Murasaki Shikibu Quotes

Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court during the Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, widely considered to be the world's first novel, written in Japanese between about 1000 and 1012. Murasaki Shikibu is a descriptive name; her personal name is unknown, but she may have been Fujiwara no Kaoruko , who was mentioned in a 1007 court diary as an imperial lady-in-waiting.

Heian women were traditionally excluded from learning Chinese, the written language of government, but Murasaki, raised in her erudite father's household, showed a precocious aptitude for the Chinese classics and managed to acquire fluency. She married in her mid-to late twenties and gave birth to a daughter before her husband died, two years after they were married. It is uncertain when she began to write The Tale of Genji, but it was probably while she was married or shortly after she was widowed. In about 1005, Murasaki was invited to serve as a lady-in-waiting to Empress Shōshi at the Imperial court by Fujiwara no Michinaga, probably because of her reputation as a writer. She continued to write during her service, adding scenes from court life to her work. After five or six years, she left court and retired with Shōshi to the Lake Biwa region. Scholars differ on the year of her death; although most agree on 1014, others have suggested she was alive in 1031.

Murasaki wrote The Diary of Lady Murasaki, a volume of poetry, and The Tale of Genji. Within a decade of its completion, Genji was distributed throughout the provinces; within a century it was recognized as a classic of Japanese literature and had become a subject of scholarly criticism. Early in the 20th century her work was translated; a six-volume English translation was completed in 1933. Scholars continue to recognize the importance of her work, which reflects Heian court society at its peak. Since the 13th century her works have been illustrated by Japanese artists and well-known ukiyo-e woodblock masters. Wikipedia  

✵ 973 – 1014
Murasaki Shikibu photo

Works

The Tale of Genji
Murasaki Shikibu
The Diary of Lady Murasaki
The Diary of Lady Murasaki
Murasaki Shikibu
Murasaki Shikibu: 24   quotes 15   likes

Famous Murasaki Shikibu Quotes

“Real things in the darkness seem no realer than dreams.”

Source: Tale of Genji, The Tale of Genji, trans. Arthur Waley, Ch. 1: Kiritsubo

“Autumn is no time to lie alone”

The Tale of Genji

“The sadness of things.”

Passim. Cf. Lacrimae rerum.
Variant translations:
The pathos of things.
A sensitivity to things.
The sorrow of human existence.
Tale of Genji

“Ceaseless as the interminable voices of the bell-cricket, all night till dawn my tears flow.”

Source: Tale of Genji, The Tale of Genji, trans. Arthur Waley, Ch. 1

Murasaki Shikibu Quotes about heart

“Though the snow-drifts of Yoshino were heaped across his path, doubt not that whither his heart is set, his footsteps shall tread out their way.”

Source: Tale of Genji, The Tale of Genji, trans. Arthur Waley, Ch. 19: A Wreath of Cloud

Murasaki Shikibu Quotes about personality

Murasaki Shikibu Quotes

“I have never thought there was much to be said in favor of dragging on long after all one's friends were dead.”

Source: Tale of Genji, The Tale of Genji, trans. Arthur Waley, Ch. 29: The Royal Visit

“It is in general the unexplored that attracts us.”

Source: Tale of Genji, The Tale of Genji, trans. Arthur Waley, Ch. 9: Aoi

“To be pleasant, gentle, calm and self-possessed: this is the basis of good taste and charm in a woman. No matter how amorous or passionate you may be, as long as you are straightforward and refrain from causing others embarrassment, no one will mind. But women who are too vain and act pretentiously, to the extent that they make others feel uncomfortable, will themselves become the object of attention; and once that happens, people will find fault with whatever they say or do: whether it be how they enter a room, how they sit down, how they stand up or how they take their leave. Those who end up contradicting themselves and those who disparage their companions are also carefully watched and listened to all the more. As long as you are free from such faults, people will surely refrain from listening to tittle-tattle and will want to show you sympathy, if only for the sake of politeness. I am of the opinion that when you intentionally cause hurt to another, or indeed if you do ill through mere thoughtless behavior, you fully deserve to be censured in public. Some people are so good-natured that they can still care for those who despise them, but I myself find it very difficult. Did the Buddha himself in all his compassion ever preach that one should simply ignore those who slander the Three Treasures? How in this sullied world of ours can those who are hard done by be expected to reciprocate in kind?”

trans. Richard Bowring
The Diary of Lady Murasaki

“Does it not move you strangely, the love-bird's cry, tonight when, like the drifting snow, memory piles up on memory?”

Source: Tale of Genji, The Tale of Genji, trans. Arthur Waley, Ch. 20: Asagao

“You that in far-off countries of the sky can dwell secure, look back upon me here; for I am weary of this frail world's decay.”

Source: Tale of Genji, The Tale of Genji, trans. Arthur Waley, Ch. 40: The Law

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