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lukija's review against another edition
3.0
Yläluokkaisen ja oppineen miehen havainnoivia mietteitä uskonnosta (buddhalaisuus), tavoista (etiketistä), ihmisistä (toimintatavoista ja valinnoista) ja niin edelleen. Kiinnostava ajankuvana (n. 1300 -luvun Japani). Ennen oli paremmin -näkökulma moniin asioihin. Oivaltava, näpäyttävä, suorapuheinen, hitaasti aukeava ja paikoin käsittämätön. Mielikuva henkilöstä, joka haluaa tehdä asiat oikein ja kunnioittaa perinteitä, vanhoja tapoja. Fantastisen ristiriitainen tekstikokoelma. Tekstit ovat lyhyitä ja kirja on nopealukuinen ellei halua huolella perehtyä kirjoittajan aikaan ja ajatusmaailmaan, jolloin tekstit meditatiivisempia ja vaativat lukijaltaan taustatyötä.
dragonlilly's review
3.0
Essays notable to me:
20: "A certain hermit once said, 'There is one thing that even I, who have no worldly entanglements, would be sorry to give up, the beauty of the sky.' I can understand why he should have felt that way."
27:
"'Even menials
Of the palace staff treat me
As a stranger now;
In my unswept garden lie
The scattered cherry blossoms.'
What a lonely feeling the poem seems to convey--people are too distracted by all the festivities of the new reign for anyone to wait on the retired emperor."
29: "When I sit down in quiet meditation, the one emotion hardest to fight against is a longing in all things for the past...As I tear up scraps of old correspondence I should prefer not to leave behind, I sometimes find among them samples of the calligraphy of a friend who has died, or pictures he drew for his own amusement, and I feel exactly as I did at the time."
43, 82, 105, 217, 241
20: "A certain hermit once said, 'There is one thing that even I, who have no worldly entanglements, would be sorry to give up, the beauty of the sky.' I can understand why he should have felt that way."
27:
"'Even menials
Of the palace staff treat me
As a stranger now;
In my unswept garden lie
The scattered cherry blossoms.'
What a lonely feeling the poem seems to convey--people are too distracted by all the festivities of the new reign for anyone to wait on the retired emperor."
29: "When I sit down in quiet meditation, the one emotion hardest to fight against is a longing in all things for the past...As I tear up scraps of old correspondence I should prefer not to leave behind, I sometimes find among them samples of the calligraphy of a friend who has died, or pictures he drew for his own amusement, and I feel exactly as I did at the time."
43, 82, 105, 217, 241
narodnokolo's review against another edition
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
179tdd's review
3.0
edit: morala sam da dodam zvezdicu jer je u originalu mnogo lepše ali ipak nisi morao 10000 puta da kažeš da život nema smisla ljubi brat
dwgill's review
5.0
If you're interested in historic Japanese Buddhist views on aesthetics, propriety, and the ideal life, you'll probably find this book worth looking at. I discovered Kenkō when I read The Art of the Personal Essay, which features a few excerpts from this work. I would suspect Essays in Idleness is a mixed bag for typical western readers. You have some passages that are categorically profound:
And then others that are so bound to their historic or cultural context as to render them almost meaningless to a typical non-scholar American like me:
This quote justifiably has half a page of footnotes that accompany it (in the Donald Keene translation), but it's inarguable that this passage and others like it just don't have much to offer people like me. Perhaps the most untranslatable passages are those where Kenkō elaborates on Japanese grammar, syntax, or vocabulary.
Riveting. In addition, there are some passages that are perhaps best described as straight non sequiturs.
So I'm not sure what to conclude about Essays in Idleness except that I found my time reading it ultimately well spent. I enjoyed reading the quirky nonsense, and the moving profundity. Here's one of my favorite passages.
Ultimately I feel like Kenkō has some worthwhile ideas to offer to a modern reader, and even despite the vast distance there is between he and I, I still often came away feeling in some sense having learned something.
When I sit down in quiet meditation, the one emotion hardest to fight against is a longing in all things for the past. After the others have gone to bed, I pass the time on a long autumn’s night by putting in order whatever belongings are at hand. As I tear up scraps of old correspondence I should prefer not to leave behind, I sometimes find among them samples of the calligraphy of a friend who has died, or pictures he drew for his own amusement, and I feel exactly as I did at the time. Even with letters written by friends who are still alive I try, when it has been long since we met, to remember the circumstances, the year. What a moving experience that is! It is sad to think that a man’s familiar possessions, indifferent to his death, should remain unaltered long after he is gone.
And then others that are so bound to their historic or cultural context as to render them almost meaningless to a typical non-scholar American like me:
Once when the retired emperor's courtiers were playing at riddles in the Daigakuji palace, the physician Tadamori joined them. The Chamberlain and Major Counselor Kinakira posed the riddle: "What is it, Tadamori, that doesn't seem to be Japanese?" Somebody gave the answer: "Kara-heiji—a metal wine jug." The other all joined in the laugh, but Tadamori angrily stalked out.
