Worlding Sei Shônagon: The Pillow Book in Translation

Xavier Roca-Ferrer (2007) Catalan

249 Xavier Roca-Ferrer Quadern de Capçalera Barcelona: La Magrana, 2007 Roca-Ferrer (b. 1949) has a PhD in Classical Philology. He has translated many classics from Latin, German and English into Spanish and/or Catalan, and his Spanish version of The Tale of Genji appeared in 2005. According to the foreword , this version of Sei Shônagon’s masterpiece was based on Beaujard, Morris and Watanabe, and Xavier Roca-Ferrer has consciously sought to be as complete as possible. He dismisses the Borges-Kodama version as merely “attributed” to the great Argentinian author, characterizing Sato’s reading as “much more serious and well done” (33). Interestingly, he claims a parallel between Sei’s lists and those found in the Kama Sutra and the Iliad. This book includes an eighteen-page introduction, as well as various highly readable appendices on such topics as Heian civilization, spirituality, women and marriage, the “dolce vita”, women’s writing, and the Heian calendar. Xavier Roca-Ferrer (2007) 250 1. A LA PRIMAVERA L’HORA QUE MÉS EM PLAU ÉS L’ALBA. Els cims de les muntanyes es van retallant de mica en mica a mesura que la llum del sol els il·lumina, i els núvols llargs i prims de color violaci semblen esfilagarsar-s’hi a sobre. A l’estiu són les nits. I no solament quan brilla la lluna, sinó també les nits fosques, quan les cuquetes de llum volen d’ací d’allà. Fins i tot si plou, que boniques que són les nits d’estiu! A la tardor adoro els capvespres, quan el sol se’n va a la posta fregant la silueta de les muntanyes i els corbs tornen als nius volant en grups de dos, de tres o de quatre. Però encara m’agraden més els estols d’ànecs silvestres, talment taquetes fosques en un cel llunyà. Quan el sol ha desaparegut , la cançó del vent i el zumzeig dels insectes m’omplen el cor de melangia. A l’hivern, però, no hi ha res millor que les primeres hores del matí. Resulta meravellós quan ha nevat tota la nit, però també quan el terra és blanc de gebre. O fins i tot quan no hi ha neu ni gebre, i les minyones van d’una cambra a l’altra atiant el foc dels brasers i omplint-los de carbó. Vet aquí el que escau a l’estació del fred! Però quan s’acosta el migdia, per poc que l’aire s’escalfi, ningú no pensa ja a mantenir els brasers encesos, i només hi resten unes quantes piles de cendres blanquinoses i oblidades.1 1 Tots els autors que tracten el culte a la natura que caracteritzava—i caracteritza encara—la civilització japonesa prenen aquest capitolet com a exemple suprem. Catalan 251 1. INSPRINGTHEHOURILIKEMOSTISDAWN. The peaks of the mountains are outlined little by little at the rate with which the light of the sun illuminates them, and the long and thin clouds of a purplish colour appear to fray over them. In summer it is the nights. And not only when the moon shines, but also the dark nights, when the little fireflies fly from here to there. Even when it rains, how pretty are summer nights! In autumn I adore dusk, when the sun goes down brushing the silhouette of the mountains and the ravens return to the nest in groups of two, three, or four. But I like even more the flocks of wild ducks, like little dark marks in a distant sky. When the sun has disappeared, the song of the wind and the oscillation of the insects fills my heart with melancholy. In winter, though, there is nothing better than the first hours of the morning. It turns out marvellous when it has snowed all night, but also when the ground is white with frost. Or even when there is no snow or frost, and the maids go from one room to the other poking the fire in the grates and filling them with coal. See what here fits the season of cold. But when midday arrives, through fear that the air will get warm, nobody thinks of keeping the grates burning, and all that is left is a few piles of whitish forgotten ashes.1 [R. T.] 1 All the writers who deal with the worship of nature that characterized —and still...