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The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon
Posted by Michael Sympson on 17/9/2001, 1:52:36
"A man's heart is a shameful thing"
Can and should literature change our life? I really don't know. But I do know that some books convey a sense of magic and add to our life a hidden grace. And this might even become a question of life and death, if, say, war drives you out of your home and you roam the streets with all your belongings fitting into just one briefcase. Or if you are an astronaut, ready to launch for the inner moons of Jupiter, and the manifesto allows only one paperback per crew-member, which book, my friend, would YOU take with you? My choice is pretty clear, certainly not the Bible, but it would be a tough call to decide between Montaigne's Essays and ÔThe Pillow-book' of Sei Shonagon. (Maybe it should rather be Virgil's "Georgics"?)
"Carpenters have such peculiar customs of eating their meals." (in a soft spoken voice that conceals so perfectly a subtle intellect It was the time when burly raiders in horned helmets steered their longboats towards America and drank from the sculls of their enemies nothing but beer (because of the diarrhea lurking in every well). Europe wallowed in filth and unchecked religious fanaticism that had almost succeeded to blow out the lights and bring down an entire civilization and came with a foul onion-breath. Mud huts and storm-tossed wattle-fences ducked meekly behind infested moats, but Lady Shonagon had nothing better to do than to record that under-robes of red silk were especially impressive, or how she placed a bet on the out of season survival of an artificial snow-mountain. "A lover that in the morning rushes about to collect his kit and mutters under his breath grabbing under the mat for his socks - how I hate him."
(Oh, oh, he blew it!) The delight I have received from Lady Shonagon's Pillow-book is beyond comparison. Her book is so much more than a code of conduct, and how to do it gracefully. It is her quick wit, the sensitivity for the most minute sensations in her surrounding - the monotonous creaking of a carriage axle, the swishing of a curtain in the dormitory - it is her thoroughly artistic temperament, her eye for paraphernalia, little gestures and the crease in your trousers. She takesnote of the tick in someone's way of holding a book to the dim light. Her temper sometimes appears to have a short fuse and the sheer boredom of "spiritual" sessions at the annual retreat into a monastery was not her cup of tea. ("The most boring time of all is when it rains.") But then, the gentleman next door looks so cute when he chants his prayers.
Shonagon's Japan was still a world apart from the super-hygienic land of Toyota and Toshiba
and the fully computerized toilet seat next to the Tatami matted living room and the wide-screen telly. The Ladies and Gentlemen at the Heian court slept on rolled out straw mats, shivered through winter and sweated through summer, scratched the lice-bites, dressed in fumigated silk robes, and bathed once a year if at all. The ladies plucked their eyebrows and colored their teeth in black and would never show themselves naked, even not in their most intimate moments. But handwriting was expected to be neat, and a thunderclap shall hit you on the loo, if you ever forget to follow up on your latest tte-^-tte with a proper love letter (preferably hanging from a dew dripping plum-tree twig) to be delivered only minutes after departure (about 4.30 am.)
The Courtiers seemed to have found little sleep in those days and rotated on a schedule through the roster of their mistresses. Perhaps once a year they even visited their own wives, but let's not turn family life into a boring habit. And if they did, they better made it snappy: "I cannot bear men to eat when they come to visit ladies in the palace." (Sei Shonagon) My problem is, I don't speak or read Japanese. I depend on translations. I have translations into 3 languages of her book and a vague idea which might be the best of the lot. The most complete edition is in English and unfortunately it is translated by Ivan Morris; unfortunately, because it is almost unbearably pedestrian. Sei Shonagon must be a very great writer indeed, still to come across the way she does in Morris' rendition. The annotations thrown in are good and scholarly, but I recommend to ignore them for a first reading.
Then there is Waley's translation. It testifies to the fact that an undoubtedly gifted translator can be incredibly insensitive to the artistic merits of his text: the way Waley rearranged the order of the entries destroys all the natural charm and grace of the original - boo! The best translation and the least complete of them all, is by the Japanese translator Mamoru Watanab·, and it is not into English.
Lady Shonagon had a trait of irreverent sarcasm in her personality, it was not easy to impress
her. She liked to be in control, and she knew that she was endowed with better brains than most
of us. But listen to this: "One arrives after nightfall in an unfamiliar place. For fear of being too
conspicuous, one refrains from lighting a lamp but prefers to sit near the other people, even though they are hidden in the dark ..."
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Posted by Lale on 17/9/2001, 12:35:37, in reply to "The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon"
Why would they colour their teeth in black? Was there a reason given? I can't imagine that being charming or sexy.
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Posted by Lale on 17/9/2001, 13:15:46, in reply to "Re: The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon"
Since this poet seems to be quite interesting (her time, her location, her form, her experiences; all different than that of the poets/authors we usually know and read), I decided to post the Encyclopedia Britannica entry in here, without permission, hoping that they wont sue us or
something. (Dear Britannica, I am a good customer.) Anyway, this is from 2000 DVD version, there are no bibliography or credits mentioned:
diarist and poet, a witty, learned lady of the court, whose Pillow Book (Makura no soshi), apart from its brilliant and original Japanese prose style, is the best modern source on Japanese court life in the Heian period (784-1185).
Sei Shonagon was the daughter of the poet Kiyohara Motosuke and was in the service of the empress Sadako from about 991 to 1000. Her Pillow Book, which covers the period of her life at court, consists in part of vividly recounted memoirs of her impressions and observations and in part of categories such as "Annoying Things," or "Things Which Distract in Moments of Boredom" within which she lists and classifies the people, events, and objects around her. The work is notable for Sei Shonagon's sensitive descriptions of nature and everyday life and for its mingling of appreciative sentiments and the detached, even caustic, value judgments typical of a sophisticated court lady.
Sei Shonagon was apparently not a beauty, but her ready wit and intelligence secured her place at court. These qualities, according to the diary of her contemporary Murasaki Shikibu, also won her numerous enemies. Though capable of great tenderness, Sei Shonagon was often merciless in the display of her wit, and she showed little sympathy for those unfortunates whose ignorance or poverty rendered them ridiculous in her eyes. Her ability to catch allusions or to compose in an instant a verse exactly suited to each occasion is evident in the bedside jottings that are contained in her Pillow Book. Legend states that Sei Shonagon spent her old age in misery and loneliness. English translations of the Pillow Book were prepared by Arthur Waley (1929) and Ivan Morris (1967).
Copyright © 1994-2000 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Posted by Michael Sympson on 17/9/2001, 15:12:18, in reply to "Re: The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon"
Guess it wasn't meant to be charming or sexy, but to disguise the tooth decay. I really don't know, but I remember that the Aztec ladies at Montezuma's court used to file their teeth into a triangular shape (must have been painful) and colored it red. How is that for a sexy bite?
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