Genji Monogatari

I have read the Seidensticker translation twice and am thinking about starting it for a third time soon. I enjoyed it very much. If the local library system has the new translation, I might try that.

Genji Monogatari will not tell you much about common people of that time, but the members of the Heian court were also human, after all, so it does deal with the human condition, as does any good literature. It has love, hate, laughter, tears, life, death--all the good stuff. Also, Murasaki Shikibu is clearly quite observant.

I have read some other important national/ethnic works of literature. While in college I had to read The Iliad, and I hated it: Too much repetitious description (e.g., "wine-dark sea") and most of the characters are idiots, as far as I'm concerned. On the other hand, I liked The Oddysey quite a lot. Different strokes for different folks.

Anohito said:

I have read some other important national/ethnic works of literature. While in college I had to read The Iliad, and I hated it: Too much repetitious description (e.g., "wine-dark sea") and most of the characters are idiots, as far as I'm concerned. On the other hand, I liked The Oddysey quite a lot. Different strokes for different folks.

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The Iliad utilizes repetition because it is a poem, and this repetition serves as a mnemonic device and permits easier memorization and recitation.

"Repetition is not a fault but a vital technique." See here.

In addition, the characters are venally base but most certainly not simply archetypal. Homer's work delves much deeper into human choice and free will than most other contemporaneous epics, and indeed, epics from many other societies. Achilles is forced to make a decision in which his fate will be determined. But he still has that choice, unlike most pre-modern, non-Western literature.

This criticism implies that the characters in Genji are not idiots? Genji objectifies women and acts without a single care for the consequences of his actions. Kiyoaki in Mishima's Spring Snow acts much like Genji does, without any consideration of the consequences, to the ruination of both his, and his lover's, families.

As a fundamental piece of literature that shapes the culture that produced it, The Iliad far outweighs any impact The Tale of Genji had upon its respective society. As a glimpse into Heian courtlife, Genji has merit. But it is not the reflection of cultural character and societal value that The Iliad is. In many ways, The Tale of Genji could be rewritten to fit into many other courts throughout the world. The Iliad is inherently Greek in its outlook and expression, and is incapable of being transformed into a different setting without losing the inherent Greekness that it exemplifies.

If the Japanese have any pieces of literature that would have so sincerely shaped their characters and ideologies as The Iliad did for the Greeks, they would have most likely imported those sources from China, such as Sun Tzu's Art of War, or composed much later, such as during the Kamakura era, or the Sengoku Jidai.

I am trying to read it in Farsi, Persian Language.

kombizz said:

I am trying to read it in Farsi, Persian Language.

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Sounds interesting. Recently I've read an interesting book about Central Asian poets such as Rudaki.
Wondering how the waka poems in genji translated into Persian. I bet the translation must be good with background of the great Persian poetic culture.