Thoughts on Genji and more

Another gleaning from my files, one that had me thinking of the influence of Chinese and Japanese writing on my own.

~*~

Nearly a fairy-tale in its beauty and precision, the first two-thirds concerns Genji and his many affairs.

He’s the most shining, the best musician, becomes ever more attractive as he ages, et cetera.

And even while fooling around, still, in his own way, is devoted and faithful. But just as I’m forming a deep aversion for the bastard who’s little more than another spoiled, beautiful Rich Kid, etc. – I notice the real protagonist turns out to be his favorite wife, Murasaki, whom he raised as a child and trained to his tastes. She’s one of the rare Truly Good People in Literature who’s also interesting.

Indeed, the way she welcomes her rivals into Genji’s home compound, and so on, while overcoming her own hurt and transforming her own jealousy is wonderfully shaded. All the same, the reader makes much use of the list of characters in the end pages, a wise editor was at work there! Especially, when, in the final third, Murasaki and then Genji die the story focuses on two of his grandsons.

And there, the work turns dark, brooding, contemporary in its psychological depth – including the hanging ending.

And then My Lady of Hyde Park winter informed me of more, which I’ve unfortunately since lost.

~*~

More recently, a Chinese exchange student who spent a month with us in Dover gifted me with a pencil cup that was inscribed with the works of four great poets. She included a paper where she copied their translations.