.
Genji has moved. His new residence has separate quarters, and gardens, for Murasaki (his main “wife” or child concubine); the Akashi Lady (the mother of his daughter who is now being raised by Murasaki); the daughter of one of his dead lovers who is, I believe, a consort of the new Emperor and I thought the new Empress, but I could be wrong about that (yes, she is); and finally another lady from his past referred to as the Lady of the Orange Blossoms. His current love interest, who is stonewalling him, lives elsewhere. And he’s now Chancellor to the new Emperor, who has just become aware that Genji is actually his father. Genji only suspects that the Emperor has discovered this and the Emperor doesn’t know that Genji suspects he knows. If only there had been TV soap operas in Murasaki’s (the author) time.
The Jeweled Chaplet
And now he’s discovered the grown (twenty year old) daughter of another of his great loves. His lovers have a disconcerting habit of dying young. And now she, too, has joined his menagerie in the wing under the care of the Lady of the Orange Blossoms, along with his son. The son who is in love with his cousin whose father is Genji’s great friend and rival... and who is also the father of this new girl. Only this girl and Genji's son are not blood kin.
It is remarkable how wittily Murasaki (the author) pulls all this off. One does want to see the places and especially the clothes described in such loving detail. Though what one really longs for is to smell these male paragons. Having read this far, I’m thinking that “shining” Genji is a confused translation as what Murasaki raves about is how good both Genji and his rival smell. I’m thinking the Japanese for “shining” might better be translated as something like, the “delightfully fragrant” Genji. (There’s no chance this is actually true, but it should be true.)
Murasaki never mentions the women smelling good.
The First Warbler
This may be the chapter that best captures the otherness of this time in Japanese history. As part of the New Year’s celebrations, Genji makes the rounds of his ladies. Visiting them each in turn, even the ones at his now secondary residence, and we get something of a review of the relationships. Granted, there are at least two daughters of former loves who have a different status, this is all quite odd and the fact that he decides to spend the night with the Akashi Lady -- who has not seen her young daughter living on the same grounds for years now -- only adds to the oddness. Murasaki (the character) is not pleased either.
I am puzzled by the lack of any mention of male staff at these residences. Perhaps this is a side of things Murasaki (the author) is simply unfamiliar with. But you would think there must be some security, at least, around the Chancellor. And that plot complications would be bound to arise.
In this little collection of women around Genji are two very young ones who are daughters of former loves of Genji who have died, as so often happens with the women around him, starting with his own mother. He is in the position of guardian for them both, and for the one he has assisted in making her Empress. But he has also hit on both of them and is being particularly difficult with the other one, Tamakazura, while at the same time managing the courting of her by many others including one of his princely brothers. (Her own half-brothers are also courting her as that relationship is being concealed by Genji.)
Genji
Sorry for the prolonged delay, but I'm now up-to-date with my HOA duties. So back to Genji.
Genji is in exile in a little house on the coast. There was a torrent of farewell poetry between himself and all his young ladies before he rode off in the night. Even now it seems to be primarily the new emperor's mother who hates him.
But the poor man can't even throw himself into exile on a deserted shore (not really) without attracting attention, this time in the form of the former governor,
p271 "I hear that the shining Genji is out of favor," he said to his wife, "and that he has come to Suma. What a rare stroke of luck -- the chance we have been waiting for. We must offer our girl."
"Completely out of the question. People from the city tell me that he has any number of fine ladies of his own and that he has reached out for one of the emperor's. [Oborozukiyo] That is why the scandal. What interest can he possibly take in a country lump like her?"
...
"...it hardly seems the right and sensible thing to choose of all people a man who has been sent into exile for a serious crime... You must be joking."
p272 "A serious crime! Why in China too exactly this sort of thing happens to every single person who has remarkable talents and stands out from the crowd..."
Though the girl was no great beauty, she was intelligent and sensitive and had a gentle grace of which someone of far higher rank would have been proud. She was reconciled to her sad lot. No one among the great persons of the land was likely to think her worth a glance. The prospect of marrying someone nearer her station in life revolted her. If she was left behind by those on whom she depended, she would become a nun, or perhaps throw herself into the sea.
...
This doesn't immediately lead anywhere. Very odd.
