Download or read book The Diary of Lady Murasaki written by Murasaki Shikibu and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 1996-03-07 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Diary recorded by Lady Murasaki (c. 973-c. 1020), author of The Tale of Genji, is an intimate picture of her life as tutor and companion to the young Empress Shoshi. Told in a series of vignettes, it offers revealing glimpses of the Japanese imperial palace - the auspicious birth of a prince, rivalries between the Emperor's consorts, with sharp criticism of Murasaki's fellow ladies-in-waiting and drunken courtiers, and telling remarks about the timid Empress and her powerful father, Michinaga. The Diary is also a work of great subtlety and intense personal reflection, as Murasaki makes penetrating insights into human psychology - her pragmatic observations always balanced by an exquisite and pensive melancholy.
Download or read book Murasaki Shikibu Sh written by Murasaki Shikibu and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Description for this book, Murasaki Shikibu: Her Diary and Poetic Memoirs, will be forthcoming.
Download or read book The Tale of Genji written by Murasaki Shikibu and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-02-28 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An abridged edition of the world’s first novel, in a translation that is “likely to be the definitive edition . . . for many years to come” (The Wall Street Journal) A Penguin Classic Written in the eleventh century, this exquisite portrait of courtly life in medieval Japan is widely celebrated as the world’s first novel—and is certainly one of its finest. Genji, the Shining Prince, is the son of an emperor. He is a passionate character whose tempestuous nature, family circumstances, love affairs, alliances, and shifting political fortunes form the core of this magnificent epic. Royall Tyler’s superior translation is detailed, poetic, and superbly true to the Japanese original while allowing the modern reader to appreciate it as a contemporary treasure. In this deftly abridged edition, Tyler focuses on the early chapters, which vividly evoke Genji as a young man and leave him at his first moment of triumph. This edition also includes detailed notes, glossaries, character lists, and chronologies.
Download or read book The Sarashina Diary written by Sugawara no Takasue no Musume and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-20 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thousand years ago, a young Japanese girl embarked on a journey from deep in the countryside of eastern Japan to the capital. Forty years later, with the long account of that journey as a foundation, the mature woman skillfully created an autobiography that incorporates many moments of heightened awareness from her long life. Married at age thirty-three, she identified herself as a reader and writer more than as a wife and mother; enthralled by fiction, she bore witness to the dangers of romantic fantasy as well as the enduring consolation of self-expression. This reader’s edition streamlines Sonja Arntzen and Moriyuki Itō’s acclaimed translation of the Sarashina Diary for general readers and classroom use. This translation captures the lyrical richness of the original text while revealing its subtle structure and ironic meaning, highlighting the author’s deep concern for Buddhist belief and practice and the juxtaposition of poetic passages and narrative prose. The translators’ commentary offers insight into the author’s family and world, as well as the style, structure, and textual history of her work.
Download or read book written by 紫式部 and published by . This book was released on 2007-06 with total page 1136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Classic Tradition of Haiku written by Faubion Bowers and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-04-26 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DIVUnique collection spans over 400 years (1488–1902) of haiku by greatest masters: Basho, Issa, Shiki, many more. Translated by top-flight scholars. Foreword and many informative notes to the poems. /div
Download or read book King David written by Jonathan Kirsch and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2009-07-22 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David, King of the Jews, possessed every flaw and failing a mortal is capable of, yet men and women adored him and God showered him with many more blessings than he did Abraham or Moses. His sexual appetite and prowess were matched only by his violence, both on the battlefield and in the bedroom. A charismatic leader, exalted as "a man after God's own heart," he was also capable of deep cunning, deceit, and betrayal. Now, in King David: The Real Life of the Man Who Ruled Israel, bestselling author Jonathan Kirsch reveals this commanding individual in all his glory and fallibility. In a taut, dramatic narrative, Kirsch brings new depth and psychological complexity to the familiar events of David's life--his slaying of the giant Goliath and his swift challenge to the weak rule of Saul, the first Jewish king; his tragic relationship with Saul's son Jonathan, David's cherished friend (and possibly lover); his celebrated reign in Jerusalem, where his dynasty would hold sway for generations. Yet for all his greatness, David was also a man in thrall to his passions--a voracious lover who secured the favors of his beautiful mistress Bathsheba by secretly arranging the death of her innocent husband; a merciless warrior who triumphed through cruelty; a troubled father who failed to protect his daughter from rape and whose beloved son Absalom rose against him in armed insurrection. Weaving together biblical texts with centuries of interpretation and commentary, Jonathan Kirsch brings King David to life in these pages with extraordinary freshness, intimacy, and vividness of detail. At the center of this inspiring narrative stands a hero of flesh and blood--not the cartoon giant-slayer of sermons and Sunday school stories or the immaculate ruler of legend and art but a magnetic, disturbingly familiar man--a man as vibrant and compelling today as he has been for millennia.
