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Title: Essays in Idleness by Donald Keene ISBN: 0-231-11255-6 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 April, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Quiet and quirky
Comment: Much of this little book works as well today as seven hundred years ago, when it was written. The observations on people and their manners sound a little old-fashioned, but still applicable.
At another level, this book is credited with the first clear statements of esthetic principles that guide modern Japanese design. The translator's footnotes show how it draws on works from Confucius, Lao Tzu, and other Chinese classics in building a uniquely Japanese text. I believe the translator missed an allusion to Chuang Tzu in essay number 42, but that does not detract from the generally high quality of scholarship in this presentation. This is a remarkable, first-person statement of the sources of Japanese culture.
Finally, these essays are uniquely products of their place and time. Kenko's view, as a monk, of the secular world affects nearly every essay.
Shonagon's 'Pillow Book' introduced me to traditional Japanese literature. This book, with all its similarities and differences, is a wonderful way to continue that friendship.
Rating: 4
Summary: A delicious little book
Comment: The Wordsworth Classics here presents a nice translation by G.B. Sansom of a classic, the Tsurezuregusa of Yoshida Kenko, written around 1330 by a Japanese monk. The format of the work is reminiscent of the Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon - short observations, bits of memoir, commentary on the manners and morals of people around him.
There's a minimum of footnoting and the translator's style is smooth and readable. It's a dipping book which will appeal to modern Buddhists and pensive readers alike. As Kenko himself says:
"To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you, and hold intimate converse with men of unseen generations - such is a pleasure beyond compare."
Rating: 4
Summary: Spanning the ages
Comment: Good literature is sometimes called "news that stays news" (originally refering to art). Kenko's work is very much that, as it is simply the random, frank thoughts of a man who lived through a time of great upheval and was involved with many tiers of society. The candor expressed by Kenko regarding life and living rings true with many people in many nations in many times.
Although a certain amount of life experience is certainly necessary before a full aprectiation of Kenko's words can be had, this work still has something for most anyone. It can also serve as an introduction to medieval Japan and Japanese thought. While certainly Kenko's views on things were not the only ones of the time, they represent an ethic and aesthetic that saw its formation around this time and serves as an important guide to understanding the philosophies which developed in Japan.
Keene's translation is one of the few around, and probably the most accurate and easily readable. Though too "literary" at times (the original being "literary", but still strait forward in expression), with a few mistranlsations here and there (though perhaps intentionally so, given the gap in the languages), it still offeres enough to get the feel of the original.
For all you students, this will be a good start into one aspect of Japanese literature, but use this as a stepping stone in to reading original text. The original is not that hard, and a fairly direct translation will help.
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Title: The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon by Ivan Morris ISBN: 0231073372 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 April, 1991 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: Four Major Plays of Chikamatsu by Donald Keene ISBN: 0231111010 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $18.50 |
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Title: Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies by Moss Roberts ISBN: 0394739949 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 12 July, 1980 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Dao De Jing: The Book of the Way by Moss Roberts, Laozi, Laozi Dao De Jing, Laozi ISBN: 0520205553 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 03 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Dream of the Red Chamber by Tsao Hsueh-Chin ISBN: 0385093799 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 01 October, 1958 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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