Pillow book

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The lady in waiting Sei Shonagon

The pillow book (also: "pillow book") ( Japanese 枕 草 子 , Makura no Sōshi ) by Lady Sei Shōnagon is one of the earliest and most important literary prose works of Japanese literature . It originated around the year 1000 AD and belongs to the Heian period .

It is a kind of diary , written by Sei Shōnagon, who served the empress as a lady-in-waiting and developed a friendly relationship with her. The work contains few sinisms and is mainly written in Kana script . Since Empress Fujiwara no Sadako (藤原 定子), whose lady-in-waiting was Sei Shōnagon, died in 1001, it is often assumed that the text was thoroughly edited and edited by the author after 1001. Because of the complex handwritten tradition, the work causes great text-critical problems.

The name of the work is traced back to the fact that the records were kept in a hollow porcelain pillow (枕). The pillow book consists of 320 mostly short entries on various topics of everyday life at the imperial court and thus forms a collection of astute observations, various anecdotes, lists of things and very direct, open opinions as well as impressions and feelings. It is such an important source for the cultural history of the Heian period. The entries are seemingly written down artlessly. This writing style is described with the expression " zui-hitsu " - "flowed out of the brush". Sei Shonagon is considered to be the first master of this style.

The work has been received in Europe since the last quarter of the 19th century. English and French translations have appeared since 1889, the first German translation appeared in 1944. In Peter Greenaway's film Die Bettlektüre the book is often referred to and quoted from. The book plays a special role in Hanns-Josef Ortheil's novel Love Nearness (2011).

literature

Sei Shōnagon, illustration in an edition by Hyakunin Isshu (Edo period)
  • 清 少 納 言 (Sei Shōnagon): 枕 草 子 (Makura no Sōshi). 新編 日本 古典 文学 全集. 松尾 聡 (Matsuo Satoshi) / 永 井 和 子 (Nagai Kazuko) (翻 訳), 小学 館 (Shōgakukan), Tōkyō 1997. (= Shinpen Nihon koten bungaku zenshū; 18.) ISBN 4-09-658018-X . (currently the standard edition)
  • Sei Shonagon : The Pillow Book of Lady Sei Shonagon. After the "Sketchbook under the pillow" written in Japanese around the year 1000 . Edited by Helmut Bode. Heimeran, Munich 1944. (Selection, later reprinted in the Insel-Bücherei with the title The Pillow Book of Lady Sei Shonagon )
  • Sei Shonagon : The pillow books of the Sei Shonagon. Records of a Japanese lady-in-waiting around the year 1000. Selected, with foreword and ed. by Gerhart Haug. Drei Fichten, Munich 1948. (selection)
  • Sei Shonagon : The pillow book of the lady-in-waiting Sei Shonagon . Edited and translated from Japanese by Mamoru Watanabé. Manesse-Verlag, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-7175-1364-8 . (first published in 1952, contains about two thirds of the text stock)
  • Sei Shōnagon: The Pillow Book . Translated by Meredith McKinney. Penguin Books, London 2006, ISBN 0-14-044806-3 . (new English translation)
  • Sei Shōnagon: pillow book , translated by Michael Stein. Translation Prize of the Japan Foundation 2016. Manesse, Zurich 2016, ISBN 978-3-7175-2314-7 .
  • Horst Arnold-Kanamori: Classical Japanese II. The "pillow books" of the Sei Shônagon - notes of a Japanese lady-in-waiting around the year 1000, 1st part . Kovač, Hamburg 2001. (= Ulmer Sprachstudien; 5.) ISBN 3-8300-0294-7 .
  • Horst Arnold-Kanamori: Classical Japanese V - Makuranosôshi II. The "pillow books" of the Sei Shônagon - notes of a Japanese lady-in-waiting around the year 1000, 2nd part . Kovač, Hamburg 2002. (= Ulmer Sprachstudien; 10.) ISBN 3-8300-0655-1 .
  • Bruno Lewin : Japanese Chrestomathy. From the Nara period to the Edo period. I. Comment . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1965, pp. 151–157. (gives the most important philological information)

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