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Tale of Genji, chapter 4
Chapter 4! In which Genji is EVEN MORE of a ho!
Chapter 4: The Twilight Beauty
This opens with Genji going to visit his old nurse, who raised him after his mother died, who is sick and dying. He gets stuck waiting outside because nobody expected him coming, which gives him time to notice that there appears to be several rather attractive foreheads peering at him from the modest house next door.* He sends an attendant to pick some flowers, and an attendant comes from next door with a fan to put them on, sent by the mistress of the house, which ahs a flirty poem written on it.
Genji goes on into his nurse's house, where she's overcome with joy and can die happy and be assured of the Buddha's grace now that she's seen him, and she cries all over the place much to the embarassment of her kids, but Genji blathers on about how everyone he's ever loved has left him and he misses her soooo much and then the kids all burst into tears, too.
Despite coming from the deathbed of his nurse, he's still enamored of the next-door neighbor, so he enlists his foster brother to figure out who she is. She's the wife of an Honorary Deputy Governor, who's away in the country.
Genji still hasn't forgotten the wife of the Iyo Deputy from chapters 2 and 3, and she hasn't forgotten him and although she's still determined not to sleep with him, she still sends him poems so he won't forget her.
Then a lady known as the Rokujo Haven shows up as if we ought to already have known about her - she's yet another of Genji's amours, this one a bit older than he is, and the narrative natt6ers on a while about her. It doesn't forget to explain how everyone, even the most common of laborers, couldn't help but love Genji because he's so Speshul, and everywhere he walked, men practically threw themselves in his path, offering up their daughters for service (or "service", perhaps).
Anyway, skipping over a bunch of stuff, Genji eventually woos the reclusive woman who gave him the fan earlier, with a bit of comedy involving his foster-brother, who sucked up to a maid, Ukon, in the house to get the info and who thinks Genji is after Ukon and not the lady. Genji also figures out that the reclusive lady is none other than the one that his best friend was going on about in the bitch session back in chapter 2.**
Genji disguises himself and woos her and gets her to sneak off with him to a deserted estate which turns out to be haunted, and the ghost is a woman who sees Genji, forms a jealousy on the spot, and kills his amour. Genji then has to go through a comedey of errors in first trying to get her treated, then when he realizes she's dead for real and not just possessed, has to get her a funeral and explain somehow to the Emperor why he can't come to court for a month (because he had contact with death, he's defiled and therefore cannot come in contact with Emperor).
We learn again that Genji is Speshul because he hires a Doctor to write a prayer for the dead lady and when he tells the man what he wishes to have in the prayer, the Doctor says he can do no better.
Genji also does not forget his crush and his accidental conquest from chapters 2 and 3, still writing to the one and finally tossing off a poem to the other when he learns of her impending marriage.
He has not forgotten the child from his best friend's story, the daughter of the dead woman, and has the daughter brought to him to raise, although he does not tell his friend this. He also deos not tell the attendant in the woman's house what happened to their mistress, so they make up some story about the mysterious man being the sone of a provincial Governor who absconded with her to parts unknown.
At the end of the chapter, Genji is all sad because this woman - who he learns from her maid was smart but not too smart, compliant and happy to do what her husband wanted, and young enough to be formed to the will of her husband - was perfect for him, and his previous amour is still refusing him despite writing to him, and he's moping about the gardens and it's the first day of winter and it's raining.*** He moons about and quotes poetry about how hard it is to love when one of his lovers is dead and the other is refusing him.
And then we get the best part, a paragraph at the end thrown in by Murasaki explaining that after she gota well-deserved sporking on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
marysues criticized by some jealous lords and ladies of the court, she wrote this chapter to show that Genji isn't a Mary Sue because he does, too, have flaws!
* The foreheads' possessors are peering out through the shutters, so all he can see of them is the forehead. In the Heian era, women were theoretically supposed to be seen by only two men: their husbands and their fathers, and they lived their lives behind curtains, screens and shutters. Which is where "seeing" as a euphemism for sex comes in - if a man sees you, you've let him behind your screens and that means you've both got more on your mind than merely discussing poetry.
So if you can't see the person until you're about to hit the jackpot, you've gotta take what you can get, and Genji is apparently quite the forehead man.
** Short version of the story: To no Chujo (translated as Secretary Captain in the Taylor I'm reading) is married and is a dick to his wife, who's a bitch right back and who takes off for her family's house. To no Chujo is up to a bit of hanky-panky with this woman on the side. His wife finds out and starts sending threatening letters to her, which alarm her and she breaks it off and leaves, informing To no Chujo that he's got a baby daughter but she's taking her away. To no Chujo goes back to his wife and assumes that because all men are dicks anyway, she'll forgive him and be really happy about it because he deigned to come back and he doesn't need to stop being a dick, but she, sensibly, is having none of that and To no Chujo ends up with no wife, no girlfriend, and no daughter and therefore all women are BITCHES and HOS and my, isn't Genji looking really pretty today, guys?
*** Of course.
Chapter 4: The Twilight Beauty
This opens with Genji going to visit his old nurse, who raised him after his mother died, who is sick and dying. He gets stuck waiting outside because nobody expected him coming, which gives him time to notice that there appears to be several rather attractive foreheads peering at him from the modest house next door.* He sends an attendant to pick some flowers, and an attendant comes from next door with a fan to put them on, sent by the mistress of the house, which ahs a flirty poem written on it.