Time for a tale of trash. (I've been wondering if they've considered re-titling Genji, "The Adventures of the Horn-dog Pervert, Genji" to sell more books?)
For the past month (or longer) a scavenger has been coming into my alley early Monday mornings to go through all our trash -- both my building's and the trash of two other buildings that go out the same time, and he's going through both the recycling -- and the landfill and leaving a mess behind. I get up around 6am and pick up what was left on the paving and re-sort everything for the pick-up an hour or two later. This morning I went out and talked to the Recology guy about our options: We could put locks on the recycling, but there are ways around this; we could get the trash picked-up earlier, except that we can't because the idiots on the corner have already forced them to delay until around 7am because their sleep was being disturbed. The final option is to keep at least the recycling locked-up inside until Recology arrives. So that's what I'm going to try next week.
This is a nuisance, but so is the new status quo. If I continue to hear the guy going through everyone else's stuff, I can just wait until he's done and then pull our recycling up and clean-up. I may end up doing this with our landfill, too. The only real problem would be if I slept through the scavenger and Recology. That would be awkward.
In a way, I'm more upset with our residents than with the scavenger. He's pulling things out of the landfill that should be in the recycling. Yesterday happened to be the day when I tossed the tortilla chip bag that holds my landfill waste for a month. If everyone would just sort their damn trash there would be almost nothing in the landfill toter to make a mess with.
End rant.
The Akashi lady
We do return to the old governor and his daughter, or as I'm starting to think of it, the "...a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife" story-line.
p297 After the girl is unable to bring herself to respond to Genji's first note, He got off another message the next day, beautifully written on soft, delicate paper. "I am not accustomed to receiving letters from the ladies' secretaries.
"Unwillingly reticent about my sorrows
I still must be -- for no one makes inquiry.
Thought it was difficult to say just what I mean."
There would have been something unnatural about a girl who refused to be interested in such a letter. She thought it splendid, but she also thought it impossibly out of her reach. Notice from such supreme heights had the perverse effect of reducing her to tears and inaction.
She was finally badgered into setting something down. She chose delicately perfumed lavender paper and took great care with the gradations of her ink.
"Unwittingly reticent -- how can it be so?
How can you sorrow for someone you have not met?"
The diction and the handwriting would have done credit to any of the fine ladies at court. He fell into a deep reverie, for he was reminded of days back in the city. But he did not want to attract attention, and presently shook it off.
Genji finally "visits" the girl.
p304 Genji called in secret from time to time. The two houses being some distance apart, he feared being seen by fishermen, who were known to relish a good rumor, and sometimes several days would elapse between his visits. Exactly as she had expected, thought the girl. Her father, forgetting that enlightenment was his goal, quite gave his prayers over to silent queries as to when Genji might be expected to come again; and so (and it seems a pity) a tranquility very laboriously attained was disturbed at a very late date.
Genji dreaded having Murasaki learn of the affair. He still loved her more than anyone, and he did not want her to make even joking references to it. She was a quiet, docile lady, but she had more than once been unhappy with him. Why, for the sake of brief pleasure, had he caused her pain He wished it were all his to do over again. The sight of the Akashi lady only brought new longing for the other lady.
I've taken a break here (creating my HOA's pro forma budget for next year is always a trying task -- mostly because I forget from one year to the next many of the complications. Also, I wanted to take some time with this next section as it gets interesting. I started out saying that this was not a feminist screed, but now I'm having to wonder what kind of agenda our author does have. I've alluded to P&P before, and, as with Jane Austen, it seems that Murasaki Shikibu is telling this particular story for a reason. Even if her writing is free of words of judgment, the care she is taking to tell this story of the provincial girl of an undistinguished family, and the motivation of her parents, is suggestive. (It would not have surprised me if Jane Austen had read this, but I'm informed that nothing was translated into English until the 1880s.)
still p304 He got off a more earnest and affectionate letter than usual, at the end of which he said: "I am in anguish at the thought that, because of foolish occurrences for which I have been responsible but have had little heart, I might appear in a guise distasteful to you. There has been a strange, fleeting encounter. That I should volunteer this story will make you see, I hope, how little I wish to have secrets from you. Let the gods be my judges.
"It was but the fisherman's brush with the salty sea pine
Followed by a tide of tears of longing."
