This narrated video provides a biography of the Japanese writer, Murasaki Shikibu (c. 970s-1014?), and showcases 18 quotes from her famous book The Tale of Genji.
Murasaki Shikibu is the alias that refers to a noblewoman from medieval Japan who wrote the famous book, Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji). Although the authoress’ real name was unfortunately not preserved, a great deal of information is nevertheless known about the writer who came to be known as Murasaki Shikibu. She is believed to have been born in the 970s, and hailed from the powerful Fujiwara family. This was the clan from which the imperial family picked many empresses, regents, chancellors and administrative officials between the 9th and 12th centuries. Her father, Fujiwara no Tametoki, was a rites official and governor. Tametoki’s title from the Bureau of Rites (or Ceremonial) provided the Shikibu portion of the authoress’ alias, whereas the name, Murasaki, was associated with the Fujiwara family and was also the name of the main female character in the novel. They lived at the height (and also the beginning of the twilight) of Fujiwara family influence. She married Fujiwara Nobutaka around 998 or 999, and they had a daughter together named Katako (later known as Daini no Sanmi). Unfortunately, Nobutaka died in 1001, and his death might have been a catalyst for Murasaki Shikibu to begin her novel. Her literary skills were recognized by the imperial family and she was summoned to the court to serve as a lady-in-waiting to the empress around 1006. In that capacity, her writing endeavors continued, and she completed her book around 1010. Her Tale of Genji is regarded by many to be the first true novel. Records of her life stop after 1013, which is why most scholars date the time of her death to 1014. Here are 18 quotes from that masterpiece:
1.
“It is tales that contain the truly rewarding particulars!…Not that tales accurately describe any particular person, rather, the telling begins when all those things the teller longs to have pass on to future generations—whatever there is about the way people live their lives, for better or worse, that is a sight to see or a wonder to hear—overflow the teller’s heart.”
–The Tale of Genji (chapter 25)
2.
“My impression is that the longer something takes, the more likely it is to go wrong.”
–The Tale of Genji (chapter 29)
3.
“It does not suit me to be so busy with affairs, whether the government’s or my own. I must manage to live more as I please.”
–The Tale of Genji (chapter 19)
4.
“How sad and cruel it is, the way we cling to what lasts like evening dew!”
–The Tale of Genji (chapter 39)
5.
“The heart decides what is to become of us. The great-hearted have great good fortune, and likewise the pusillanimous. Those who rise high have little peace, the reckless do not last, and those whose hearts are meek and mild are most likely to endure.”
–The Tale of Genji (chapter 35)
6.
“Lost in my sorrows I never knew months and
days were still passing by–
is the year really over, and my time, too, in the world?”
–The Tale of Genji (chapter 41)
7.
“The sun and moon never turn back. No one escapes old age.”
–The Tale of Genji (chapter 35)
8.
“Do what you like, but not until you have collected your thoughts and considered the matter more calmly.”
–The Tale of Genji (chapter 39)
9.
“Sorrows are the way of this fickle world.”
–The Tale of Genji (chapter 36)
10.
“You would be wiser to keep your own counsel and take things the way they really are.”
–The Tale of Genji (Chapter 34)
11.
“To the noble heart that aspires to soar aloft, high above the clouds,
depths of a thousand fathoms appear very far below.”
–The Tale of Genji (Chapter 17)
12.
“Age should not turn people into children again, but I am afraid that is what happens.”
–The Tale of Genji (chapter 28)
13.
“We all have our own destiny, and no one knows where it will lead.”
–The Tale of Genji (chapter 21)
14.
“I have never known anyone completely worthless. So few in this world are really exceptional, though!”
–The Tale of Genji (chapter 20)
15.
“There will come a time when as this life turns and turns the moon will shine forth:
for a while avert your eyes from an all too cloudy sky.”
–The Tale of Genji (Chapter 12)
16.
“You had better not bring up my failings as though they were none of yours!”
– The Tale of Genji (chapter 6)
17.
“When the clouds to me seem always to be the smoke that rose from her pyre,
how fondly I rest my eyes on the evening sky.”
–The Tale of Genji (chapter 4)
18.
“The letters worth reading are those sent when the writer was angry, or when dusk was falling and she anxiously awaited her lover’s coming.”
–The Tale of Genji (chapter 2)
Sources:
- Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji, translated by Royall Tyler. New York: Penguin Classics, 2003.
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present (Third Edition),by Andrew Gordon. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
- The Taiheiki: A Chronicle of Medieval Japan, translated with an introduction and notes by Helen Craig McCullough. New York: Tuttle Publishing/Columbia University Press, 1956, 1959.
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fujiwara-family/Peak-of-Fujiwara-power-and-glory
- https://libraryguides.bennington.edu/courtly/shikibu
Video Chapter Start Times
Into 0.00
Murasaki Shikibu biography 0.07
Quotes 1.59
Outro 5.45
Music:
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