Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #244526 in Books
• Published on: 1975-01-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Synopsis
"As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams" is a unique autobiography in which the anonymous writer known as Lady Sarashina intersperses personal reflections, anecdotes and lyrical poems with accounts of her travels and evocative descriptions of the Japanese countryside. Born in AD 1008, Lady Sarashina felt an acute sense of melancholy that led her to withdraw into the more congenial realm of the imagination - this deeply introspective work presents her vision of the world. While barely alluding to certain aspects of her life such as marriage, she illuminates her pilgrimages to temples and mystical dreams in exquisite prose, describing a profound emotional journey that can be read as a metaphor for life itself.

Customer Reviews

Lyrical counterpoint to Sei Shonagon
Short, poignant and redolent of a very individual experience of life in Heian Japan, the memoirs of 'Lady Sarashina' provide a fascinating glimpse of a woman's life slightly outside of the most exalted circles of eleventh-century life. This is a highly idiosyncratic portrait of its time, concentrating on episodes important to Sarashina herself (dreams, pilgrimages, poetic exchanges) rather than to the politically-active class as a whole. The sense of chronology is vague, the structure dictated more by mood pieces and observations than straightforward diary-keeping.

As such, this probably isn't the place to start with medieval Japanese writing, but something to try after Sei Shonagon (an altogether more ebullient and resilient character, who _is_ at the centre of things) and Lady Murasaki. Sarashina is too withdrawn to involve herself in the customary court intrigues and liaisons, and too low-status to have much impact. Instead, she occupies herself with the fantastical world of Genji and other "Tales". Her memoirs are also notable for their account of a journey through the provinces to the capital, and for highly-praised poetry that unfortunately doesn't translate particularly well.

Ivan Morris' concise introduction sets the work in its context and discusses its significance and textual history; line drawings and unobtrusive notes further build our picture of Sarashina's world. A worthwhile purchase.

I preferred Sei Shonagon
Reading this and "The pillow book of Sei Shonagon" gives you an insight into two worlds - of success and failure - in the Imperial court of early Japan. While Sei Shonagon is vivacious and lively, Lady Murasaki writes with an air of bitterness and tiredness at spending her life in a place to which she was obviously not suited.
Combine the two for a fascinating glimpse into another time and place - but expect to like Sei Shonagon all the more by the end.

Slight and sweet
Lady Sarashina may have lived around the same time as Sei Shonagon, but you couldn't imagine two more different accounts of Heian life. Where Shonagon is witty, arch and often cutting in her observations of life, Sarashina is a dreamer who seems poorly equipped for life at court. Although occasionally frustrating in its slightness, this casts yet more light on an exceptional period in Japanese history -- and the history of literature as a whole. Sarashina describes the world as she sees it in lucid, often beautiful detail. She talks of her pilgrimages, life at court, an unrequited romance. Translator Ivan Morris writes in his excellent introduction that there was a lot more going on in Heian society than we see through the court ladies' eyes -- there were wars, uprisings, unrest. But he compares these writings to looking at a beautiful garden in minute and sparkling detail. If you liked Shonagon's Pillow Book, this will give you a different but no less fascinating view of that garden.