Essay
Essays in Idleness
徒然草
Yoshida Kenko · 1330
Synopsis
A Buddhist monk records, in a preface and two hundred and forty-three passages ranging from a single line to a few pages, whatever comes to his mind: death and impermanence dominate, alongside pages on nature and amusing anecdotes. For him, beauty lies in what passes, and the more fleeting a moment is, the more precious it is, according to Britannica, which also notes his regret for the old customs. He praises the irregular, the unfinished, the beginnings and ends of things, and speaks of friendship and traditions.
Context
The text was written between 1330 and 1332 (around 1330 according to the Britannica). It did not form a book: a friend of the author gathered its leaves, perhaps the poet and general Imagawa Ryōshun. The original was not divided, and the division into passages dates from the seventeenth century, when the work became a classic, commented on in public by Matsunaga Teitoku and annotated by the physician Hata Sōha, according to the New World Encyclopedia. It is counted among the three representative works of the genre of writings “at the whim of the brush”.
Who it is for
Can be read out of order, passage by passage, without knowing anything about medieval Japan. A French version with commentary exists.
Prizes and reception
A classic since the seventeenth century and read in Japanese schools, it was translated into English as early as 1911, then by Donald Keene in 1967.
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