Download or read book The Diary of Lady Murasaki written by Shikibu Murasaki and published by Courier Dover Publications. This book was released on 2019-12-18 with total page 83 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rare glimpses of the intrigues and drama of court life in 11th-century Japan as expressed by the empress's tutor and companion, who also wrote the fictional Tale of Genji.
Download or read book The Izumi Shikibu Diary written by Izumi Shikibu and published by Cambridge : Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1969 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An outgrowth of a doctoral dissertation submitted to Stanford University in December 1965."
Download or read book Rav Hisda s Daughter Book I Apprentice written by Maggie Anton and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-07-31 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A lushly detailed look into a fascinatingly unknown time and culture—a tale of Talmud, sorcery, and a most engaging heroine!”—Diana Gabaldon, author of the bestselling Outlander series Hisdadukh, blessed to be beautiful and learned, is the youngest child of Talmudic sage Rav Hisda. The world around her is full of conflict. Rome, fast becoming Christian, battles Zoroastrian Persia for dominance while Rav Hisda and his colleagues struggle to establish new Jewish traditions after the destruction of Jerusalem's Holy Temple. Against this backdrop Hisdadukh embarks on the tortuous path to become an enchantress in the very land where the word 'magic' originated. But the conflict affecting Hisdadukh most intimately arises when her father brings his two best students before her, a mere child, and asks her which one she will marry. Astonishingly, the girl replies, “Both of them.” Soon she marries the older student, although it becomes clear that the younger one has not lost interest in her. When her new-found happiness is derailed by a series of tragedies, a grieving Hisdadukh must decide if she does, indeed, wish to become a sorceress. Based on actual Talmud texts and populated with its rabbis and their families, Rav Hisda's Daughter: Book I – Apprentice brings the world of the Talmud to life—from a woman's perspective.
Download or read book The Diary of Murasaki Shikibu A Modern Translation written by and published by EPOCH. This book was released on 2024-06-06 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Step into the private chambers of the Japanese imperial palace alongside Murasaki Shikibu, the renowned author of “The Tale of Genji,” in her captivating diary. This modern translation of Murasaki Shikibu's Diary preserves the timeless allure of her storytelling while making her intimate reflections accessible to contemporary readers. As you journey through the pages of this literary treasure, prepare to be transported to a world of elegance, intrigue, and profound emotional depth. Experience firsthand the enduring legacy of a literary genius whose words continue to captivate hearts and minds centuries later. This newly translated edition offers readers a rare glimpse into the daily life and innermost thoughts of one of history's most enigmatic figures. In this modern translation of Murasaki Shikibu's Diary, Erick DuPree, reminds us why Murasaki Shikibu’s voice echoes across the ages, inviting us to embark on a journey of discovery and enlightenment. As we immerse ourselves in the luminous prose of this literary luminary, we are reminded of the enduring power of words to illuminate the darkest recesses of the human heart.
Download or read book Weaving and Binding written by Michael Como and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2009-09-02 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among the most exciting developments in the study of Japanese religion over the past two decades has been the discovery of tens of thousands of ritual vessels, implements, and scapegoat dolls (hitogata) from the Nara (710-784) and early Heian (794-1185) periods. Because inscriptions on many of the items are clearly derived from Chinese rites of spirit pacification, it is now evident that previous scholarship has mischaracterized the role of Buddhism in early Japanese religion. Weaving and Binding makes a compelling argument that both the Japanese royal system and the Japanese Buddhist tradition owe much to continental rituals centered on the manipulation of yin and yang, animal sacrifice, and spirit quelling. Building on these recent archaeological discoveries, Michael Como charts an epochal transformation in the religious culture of the Japanese islands, tracing the transmission and development of fundamental paradigms of religious practice to immigrant lineages and deities from the Korean peninsula. In addition to archaeological materials, Como makes extensive use of a wide range of textual sources from across Asia, including court chronicles, poetry collections, gazetteers, temple records, and divinatory texts. As he investigates the influence of myths, legends, and rites of the ancient Chinese festival calendar on religious practice across the Japanese islands, Como shows how the ability of immigrant lineages to propitiate hostile deities led to the creation of elaborate networks of temple-shrine complexes that shaped later sectarian Shinto as well as popular understandings of the relationship between the buddhas and the gods of Japan. For much of the book, this process is examined through rites and legends from the Chinese calendar that were related to weaving, sericulture, and medicine—technologies that to a large degree were controlled by lineages with roots in the Korean peninsula and that claimed female deities and weaving maidens as founding ancestors. Como’s examination of a series of ancient Japanese legends of female immortals, weaving maidens, and shamanesses reveals that female deities played a key role in the moving of technologies and ritual practices from peripheral regions in Kyushu and elsewhere into central Japan and the heart of the imperial cult. As a result, some of the most important building blocks of the purportedly native Shinto tradition were to a remarkable degree shaped by the ancestral cults of immigrant lineages and popular Korean and Chinese religious practices. This is a provocative and innovative work that upsets the standard interpretation of early historical religion in Japan, revealing a complex picture of continental cultic practice both at court and in the countryside.
