| NOTA |
()"The Gossamer Years(Kageroo Nikki)[ååxúL]" es un diario al estilo autobiografico contando lo fugaz i efimero de la vida matrimonial con su esposo Fujiwara no Kane-ie, la cual duro 21anios desde el anio 954. La autora es madre de Fujiwara no Michitsuna. (1.The Kagero Nikki, the classic of Japanese literature here translated asLThe Gossamer YearsL, belongs to the same era that produced the celebratedLTale of GenjiL andLThe Pillow BookL. Like them, it has held the admiration of Japanese readers for some ten centuries. Appearing now in its first complete English version -a masterly rendering by Edward Seidensticker, accompanied by an enlightening introduction and fascinatingly informative notes- it offers itself for the admiration of a wider audience. LThough it will be referred to as a diaryL, Mr.Seidensticker notes in his introduction,Lthe Kagero NikkiLis in fact an autobiography-diary covering twenty-one years in the life of a mid-Heian Fujiwara noblewoman known today asLthe mother of MichitsunaL. It is the record of her unhappy marriage to her kinsman, Fujiwara Kaneie, beginning in 954 with his first love letters, and ending in 974 with their very nearly complete estrangement. In the intervening years the author has occasion to record her indignation at successive revelations of rival wives and mistresses mKaneie had some eight or nine of whom a record remainsn, and the diary is in a sense her protest against the marriage system of the time, and her exposition of the thesis that men are beasts... LVery little is known of the author and her life aside from the incidents recorded in the diary. She was born to the provincial-governor class, the second stratum in the Fujiwara clan hierarchy, and thus a level below her husband... her name and the date of her birth are not known.LFor someone in her class to be taken even as the second wife of such a well-placed young gentleman as Kaneie would have been considered a fine stroke of luck by most Heian ladies. But the author of the Kagero Nikki... was one of the three outstanding beauties of her day. She was too impertuous to be satisfied with her position as a subsidiary wife. She wanted a husband of her own, she informs us,Lthirty days and thirty nights a monthL, and each of KaneieLs promotions meant only that she saw less of him. her resentment against Kaneie and her venomous rage at her rivals form the base and many of the high points of the diary... LThe Kagero Nikki is a remarkably frank personal confession and a strong attempt to describe a difficult relationship and a disturbed state of mind... It is the first attempt in Japanese literature, or in any case the first surviving attempt, to capture on paper, without evasion or idealization, the elements of a real social situation... All in all a very frank and appealing lady emerges from its pages, albeit a somewhat more spoiled and capricious one than she would have preferred us to seeL. 2.Edward Seidensticker, well-known American critic and writer on the Far East, is the translator of numerous works of Japanese literature. His English versions of outstanding Japanese novels includeLSome Prefer NettlesLandLThe Makioka SistersLby Junichiro Tanizaki andLSnow CountryLandLThousand CranesLby Yasunari Kawabata. At present, he teaches in the Department of Asian Languages at Stanford University.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
Print Page