Murasaki Shikibu: Thing

Murasaki Shikibu was Japanese novelist, poet during the Heian period. best known as the author of The Tale of Genji. Explore interesting quotes on thing.
Murasaki Shikibu: 48   quotes 15   likes

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

Murasaki Shikibu book The Tale of Genji

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

Dreams

“The sadness of things.”

Murasaki Shikibu book The Tale of Genji

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

Sadness

“Sei Shōnagon is a smug and horrible person. She acts so smart and is always writing in true [Chinese] characters, but if you look closely, you can find lots of mistakes. People who try that hard to be different from everyone else always end up falling behind, with trouble waiting in their future; and people who are that affected act all mono no aware and attend all the interesting events even when they're lonely and bored, so that in the end the affectation stops being an act. How exactly are things going to end well for a person like that?”

Murasaki Shikibu book The Diary of Lady Murasaki

source http://no-sword.jp/blog/2010/03/iced_cream.html
The Diary of Lady Murasaki

People , Waiting , Future , Personality

“[The art of the novel] does not simply consist in the author's telling a story about the adventures of some other person. On the contrary, it happens because the storyteller's own experience of men and things, whether for good or ill—not only what he has passed through himself, but even events which he has only witnessed or been told of—has moved him to an emotion so passionate that he can no longer keep it shut up in his heart.”

Murasaki Shikibu book The Tale of Genji

Source: Tale of Genji, The Tale of Genji, trans. Arthur Waley, Ch. 25: The Glow-Worm

Men , Art , Passion , Heart

“So all they see of me is a façade. There are times when I am forced to sit with them and on such occasions I simply ignore their petty criticisms, not because I am particularly shy but because I consider it pointless. As a result, they now look upon me as a dullard.
"Well, we never expected this!" they all say. "No one liked her. They all said she was pretentious, awkward, difficult to approach, prickly, too fond of her tales, haughty, prone to versifying, disdainful, cantankerous and scornful; but when you meet her, she is strangely meek, a completely different person altogether!"
How embarrassing! Do they really look upon me as such a dull thing, I wonder? But I am what I am. Her Majesty has also remarked more than once that she had thought I was not the kind of person with whom she could ever relax, but that I have now become closer to her than any of the others. I am so perverse and standoffish. If only I can avoid putting off those for whom I have a genuine regard.”

Murasaki Shikibu book The Diary of Lady Murasaki

trans. Richard Bowring
The Diary of Lady Murasaki

Time , Personality