Sunday Poetry - Lady Murasaki

I started reading The Tale of Genji on Friday night & I'm enjoying it very much. My only problem is that the book is so heavy. As soon as I sit down in this chilly weather, either Lucky or Phoebe are waiting to jump up on my lap. I managed nearly two hours unencumbered reading time yesterday though as both cats were fast asleep. I'd been out shopping, did some housework & they were both still snoozing - Lucky under her blanket & Phoebe curled up on my bed - so I made myself a coffee & settled down with Genji. I've read about five chapters & I'm starting to recognize characters & feel in tune with the style. I deliberately didn't read the Introduction & background in my edition as I just wanted to plunge in. I may go back & read all that now that I've made a start - maybe next time the girls are asleep?

The characters converse in very formal, circumscribed ways, often through two line poems.  At the age of 17, Genji, the son of the Emperor & a very beautiful young man, has fallen in love with Utsusemi, the wife of an official. She is horrified by his advances & only piques his interest more by being so elusive. He recruits her young brother to his household so that he will be able to use him as a go-between. One of the poems he sends her refers to the robe he has taken from her room & which he keeps with him as a keepsake, as a cicada shell.

Underneath this tree, where the molting cicada shed her empty shell,
my longing still goes to her, for all I know her to be.

Utsusemi is secretly pleased with Genji's devotion although she knows that nothing can come of it. She writes a response to the poem on the same sheet of paper,

Just as drops of dew settle on cicada wings, concealed in this tree,
secretly, O secretly, these sleeves are wet with my tears.

A Winter Reading Project?

I love reading big books, especially in winter. Last winter, I read Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter, & I loved it. It was one of my Top 10 books of the year. This year, the plan was to read the new translation of Eugene Sue's The Mysteries of Paris, with my 19th century bookgroup. However, that read has been postponed for a few months & may end up being my long summer read instead. I've just started listening to Volume Two of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, but that will probably be a year-long project as there are six volumes lasting about 130 hours.

So, I've been trying to decide what my big winter read should be this year. I thought it might be Samuel Richardson's Clarissa (& almost bought a second hand copy of the Folio Society two-volume edition on impulse) but, on reading about The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki on Mirabile Dictu's blog here & here over the last few weeks, I think this may be the book.

I have this lovely Penguin Deluxe edition in the translation by Royall Tyler. Mirabile Dictu discusses the various translations but I'm just going to plunge in & see how I go. Has anyone read Genji?

Sunday Poetry - Lady Murasaki

This picture of Lady Murasaki (picture from here) hints at a winter reading project I'm contemplating at the moment.
Lady Murasaki was an early 11th century writer & poet, a lady of the Japanese Court.  Very little is known about her, even her real name is unknown. This is one of her poems.

lost in a sky
of strange and far places
a hint of a house
and treetops in the mist
guide my way to you

she gazes
into the same skies
as you do
may your thoughts also
come to be one of accord

if you answered
the tapping of every
water bird
even a wandering
moon could enter

if the haze had not
come out to go in between
the moon and flowers
otherwise even the birds nests
might have burst into blossom

boat upon high seas
if you are drifting without
a harbor or course
give me a call and I'll row
out to teach you about ports

not even knowing
the meaning which the color
of lavender has
but watching it carefully
this one's heart is deeply touched