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This page published comments by SAA participants who wish to sharing thoughts and reactions as they read one of the many translations of The Tale of Genji. Please submit to jwallace@berkeley.edu a comment title, time & name (doesn't need to be your real name, this is a public website), and your content, or complete the "blog" sheet and hand it to me on any Sunday.
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In the first chapter, after Genji completes his coming-of-age ceremonies, the first daughter of the Minister of the Left, Aoi, is given to him as his wife. It was customary at that time for the wife to be somewhat older than the groom, to help him understand the world, and the world of sex as well. The Genji 12 / Aoi 16 age match-up is pretty much the norm.
Since we are reading from the perspective of the women, and I am reading Washburn, the phrase "was put off by Genji's youthfulness" caught my eye. I took a look at this passage across the three translations. Is her discomfort personal pride? Is it sexual in nature? Is it more aligned with how she is perceived by others (public face / shame)? I always tend towards this latter possibility, viewing the women of the time as highly conscious of how they are thought of by others, particularly in terms of social status. But Genji is widely known as the most attractive, most talented and best loved by the emperor of young men. Is Murasaki the writer making a reference to the discomfort that women of her time had to feel, when married to such young boys with which they then slept. is she just noting a more general discomfort of marriage? I'm not sure. And the translations are more or less all over the place on this point.
By the way, not how Washburn stands by his stated desire to make the test accessible, by adding the age of the daughter (not in the original).
ORIGINAL
女君は、すこし過ぐしたまへるほどに、いと若うおはすれば、似げなく恥づかし、と思いたり。MORE OR LESS "LITERAL"
The daughter, as she was somewhat older and he was (honorably) very young, felt embarrassed at the inappropriateness. (or, if you start the content of her thoughts at a different place — premodern Japanese does not use quotation marks) The daughter, as she was somewhat older, thought it was shamefully inappropriate because he is so very young.SEIDENSTICKER
The bride was older, and somewhat ill at ease with such a young husband.TYLER
His Excellency's daughter, somewhat older, thought him much too young and was ashamed that he should suit her so poorly.WASHBURN
In contrast his daughter, who at sixteen was four years older than her new husband, was put off by Genji's youthfulness and considered their match inappropriate.
Washburn states in his introduction that "Murasaki Shikibu crafted a narrative voice that was forcefully persuasive and often knowingly ironic" which worries me to some extent because of the modern implications of the term irony (which suggests a freedom to criticize one's social norms from a distance and with ease, which is not possible at her time). His translation does seem to add this sense of irony into the narrative voice. I felt this with the use of "entitlement" in Chapter 1, and here, in the first paragraph of Chapter 2. This is a stinging description of Genji, suggesting a highly critical narrator. I think it is more accurate to see the narrator as both appalled and attracted and no as surprised at bad male behavior as this paragraph might suggest.
I finally put my finger on something that I have found "new" (different) in this translation by Washburn, when I read the below:
"Genji was a little miffed that his companion was always finding out things like this, but it gave him a pleasurable sense of superiority when he recalled that Tō no Chūjō had not been able to locate that wild pink, the little daughter of the lady of the evening faces.
Feeling a sense of warm camaraderie, the two young men did not go their separate ways to meet the ladies who were expecting them but got into the same carriage."
Murasaki, Shikibu (2015-07-27). The Tale of Genji (unabridged) (Kindle Locations 3844-3847). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.
The word "miffed" struck me. It is part of a large set of descriptions of emotional states by Washburn that lean towards irritation and displeasure. Washburn's Genji is frequently peeved, or more sharply displeased. I'm not quite sure what I think of this. On the one hand, Genji's narcissism justifies this view of him, but on the other hand, the rule of elegance (miyabi) that dominates the mood of this narrative would suppress, even internally, such feelings ("Ah, I feel irritated but I am a gentleman and should not allow that to get the best of me").
I've noticed a scattered number of examples, 2-5 perhaps, where I feel the flow of the test is odd, as if the translator returned to work and has forgotten the previous flow. But this seems unlikely, since as translators we reread our work over and over. So this odd flow moments are probably intentional, but I don't really "feel" the same thing in the original text although it is definitely true that Murasaki's text (and not just Murasaki, this is typical of texts of the time) jump around in terms of voice, point-of-view, location, the progress of time, and so forth. But that is different than disconnected mental states. For me, the phrases that I've put in bold below just don't got together very well, in terms of story-telling. I want a transition ...
"Genji was a little miffed that his companion was always finding out things like this, but it gave him a pleasurable sense of superiority when he recalled that Tō no Chūjō had not been able to locate that wild pink, the little daughter of the lady of the evening faces.
Feeling a sense of warm camaraderie, the two young men did not go their separate ways to meet the ladies who were expecting them but got into the same carriage."
Murasaki, Shikibu (2015-07-27). The Tale of Genji (unabridged) (Kindle Locations 3844-3847). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.