Her reply was gentle and unreproachful...
p305 ...he found it hard to put down, and for some nights he stayed away from the house in the hills.
The Akashi lady was convinced once more that her fears had become actuality. Now seemed the time to throw herself into the sea. She had had no ambitions for herself, no thought of making a respectable marriage. Yet the years had gone by happily enough, without storms or tears. Now she saw that the world can be very cruel. She managed to conceal her worries, however, and to do nothing that might annoy Genji. He was more and more pleased with her as time went by.
...
Both the new emperor and his mother (Genji's enemy) are ill. The emperor takes advantage of his mother being indisposed to summon his half brother, Genji back to the city.
p306 Genji had been sure that a pardon would presently come, but he also knew that life is uncertain. That it should come so soon was of course pleasing. At the same time the thought of leaving this Akashi coast filled him with regret. The old monk, [the lady's father] though granting that it was most proper and just, was upset at the news. he managed all the same to tell himself that Genji's prosperity was in his own best interest. Genji visited the lady every night and sought to console her. From about the Sixth Month she had shown symptoms such as to make their relations more complex. A sad, ironical affair seemed at the same time to come to a climax and to disintegrate. He wondered at the perverseness of fates that seemed always to be bringing surprises. The lady, and one could scarcely have blamed her, was sunk in the deepest gloom. Genji... now lamented that he would not see this Akashi again.
...sad thoughts accosted Genji. Why, now and long ago, had he abandoned himself, heedlessly but of his own accord, to random, profitless affairs of the heart?
p307 "What a great deal of trouble he does cause," said those who knew the secret. "The same thing all over again. For almost a year he didn't tell anyone and he didn't seem to care the first thing about her. And now just when he ought to be letting well enough alone he makes things worse."
...
Two days before his departure Genji visited his lady, setting out earlier than usual. This first really careful look at her revealed an astonishingly proud beauty. He comforted her with promises that he would choose an opportune time to bring her to the city. I shall not comment again upon his own good looks. He was thinner from fasting, and emaciation seemed to add the final touches to the picture. He made tearful vows. The lady replied in her heart that this small measure of affection was all she wanted and deserved, and that his radiance only emphasized her own dullness. The waves moaned in the autumn winds, the smoke from the salt burners' fires drew faint lines across the sky, and all the symbols of loneliness seemed to gather together.
"Even though we now must part for a time,
The smoke from these briny fires will follow me."
"Smoldering thoughts like the sea grass burned on these
shores.
And what good now to ask for anything more?"
She fell silent, weeping softly, and a rather conventional poem seemed to say a great deal.
She had not, through it all, played for him on the koto of which he had heard so much.
p308 "Do let me hear it. Let it be a memento."
Sending for the seven-string koto he had brought from the city, he played an unusual strain, quiet but wonderfully clear on the midnight air. Unable to restrain himself, the old man pushed a thirteen-stringed koto toward his daughter. She was apparently in a mood for music... He had thought Fujitsubo's playing quite incomparable. It was in the modern style, and enough to bring cries of wonder from anyone who knew a little about music. For him it was Fujitsubo herself, the essence of all her delicate awareness. The koto of the lady before him was quiet and calm, and so rich in overtones as almost to arouse envy. She left off playing just as the connoisseur who was her listener had passed the first stages of surprise and become eager attention. Disappointment and regret succeeded pleasure. He had been here for nearly a year. Why had he not insisted that she play for him, time after time? All he could do now was repeat the old vows.
"Take this koto," he said, "to remember me by. Someday we will play together."
Her reply was soft and almost casual:
"One heedless word, one koto, to set me at rest.
In the sound of it the sound of my weeping, forever."
He could not let it pass.
"Do not change the middle string of this koto.
Unchanging I shall be till we meet again.
p309"And we will meet again before it has slipped out of
tune."
Yet it was not unnatural that the parting should seem more real than the reunion.
...
[After Genji is gone] p311 Her mother tried everything to console her. "What could we have been thinking of? You have such odd ideas," she said to her husband, "and I should have been more careful."
"Enough, enough. There are reasons why he cannot abandon her... Stop worrying, mix yourself a dose of something or other. This wailing will do no good." But he was sitting disconsolate in a corner.
