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/lit/ - Literature

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853808 No.853808 [Reply] [Original]

anyone here read the tale of genji? I'm somewhat interested in it, and opinion on it seems to be evenly divided between it being really good, and being boring as shit. there's also the question of which translation to get, although I think I'd want the royall tyler one

>> No.853901

anyone?

>> No.853935

Wait for nighttime /lit/

>> No.853941

I read it a few years ago and I enjoyed it quite a lot. It's a long work so some parts of it are more exciting than others. I think it's definitely worth a read if you're interested.

>> No.853943

I haven't read it, but I'm currently weighing the translations too. I want an unabridged version, but apparently the only full translation isn't all that great. It's been suggested to get /both/ translations, but I'm not too sure about all that.

>> No.853962

Heike crabs, massive damage, etc

>> No.854607

>>853943
from what I've read, royall tyler's translation attempts to be more faithful to the original, and some people think this makes it lose the poetry of the original. there was a side by side of a passage on amazon and idk, one of the other translations (waley i think) just seemed to be making it flowerly for it's own sake, and I'd rather read a more straightforward translation. someone also said that he thought the footnotes and illustrations in tyler's version detracted from it, but I flipped through that copy in a bookstore and thought it looked useful, and made it look good.

>> No.854619

I really enjoyed it, but I also really like history and part of my enjoyment was just the glimpse into 10th century Japan. The little poems are great, and though it's a long, long story, which tends to wander and get off track a bit, it's also a pretty good story.

>> No.854621

>>854619

I should note, it also helps to speak a little Japanese and understand a bit about Japanese culture of the time in order to appreciate the poems.