Genji goes on into his nurse's house, where she's overcome with joy and can die happy and be assured of the Buddha's grace now that she's seen him, and she cries all over the place much to the embarassment of her kids, but Genji blathers on about how everyone he's ever loved has left him and he misses her soooo much and then the kids all burst into tears, too.
Despite coming from the deathbed of his nurse, he's still enamored of the next-door neighbor, so he enlists his foster brother to figure out who she is. She's the wife of an Honorary Deputy Governor, who's away in the country.
Genji still hasn't forgotten the wife of the Iyo Deputy from chapters 2 and 3, and she hasn't forgotten him and although she's still determined not to sleep with him, she still sends him poems so he won't forget her.
Then a lady known as the Rokujo Haven shows up as if we ought to already have known about her - she's yet another of Genji's amours, this one a bit older than he is, and the narrative natt6ers on a while about her. It doesn't forget to explain how everyone, even the most common of laborers, couldn't help but love Genji because he's so Speshul, and everywhere he walked, men practically threw themselves in his path, offering up their daughters for service (or "service", perhaps).
Anyway, skipping over a bunch of stuff, Genji eventually woos the reclusive woman who gave him the fan earlier, with a bit of comedy involving his foster-brother, who sucked up to a maid, Ukon, in the house to get the info and who thinks Genji is after Ukon and not the lady. Genji also figures out that the reclusive lady is none other than the one that his best friend was going on about in the bitch session back in chapter 2.**
Genji disguises himself and woos her and gets her to sneak off with him to a deserted estate which turns out to be haunted, and the ghost is a woman who sees Genji, forms a jealousy on the spot, and kills his amour. Genji then has to go through a comedey of errors in first trying to get her treated, then when he realizes she's dead for real and not just possessed, has to get her a funeral and explain somehow to the Emperor why he can't come to court for a month (because he had contact with death, he's defiled and therefore cannot come in contact with Emperor).
We learn again that Genji is Speshul because he hires a Doctor to write a prayer for the dead lady and when he tells the man what he wishes to have in the prayer, the Doctor says he can do no better.
Genji also does not forget his crush and his accidental conquest from chapters 2 and 3, still writing to the one and finally tossing off a poem to the other when he learns of her impending marriage.
He has not forgotten the child from his best friend's story, the daughter of the dead woman, and has the daughter brought to him to raise, although he does not tell his friend this. He also deos not tell the attendant in the woman's house what happened to their mistress, so they make up some story about the mysterious man being the sone of a provincial Governor who absconded with her to parts unknown.
At the end of the chapter, Genji is all sad because this woman - who he learns from her maid was smart but not too smart, compliant and happy to do what her husband wanted, and young enough to be formed to the will of her husband - was perfect for him, and his previous amour is still refusing him despite writing to him, and he's moping about the gardens and it's the first day of winter and it's raining.*** He moons about and quotes poetry about how hard it is to love when one of his lovers is dead and the other is refusing him.
And then we get the best part, a paragraph at the end thrown in by Murasaki explaining that after she got
marysuesI had passed over Genji's trials and tribulations in silence, out of respect for his determined efforts to conceal them, and I have written of them now only because certain lords and ladies criticized my story for resembling fiction, wishing to know why even those who knew Genji best should have thought him perfect, just because he was an Emperor's son. No doubt I must now beg everyone's indulgence for my effrontery in painting so wicked a portrait of him.
* The foreheads' possessors are peering out through the shutters, so all he can see of them is the forehead. In the Heian era, women were theoretically supposed to be seen by only two men: their husbands and their fathers, and they lived their lives behind curtains, screens and shutters. Which is where "seeing" as a euphemism for sex comes in - if a man sees you, you've let him behind your screens and that means you've both got more on your mind than merely discussing poetry.
So if you can't see the person until you're about to hit the jackpot, you've gotta take what you can get, and Genji is apparently quite the forehead man.
** Short version of the story: To no Chujo (translated as Secretary Captain in the Taylor I'm reading) is married and is a dick to his wife, who's a bitch right back and who takes off for her family's house. To no Chujo is up to a bit of hanky-panky with this woman on the side. His wife finds out and starts sending threatening letters to her, which alarm her and she breaks it off and leaves, informing To no Chujo that he's got a baby daughter but she's taking her away. To no Chujo goes back to his wife and assumes that because all men are dicks anyway, she'll forgive him and be really happy about it because he deigned to come back and he doesn't need to stop being a dick, but she, sensibly, is having none of that and To no Chujo ends up with no wife, no girlfriend, and no daughter and therefore all women are BITCHES and HOS and my, isn't Genji looking really pretty today, guys?
*** Of course.
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Sleeves are also very important.
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slutsimmodest, and she thinks it's because they run about barefaced in front of all the men of the court. Or something like that.no subject
Amid streaming tears today a last time I knot this, her trouser cord-
ah, in what age yet to come will I undo it again?
Even at funerals Genji's a skank!
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I was just so taken by the "GeNjI iz NOT a mArYsUe, u H0rS!!!!" paragraph that I forgot all about that one. XD
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The ghost lady and Rokujo lady are actually the same being, IIRC. The Genji chronology is so convoluted that I can't for the life of me remember whether this is stated in the text somewhere or whether you're supposed to pick up this fact from this chapter.