...
p319 [I really thought she was going somewhere else with this story of the Akashi lady and her scheming family, but now Genji is back on top of the world and, after hearing of the birth of his first daughter, we get this piece of new information,] "You will have three children," a fortuneteller had once told him. "Two of them are certain to become emperor and empress. The least of the three will become chancellor, the most powerful man in the land" The whole of the oracle seemed by way of coming true.
...
The new emperor has abdicated in favor of the Reizei emperor whose mother is Fujitsubo and
whose father is actually Genji. Yugiri, his other son with his actual wife, is now serving as page to both the emperor (his half brother) and the crown prince. Which would make the daughter of the Akashi lady the future empress.
p324 He had said little to Murasaki of the events at Akashi... "And that would seem to be the situation," he said, concluding his account. "Somehow everything has gone wrong. I don't have children where I really want them, and now there is a child in a very unlikely place. And it is a girl. I could of course simply disown her, but that is the sort of thing I do not seem capable of. I will bring her here one of these days and let you have a look at her. You are not to be jealous, now."
Murasaki flushed. "How strange you are. You make me dislike myself, constantly assigning traits which are not mine at all. When and by whom, I wonder, shall I begin to have lessons in jealousy?"
Genji smiled, and tears came to his eyes. "When indeed, pray. You are very odd, my dear. Things come into your mind that would not occur to anyone else."
...
He told her of the lines of smoke across the Akashi sky that last evening, and, though with some understatement, perhaps, of the lady's appearance and of her skill on the koto. And so while she herself had been lost in infinite sadness, thought Murasaki, he had managed to keep himself entertained. It did not seem right that he should have allowed himself even a playful glance at another woman.
If he had his ways, she would have hers. She looked aside, whispering as if to herself: "There was a time when we seemed rather a nicely matched couple.
"I think I shall be the first to rise as smoke,
And it may not go the direction of that other."
"What a very unpleasant thing to say.
"For whom, in mountains, upon unfriendly seas,
Has the flow of my tears been such as to sweep me
under?
"I wish you could understand me, but of course it is not the way of the world that we are ever completely understood. I would not care or complain except for the fact that I do so love you."
He took out a koto and tuned it and pushed it towards her; but, perhaps somewhat displeased at his account of the other lady's talents, she refused to touch it. She was a calmly, delightfully gentle lady, and these small outbursts of jealousy were interesting, these occasional shows of anger charming. Yes, he thought, she was someone he could be with always.
...
p326 The old man's face [the Akashi lady's father] was a twisted shell once more [after seeing the gifts Genji sends for his daughter's fiftieth-day celebration], this time, more properly, with joy. Very elaborate preparations had been made for the fiftieth-day ceremonies, but had these envoys not come from Genji they would have been like brocades worn in the night. [Footnote: The Shih Chi informs us that to be rich and powerful and not to display that fact in one's native village is to wear brocades in pitch darkness.]
...The Akashi lady began to think herself important for having had something to do with the little memento he had left behind. The nurse [Genji carefully selected and sent to her after flirting a bit] saw Genji's letter [to the lady]. What extraordinary good fortune the lady did have, she had been thinking, and how unlucky she had been herself; and Genji's inquiries made her feel important too...
[Thanks to a spell of rain, Genji has time to finally visit another of his ladies, the lady of the orange blossoms]
p329 Her soft voice, trailing off into silence, was very pleasing. He sighed, almost wishing it were not the case that each of his ladies had something to recommend her. It made for a most complicated life...
Amazingly, we now jump immediately back to the Rokujo lady, who is ailing and enlists Genji to look after her daughter's interests (without his having thoughts not becoming a parent, she is wise enough to add.) This Genji is trying to do, which leads to palace intrigue involving Genji and Fujitsubo pushing Akikonomu (the Rokyjo lady's daughter) on the new emperor (still a child) while keeping her away from the recently abdicated Suzaku emperor (feeling much better now, thanks for asking) who has been courting her for some time.
The competition to mate the new emperor turns into yet another competition between Genji and his boyhood chum and opponent. Genji carries all before his (as always) but the outcome is left open as to the particulars.
p359 Genji has a strong sense of history and wanted this to be one of the ages when things begin... it was an exciting time.