Yesterday I spent a half hour pondering these three versions of the final lines of Chapter 4, where Genji takes in Murasaki and now is contemplating what he has done. I have long felt (comparing Waley, Seidensticker and Tyler, as well as the Japanese translations by Akiko, Enchi and Tanizaki) that Seidensticker has the darkest view of human nature of them all, and tends to suggest perversion of mind here and there, particularly with Genji. However, Washburn seems to have a fairly critical (as in negative) view of Heian society, and it manifests in translations choices such as the below. The key issue is whether Murasaki is a "toy" to Genji, and I think the original simply doesn't suggest that, even after reading it many times over. I'm quite comfortable asserting that Tyler is closest to the original in this case.
Murasaki was the perfect companion, a toy for him to play with. He could not have been so free and uninhibited with a daughter of his own. There are restraints upon paternal intimacy. Yes, he had come upon a remarkable little treasure. (Seidensticker)
No daughter by the time she reaches this age can be as free with her father, sleep so intimately beside him, or rise so blithely with him in the morning as this young lady did with Genji, until Genji himself must have wondered at being able to lavish his affection on so rare a treasure. (Tyler)
Shikibu, Murasaki (2006-01-31). The Tale of Genji: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) (Junichiro Breakdown of Genji Book 1) (p. 110). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
A real daughter, when she had reached this age, would not have been able to behave so intimately, to have gone to sleep or risen in such close proximity to him. Genji came to feel that his young Murasaki was a rare hidden treasure, his precious plaything. (Washburn)
Murasaki, Shikibu (2015-07-27). The Tale of Genji (unabridged) (Kindle Locations 3712-3714). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.
さかしら心あり、何くれとむつかしき筋になりぬれば、わが心地もすこし違ふふしも出で来やと、心おかれ、人も恨みがちに、思ひのほかのこと、おのづから出で来るを、いとをかしきもてあそびなり。むすめなどはた、かばかりになれば、心やすくうちふるまひ、隔てなきさまに臥し起きなどは、えしもすまじきを、これは、いとさま変りたるかしづきぐさなり、と思ほいためり。
Washburn made nearly almost the polar opposite translation decision from Tyler. Tyler translates close to the original and allows the text to be quite puzzling, rather inaccessible. Washburn elected to make the text highly accessible and for that he blends in quite a bit of explanation that is not in the original. What do you think? Here are the three translators early in Chapter 9 / Aoi, where the narrator has recalled the matter of Rokujō's daughter and is "catching us up" on the news.
And there was the matter of the lady at Rokujō. With the change of reigns, her daughter, who was also the daughter of the late crown prince, had been appointed high priestess of the Ise Shrine. No longer trusting Genji's affections, the Rokujō lady had been thinking that, making the girl's youth her excuse, she too would go to Ise. (Seidensticker)
Oh, yes, the late Heir Apparent's daughter by the Rokujō Haven had been named High Priestess of Ise, and her mother, who doubted Genji's devotion, had quickly invoked concern over her daughter's youth as a reason for considering going down to Ise herself. (Tyler)
Shikibu, Murasaki (2006-01-31). The Tale of Genji: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) (Junichiro Breakdown of Genji Book 1) (p. 165). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
At this point I must bring up another, entirely separate matter. At the time Emperor Suzaku ascended the throne, an imperial princess was appointed as the new High Priestess for the Imperial Shrine at Ise. The mother of this princess was the lady at Rokujō— the woman Genji had long been visiting discreetly— while the father was an imperial prince who had actually been ahead of Suzaku in the line of succession, but who had died before he could take the throne. Because the Princess was appointed High Priestess under these circumstances, the lady at Rokujō, who no longer had any confidence in the reliability of Genji's feelings, was greatly worried about her daughter's future. The girl was, after all, only thirteen and would be alone in Ise. Thus, the lady at Rokujō had for some time been giving serious consideration to leaving the capital herself and accompanying her daughter to the Imperial Shrine. (Washburn)
Murasaki, Shikibu (2015-07-27). The Tale of Genji (unabridged) (Kindle Locations 5008-5014). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.
まことや、かの六条御息所の御腹の前坊の姫宮斎宮にゐたまひにしかば、大将の御心ばへもいと頼もしげなきを、幼き御ありさまのうしろめたさにことつけて、下りやしなましと、かねてより思しけり。
One of the hallmark qualities of Heian period literature is that the point-of-view is quasi-omniscient. We know some of the thoughts of characters, but not all of them. We seem to be more associated with the internality of one character over another in a drifting sort of way, even within a singe sentence. The visual representation of this in illustrated scrolls has been the aerial point of view, with the roof of the buildings removed or partially removed. Seidensticker and Tyler have maintained this ambiguous, ill-defined quality of the narrator. Washburn has made a distinct woman that sounds as if she is on-the-spot, floor-level, knowing somethings and not knowing others, and sharing with us, who are also distinctly defined listeners. Again, from the above quotes, the phrase まことや ("—How true!" as a softly put question to oneself perhaps) is translated:
And there was the matter of ... (Seidensticker)
Oh yes ... (Tyler)
At this point I must bring up another, entirely separate matter. (Washburn)
They all accomplish the same thing but the sense of reportage is much stronger in Washburn. This also fits with his view that Murasaki is commenting, sometimes ironically, on her society.
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