By Sei Shonagon
A brand new translation of the idiosyncratic diary of a C10 court docket girl in Heian Japan. besides the story OF GENJI, this can be one of many significant eastern Classics.
Read Online or Download The Pillow Book PDF
Best ethnic & national books
The Literature of the Irish in Britain: Autobiography and Memoir, 1725-2001
Examines the autobiographical literature of the Irish in Britain from 1700 to the current day, drawing at the paintings of a variety of writers from a range of backgrounds and social sessions.
Child of the Fighting Tenth: On the Frontier with the Buffalo Soldiers
This memoir through Forrestine Cooper Hooker information her early life and younger maturity in the middle of the frontier cavalry. Hooker's father, Charles Cooper, used to be an officer within the 10th U. S. Cavalry, one among regiments with black troops, referred to as the Buffalo infantrymen, commanded by way of white officials. Hooker's tales trap the drama of turning out to be up within the frontier military, the Indian wars at the plains, the Geronimo crusade within the Southwest and Mexico, her love for the regiment and the Buffalo squaddies, their admiration for her, or even her misplaced love for a speeding younger cavalry officer.
During this uniquely formed memoir, one sister makes use of phrases, the opposite installations to re-create a formative years choked with event, tragedy, and the 2 such a lot glamorous and mysterious humans of their younger lives: their mom and dad. The environment is l. a. in the course of and after international battle . Hollywood is defining.
Lafcadio Hearn was once a prolific 19th-century author with different reviews. He used to be born in Greece; proficient in eire, France, and England; and thereafter resided within the usa, the French West Indies, and Japan. he's most sensible identified for his nonfiction, basically his essays and newspaper columns, notwithstanding he additionally wrote various tales that drew at the lore of alternative cultures.
Additional info for The Pillow Book
Sample text
Various puns have been suggested,4 but a conclusive explanation remains elusive. 5 Perhaps we can combine several interpretations and imagine Sei Shōnagon taking away her pile of paper to keep by her pillow and write, in the form of private jottings and as if purely for her own entertainment, a work that would redound to the credit of Teishi’s court – a work conveying the brilliant wit, exquisite taste and sheer ‘delightfulness’ for which that court had become known and which Sei Shōnagon was felt to epitomize.
But when I actually saw them at such close quarters at the palace, the attendants’ faces were all dark and blotchy where their white powder hadn’t covered the skin properly, precisely like black patches of earth showing through where snow has half melted – a truly horrible sight. The horses’ rearing and lunging was quite terrifying, so I retreated to the depths of the carriage, where I could no longer really see. On the eighth day, there’s a special thrill in the noise of all the carriages hurtling about as everyone who’s received a promotion does the rounds to exchange felicitations.
But Sei Shōnagon was in fact a precious asset for Teishi, someone whose fine taste and brilliant wit brought honour to her in a world that placed high value on the reputation of one’s salon. When Sei Shōnagon delights everyone with a particularly adroit and ingenious response to a poetic challenge Teishi has posed, a gentlewoman admiringly remarks, ‘You epitomize the sort of person who belongs in this court’ (Section 279). This was undoubtedly true, and it should be the first thing kept in mind in turning to the question of the origins and purposes of The Pillow Book.