June 16, 2007

The world of Genji

Murasaki Shikibu's classic Japanese novel - translations and translated. Unfortunately I can't find any examples of my favourite version of the story - the Tale of Genji wagashi commentary. Or an alternative - "Wuthering Heights" recreated in custard creams and jammy dodgers? "Confessions of Justified Sinner" as a series of fish suppers?

posted by velvetrabbit 16 years ago
  • Nifty. I've been meaning to read the Tale of Genji.
  • OK! Anybody with me. ROOOOOOAAAAADD TRIIIIIPPP!!! Neat, He. I'd love to read this novel while traveling around to every place illustrated here. Will take me a while to work through this site, but what I've seen is AAA+++
  • Sweet FPP.
  • Just glorious. I've always loved Genji, and this site ROCKS like a Zen garden. Well found and FPP'd, velvetrabbit!
  • Meh, Murasaki Shikibu was overrated. *flashes gang signs*
  • What everyone else said! This is a cool FPP. :) I like to collect English editions of Genji. I have - an abridged Seidensticker, unabridged hardcover Tyler, abridged (and super-cheap, Dover edition) Waley. I would like: there's a hardcover from either Modern Library or Everyman's Library, which I think is the full Seidensticker translation. Have I read these? Not more than a few chapters out of each, though I have read most of the published diaries of the period, and Liza Dalby's novel about Murasaki. There's a Genji anime from 1987 that's interesting, but necessarily very abridged. Ivan Morris's book The World of the Shining Prince is really wonderful. One of these days I plan to lock myself up for a few months and finish reading at least one of the editions of Genji that I have (sort of like Gravity's Rainbow: "I can't go anywhere this month, I'm reading _______"). The Waley translation was Edward Gorey's favorite book. He liked its fairy-tale atmosphere (compared to more recent translations, which are more firmly grounded in Heian Japan). Anyway, I wanted to add the following link to the mix: Dolls in the Tale of Genji.
  • Eek! Had planned to come back and add stuff but suddenly busy. No time for monkeying :( Didn't know about the Edward Gorey connection. I knew about his favourite film - "I know where I'm going" - highly recommended if anyone hasn't seen it. I've got the full Seidensticker translation. Lovely book but big. When I finally have the time to reread it I'm going to look for a slave to carry it round for me. "Genji days" is worth looking out for - based on Seidensticker's diaries.