The “Pillow Book” — classical literature which will not bore you

Haru wa akebono — yoyo shiroku nariyuku yamagiwa wa sukoshi akarite..

Mst Japanese people can recite the famous opening lines of the Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon. This thousand-year-old classic is taught in Japanese schools, but it is a literature work that has lived past it’s time.

Books, which are regarded as classical literature are usually stories with facts and passages known to every high school student without really grasping the content of the whole story — a book everyone knows, but no one reads.

To read the translation of Sei Shonagons novel — “In spring, the dawn — when the slowly paling mountain rim is tinged with red . . .” the novel has traveled quite far.

I remember that I read her book in a German translation and first I expected the typical hard-to-understand classical literature I got to know from my school times when I first made acquaintance with Goethe and Schiller. Books, which are regarded as classical literature are usually stories with facts and passages known to every high school student without really grasping the content of the whole story — a book everyone knows, but no one reads.

But Sei Shonagons Pillow Book is different. And that is why, I grew so fond of it.

Sei Shonagon

Sei Shonagon (清少納言) who lived around 966 until 1025 was a court lady who served the Empress Teishi (Sadako) around the year 1000 in the middle Heian period.

Born as the daughter of a scholar and well-known Waka poet, the family were middle-ranking courtiers and had financial difficulties. Little is known about Sei Shonagons life, except about what can be found in her writing.

The later years, after leaving her work as court lady for the empress, are almost unknown. According to one tradition, she lived her last years in poverty as a Buddhist nun. Another tradition says, she got married to the governor of Settsu province with whom she had one daughter.

Sei Shonagon is known for her rivalry with her contemporary, writer and court lady Murasaki Shikibu, author of The Tale of Genji who served the Empress Shoshi. The writing of the Pillow Book overlapped with the writing of The Tale of Genji shortly before…