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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.
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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.