Too bad he’s been dead for a 1000 years-I would love to thank him personally.
For Christmas, one of the S.O.’s friends sent her a Japanese book, “Genji no Sekai” (Genji’s world). It looked to me like one of those little books that you see women reading on the train all the time over in Tokyo. The S.O. on the other hand, became rather interested in the book. While my father was here, she could not get to it very much. However she really got into reading it during our trip last week.
Who is Genji? He’s a fictional character in a book written in 1008 by Shibiku Murasaki, a woman who evidently had knowledge of the Emporer’s court. The book has been enjoying a renaissance this year, since this is the 1000th anniversary of its writing which is no doubt why the S.O.’s friend sent it to her.
The plot? Simple really-Genji makes out like a bandit with women:
Ruthlessly summarised, the book’s storyline goes like this. The “dazzlingly lovely” Genji, son of the emperor and one of his lower-grade consorts, is irresistible to women. He enjoys a string of affairs as a young man, even abducting a ten-year-old girl so he can mould her into the perfect life-companion. But sleeping with the daughter of the leader of the opposing political faction is one indiscretion too many and Genji is forced into exile. Recalled eventually to the capital, he builds himself a mansion with a different woman in each of its four wings. Honours are heaped upon him and he is offered the retired emperor’s daughter as a wife. But Genji’s royal bride betrays him with another man and when his beloved mistress dies after a long illness, our heartbroken hero follows her swiftly to the grave.
At this point the reader is only two-thirds of the way through the book, which runs to 1,200 pages in its most recent English translation and boasts a cast of more than 400. The story resumes with new heroes. Two young men (the purported son and grandson of Genji) are wooing a trio of sisters. One of them succumbs to marriage, but of the other two sisters, one starves herself to death and the other chooses to become a nun rather than fall into male hands. Love, it turns out, is not innocent hanky-panky, but something noxious, corrosive—even deadly.
In terms of scale and readability the plot is not that simple after all-there are over 400 characters in the entire book. Japanese grammar was not so well developed at that time-and the Japanese have this annoying trend in their language of dropping the subject from sentences once conversation starts. The book was translated into English in the early 1900’s. The S.O.’s book was an excerpt as far as I could tell, it was only about 300 pages in Japanese.
So what does that all have to do with me? Well last night while I was watching the Steelers CRUSH the Chargers-the S.O. was in the corner reading the book avidly. She wanted to finish it.
As the time dragged on, the effects of a couple of Sam Adams were taking their toll on yours truly-and I had to go to bed. She had interrupted her reading to watch the Golden Globe Awards-but then immediately returned to the book. That’s most unusual.
So off I slink-having tried to stay awake, I was just going to have to write this evening off as a loss. I was out in probably 10 minutes…………
However, book finished, the S.O. came to join me-and woke me up-which is not just unusual, its a sign of the Apocalypse. NO MORE CALLS-WE HAVE A WINNER!
I’m sold. If 1000 year old Japanese prose is what it takes, I’m going straight to Amazon .co. jp tomorrow. :-). I may have to read that book myself.
My new hero!