But he was also obsessed with evanescence. He was determined to withdraw from public affairs when the emperor was a little older. Every precedent told him that men who rise to rank and power beyond their years cannot expect long lives. Now, in this benign reign, perhaps by way of compensation for the years of sorrow and disgrace, Genji had an abundance, indeed a plethora, of rank and honor. Further glory could only bring uncertainty. He wanted to withdraw quietly and make preparations for the next life, and so add to his years in this one. He had purchased a quiet tract off in a mountain village and was putting up a chapel and collecting images and scriptures. But first he must see that no mistake was made in educating his children. So it was that his intentions remained in some doubt.
The End
...but not really. It turns out this abridged edition only included twelve of the first seventeen chapters. Out of fifty-four. So this is really just getting started.
I'm now back to the Introduction, that I couldn't read at the beginning because I didn't know enough. (And I'm copying this stuff for the second time as my Chromebook ran out of memory yesterday and lost everything I copied. The moral being, restart your Chromebook every week or so even if it seems like you don't need to.)
p ix Precise information about Murasaki Shikibu is equally scant. We do not know her personal name, though scholars have delighted in speculating upon it. In Heian Japan it was bad manners to record the names of wellborn ladies, except, curiously, imperial consorts and princesses of the blood. Of the sobriquet by which she is known today, the second half, Shikibu, designates an office held by her father. Murasaki may derive either from the name of an important lady in the Genji itself or from the fact that it means "purple,"... ...her branch of the [Fujiwara] family had by the time of her birth fallen to the second level of court aristocracy. Her father occupied modest positions in the capital and twice served as a provincial governor.
p x Provincial governors are generally treated with contempt in The Tale of Genji. Their layer of the aristocracy did more for the literature of the day than any other... [All this reminds me, again, of Jane Austen, with Murasaki being most familiar with the world of provincial governors while Austen was most familiar with the world of vicars.]
...
She went to court, in the service of the empress Akiko or Shoshi, sometime around the middle of the first decade of the eleventh century...
...
p xi The action of the Genji covers almost three quarters of a century. The first forty-one chapters have to do with the life and loves of the nobleman known as "the shining Genji,"...
...
p xii Murasaki Shikibu had a rich tradition of Chinese historical writing and Chinese and Japanese lyric poetry to draw on. As for prose fiction, she had little more than the beginnings the Japanese themselves had made in the tenth century... ...little in them seems to anticipate the appearance of a romance which is more than a romance, in that it shows believable people in real situations. When romancers of the tenth century attempt characterization, and it is of a rudimentary sort, they write fairy stories; and when they write of such matters as court intrigues, the characterization is so flat that it can hardly be called characterization at all. The diaries of the tenth century may perhaps have been something of an inspiration for Murasaki Shikibu, but the awareness that an imagined predicament can be made more real than a real one required a great leap of the imagination, and Murasaki Shikibu made it by herself...
...it may be difficult to imagine a single genius building so much on so light a foundation; but it is almost impossible to imagine a second genius taking over... The historical fact is that whoever wrote the Genji had no successors, and so the theory of mass genius has very little to support it. Later romances are by comparison rather poor stuff...
...
p xiv We may think of the novel as the form of prose narrative in which the emphasis is upon characterization rather than upon plot -- on believable characters in believable relationships. If this definition is accepted, then the Genji is a very good novel indeed, the best one the Japanese have produced down to modern times. The characterization is remarkably vivid even in the early chapters... Large numbers of characters are kept distinct from one another with remarkable skill.
[That bit about characterization reminds me of my preference for Austen and Martha Grimes primarily on that basis.]
p xv When the Genji is compared with Proust in this regard, and the comparison has long been popular, it seems apt. In other respects the two are far apart, and the Genji reveals its Japanese origins. It is loosely constructed and inconclusive, and it is strongly lyrical, especially in its treatment of nature and the fusion of man and place and season, of foreground and background...
...
p xvii A final word: the reader may be discouraged to learn that the tale gets better as it goes along, and that later chapters are often better than the ones included here...
There's a great deal more about the difficulty of translation, which seems to be a two step process -- first you translate into something a modern Japanese person could understand, then you translate that into English. This makes sense as Murasaki is centuries earlier than Shakespeare, for example.
And now we are done.
The reason I did all this in one post is that I've started reading Reflections on Violence by Georges Sorel and I want to start getting into that soon... it's going to be a bumpy ride.
...