This quote justifiably has half a page of footnotes that accompany it (in the Donald Keene translation), but it's inarguable that this passage and others like it just don't have much to offer people like me. Perhaps the most untranslatable passages are those where Kenkō elaborates on Japanese grammar, syntax, or vocabulary.
The words "fixed complement" are used not only about priests at the various temples but in the Engishiki for female officials of lower rank. The words must have been a common designation for all officials whose numbers were fixed.
Riveting. In addition, there are some passages that are perhaps best described as straight non sequiturs.
You should never put the new antlers of a deer to your nose and smell them. They have little insects that crawl into the nose and devour the brain.
So I'm not sure what to conclude about Essays in Idleness except that I found my time reading it ultimately well spent. I enjoyed reading the quirky nonsense, and the moving profundity. Here's one of my favorite passages.
If we pick up a brush, we feel like writing; if we hold a musical instrument in our hands, we wish to play music. Lifting a wine cup makes us crave saké; taking up dice, we should like to play backgammon. The mind invariably reacts in this way to any stimulus. That is why we should not indulge even casually in improper amusements.
Even a perfunctory glance at one verse of some holy writing will somehow make us notice also the text that precedes and follows; it may happen then, quite suddenly, that we mend our errors of many years. Suppose we had not at that moment opened the sacred text, would we have realized our mistakes? This is a case of accidental contact producing a beneficial result. Though our hearts may not be in the least impelled by faith, if we sit before the Buddha, rosary in hand, and take up a sutra, we may (even in our indolence) be accumulating merit through the act itself; though our mind may be inattentive, if we st in meditation on a rope seat, we may enter a state of calm and concentration, without even being aware of it.
Phenomenon and essence are fundamentally one. If the outward form is not at variance with the truth, an inward realization is certain to develop. We should not deny that is is true faith; we should respect and honor a conformity to truth.
Ultimately I feel like Kenkō has some worthwhile ideas to offer to a modern reader, and even despite the vast distance there is between he and I, I still often came away feeling in some sense having learned something.
rufus666's review
2.0
This is a miscellany. It is a collection of various thoughts and things and events that the author finds interesting. A journal basically, or a diary. Some of it was uninteresting to me though, and did not translate at all. Proper etiquette is discussed. What constitutes refined behavior, and other matters. He talks a lot about how this tradition has been performed during the time of this or that emperor.
Where the book shines is with regards to aesthetics. Yoshida shows a taste on things which is rooted on buddhist philosophy. Probably the best paragraphs in the book are the ones under the heading 'On Different Points of View," where the beauty of imperfect things are discussed. It begins:
"Is it only when the flowers are in full bloom and when the moon is shining in spotless perfection that we ought to gaze at them?"
From there it goes on a rather interesting sort of exposition, describing and praising refined behavior and condemning the unrefined behavior of some people.
The perspective is intimate (similar to the 'slice-of-life' genre in Japanese anime and manga), and might surprise you in how 'modern' the sentiment of the author is. It is a trove of information on the culture and behavior of people during the author's time.
My version is the 1914 translation by William N. Porter, and since I have no knowledge of Japanese, I cannot make any comment on it. This version is freely available online and I enjoin the reader to have a go at it, and read it in her Iphone or Android phone using an ebookreader while waiting for someone or going on a public commute in a train or any public vehicle, as she could find something of interest to her in it.
Where the book shines is with regards to aesthetics. Yoshida shows a taste on things which is rooted on buddhist philosophy. Probably the best paragraphs in the book are the ones under the heading 'On Different Points of View," where the beauty of imperfect things are discussed. It begins:
"Is it only when the flowers are in full bloom and when the moon is shining in spotless perfection that we ought to gaze at them?"
From there it goes on a rather interesting sort of exposition, describing and praising refined behavior and condemning the unrefined behavior of some people.
The perspective is intimate (similar to the 'slice-of-life' genre in Japanese anime and manga), and might surprise you in how 'modern' the sentiment of the author is. It is a trove of information on the culture and behavior of people during the author's time.
My version is the 1914 translation by William N. Porter, and since I have no knowledge of Japanese, I cannot make any comment on it. This version is freely available online and I enjoin the reader to have a go at it, and read it in her Iphone or Android phone using an ebookreader while waiting for someone or going on a public commute in a train or any public vehicle, as she could find something of interest to her in it.
camoverride's review
3.0
This book is a collection of short observations by the Japanese Buddhist Priest Kenko. It's not exactly wisdom literature - though many of the essays offer practical advice. It's also not poetry - though some of the essays have a very haiku-like quality. It's also not a collection of Zen koans - though there are some koans here.
What I liked about this book is that it's nothing specific: rather than trying to fit into a particular category of literature, these essays are instead designed to make you feel situated in a specific place and time - Medieval Japan - with all the religious rituals, imperial bureaucracy, and feudal fighting that come along with that.
What I liked about this book is that it's nothing specific: rather than trying to fit into a particular category of literature, these essays are instead designed to make you feel situated in a specific place and time - Medieval Japan - with all the religious rituals, imperial bureaucracy, and feudal fighting that come along with that.