Download or read book Come and Sleep written by Christopher Kincaid and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-04-29 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ideal wife and sexual vampire. Prankster and saint. Tree and train. The Japanese fox left her paw-print on Japanese culture. She challenges traditional, negative views of women. She brings harmony and division. She possesses and protects. She is the shape of Japan's soul. Discover why the fox is Japan's most storied animal.
Download or read book As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams written by Lady Sarashina and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1989-12-05 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born at the height of the Heian period, the pseudonymous Lady Sarashina reveals much about the Japanese literary tradition in this haunting self-portrait. Born in 1008, Lady Sarashina was a lady-in-waiting of Heian-period Japan. Her work stands out for its descriptions of her travels and pilgrimages and is unique in the literature of the period, as well as one of the first in the genre of travel writing. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Download or read book The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Japan written by Richard Bowring and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1993-05-27 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Japan is the essential reference to all facets of Japan past and present. Up to date, authoritative and wide ranging in scope, it covers all the general reader, student, business person, journalist, researcher, tourist or armchair traveler would want to know. A highly absorbing read, the Encyclopedia is also filled with the facts, figures and general data on Japan that make it an indispensable source of information. Learn, for example, that the safest place to be during an earthquake in Japan is in a bamboo grove; or that one of the greatest delicacies of Japanese cuisine, the fugu, is deadly poisonous in the hands of an unskilled chef. Also included are the latest statistics on Japan's dramatically aging population, a complete listing of its prime ministers, and valuable data on the powerful Japanese advertising industry.
Download or read book The Tale of Murasaki written by Liza Dalby and published by Nan A. Talese. This book was released on 2002-08-13 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Tale of Murasaki is an elegant and brilliantly authentic historical novel by the author of Geisha and the only Westerner ever to have become a geisha. In the eleventh century Murasaki Shikibu wrote the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji, the most popular work in the history of Japanese literature. In The Tale of Murasaki, Liza Dalby has created a breathtaking fictionalized narrative of the life of this timeless poet–a lonely girl who becomes such a compelling storyteller that she is invited to regale the empress with her tales. The Tale of Murasaki is the story of an enchanting time and an exotic place. Whether writing about mystical rice fields in the rainy mountains or the politics and intrigue of the royal court, Dalby breathes astonishing life into ancient Japan.
Download or read book Reading The Tale of Genji written by Thomas Harper and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2015-12-01 with total page 633 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Tale of Genji, written one thousand years ago, is a masterpiece of Japanese literature, is often regarded as the best prose fiction in the language. Read, commented on, and reimagined by poets, scholars, dramatists, artists, and novelists, the tale has left a legacy as rich and reflective as the work itself. This sourcebook is the most comprehensive record of the reception of The Tale of Genji to date. It presents a range of landmark texts relating to the work during its first millennium, almost all of which are translated into English for the first time. An introduction prefaces each set of documents, situating them within the tradition of Japanese literature and cultural history. These texts provide a fascinating glimpse into Japanese views of literature, poetry, imperial politics, and the place of art and women in society. Selections include an imagined conversation among court ladies gossiping about their favorite characters and scenes in Genji; learned exegetical commentary; a vigorous debate over the morality of Genji; and an impassioned defense of Genji's ability to enhance Japan's standing among the twentieth century's community of nations. Taken together, these documents reflect Japan's fraught history with vernacular texts, particularly those written by women.
