#tsurezuregusa

[aschenblumen]

Alguien dijo: «Una seda fina no es apropiada para envolver el manuscrito, porque se deteriora fácilmente». A lo que Tona respondió: «Es precisamente cuando la cubierta de seda se ha deshilachado por arriba y por abajo, y cuando el nácar se ha desprendido del rollo, cuando se puede decir que un pergamino es bello». Lo cual es prueba del gusto tan elevado y fino que poseía este hombre. Hay quien dice que una colección de libros no es hermosa a la vista si no tienen todos el mismo formato; pero a mí me impresionó mucho lo que le oí decir al abad Koyu: «Es propio de un hombre poco culto querer ordenar juegos completos de cosas; es mejor lo incompleto». En todas las cosas, la uniformidad es un defecto. Es interesante dejar algo incompleto y por terminar; así se tendrá la sensación de que mediante esa imperfección se prolonga la vida de los seres. Alguien dijo: «Hasta cuando construyen un palacio dejan algo por terminar». Y en los escritos de los sabios de la Antigüedad, tanto budistas como confucionistas, hay muchos versos y capítulos que faltan.

Kenko Yoshida, Tsurezuregusa. Ocurrencias de un ocioso. Traducción de Justino Rodríguez.

[citypopdaily]

惑いのWicked Woman (Tomadoi no Wicked Woman) by Junko Ohashi / 大橋純子

Album: DEF Year: 1988 Label: Epic Lyrics: Tsurezuregusa / 徒然草 Music: Ken Sato / 佐藤健

[sinful-lanterns]

It might sound obvious, but since you asked I was thinking about Angell as a nekomata! Literally a cat monster that can also transform, and among the many stories in japan telling the myth there was one that fascinated me anough that might fit her 🤭

I quote the wiki: "an old cat raised in a villa on a mountain precipice held a secret treasure, a protective sword, in its mouth and ran away. People chased the cat, but it disguised itself and left behind the thought of a monster that had disguised itself as a cat. In the aforementioned "Tsurezuregusa", in addition to nekomata that conceal themselves in the mountains, there are descriptions of pet cats that grow old, transform, and eat and abduct people."

A cat with a sword? some abduct people? 👀 you see my vision

some nekomata also have two tails!

-🧶

OUGHHHH Nekomata Angell who abducts the Researcher one day because she thinks you would make the perfect mate for her. Imagine you’re camping outside in the mountain area in your tent, and by the time you wake up in the morning, you realize you have been abducted as you’re laying in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room, with an unfamiliar hot Nekomata woman spooning you possessively from behind…

You try to leave, but it’s no use. Nekomata Angell is just as strong as she is possessive, and she won’t let you leave the bed as she wants to live out her days with her newfound “mate.” The abandoned house she had claimed as her lair is a mess, so you spend your days living with Nekomata Angell in her cluttered house, doing domestic things like cooking and cleaning and teaching her how to take care of herself. All the while having small moments of sex, as Nekomata Angell can be quite the insatiable one…

In return for your companionship, well…let’s just say Angell wants to give you a litter of Nekomata kittens soon 😅

[letsreadlotsoffanfic]

Little Black Classics Box Set, pt 1

Not "fanfic", but… I came across the "Little Black Classics Box Set" published by Penguin Random House recently, and the list of books looked great! $140 for 80 books is also fantastic, even when they're mostly novellas. A lot of it looked like stuff I wanted to read.

It was also all mostly in the public domain, too. So I figured that I could just find most of it on gutenberg or another archive, legally and for free!

Below the cut is the list of books in the collection, as well as where to find them online:

A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees by Kenko - Excerpt from "Tsurezuregusa" (Essays in Idleness). Original Japanese English translation (labelled "The Miscellany of a Japanese Priest: Being a Translation of Tsure-Zure Gusa")

A Hippo Banquet by Mary Kingsley - Excerpt from "Travels in West Africa"

A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift - Gutenberg

A Pair of Silk Stockings by Kate Chopin - Excerpt from "The Awakening"

A Simple Heart by Gustave Flaubert - Excerpt from "Trois Contes" (Three tales/three short works). Original French English Translation

A Slip Under the Microscope by H G Wells - Excerpt from "30 Strange Stories"

Anthem For Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen - Poem. Collection

Antigone by Sophocles - English collection of Sophocles plays. Gutenberg has a few other translations of this

Aphorisms on Love and Hate by Friedrich Nietzsche - Excerpt from "Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits". Original German English Translation

As Kingfishers Catch Fire by Gerard Manley Hopkins - Poem. Collection

Caligula by Suetonius - English translation Good site for original Latin and a French translation

Circe and the Cyclops by Homer - Excerpt from the Odyssey. English translation. Good site to read original Greek

Circles of Hell by Dante - Excerpt from the Divine Comedy. Original Italian. English translation

Come Close by Sappho - I could not track down all the translations, since some are more recently uncovered than public domain limits. Here are some. And here's a good site for the original Greek

Femme Fatale by Guy de Maupassant - Selected short stories. Original French English translation

Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti - Poem. Collection

Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov - Original Russian Collected English translation

How a Ghastly Story Was Brought to Light by a Common or Garden Butcher's Dog by Johann Peter Hebel - Original German

How Much Land Does A Man Need? By Leo Tolstoy - Short story. Original Russian English collection with other stories

How to Use Your Enemies by Baltasar Gracián - Excerpts from the Pocket Oracle. Original Spanish English translation

How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing by Michel de Montaigne - Excerpts from his essays. Original French is in 4 volumes on Gutenberg. Vol 1 Complete English translation

I Hate and I Love by Catullus - Poem in collection Original Latin

Il Duro by D. H. Lawrence - Excerpts from Twilight in Italy.

It Was Snowing Butterflies by Charles Darwin - Excerpts from The Voyage of the Beagle

Jason and Medea by Apollonius of Rhodes - Excerpts from the Argonautica. English translation Original Greek

Kasyan from the Beautiful Lands by Ivan Turgenev - Excerpt from A Sportsman's Sketches. Original Russian English translation

Leonardo da Vinci by Giorgio Vasari - Excerpt from volume 4 of Vasari's "Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects." Original Italian English translation

Lips too Chilled by Matsuo Basho - Selection of some of Basho's haikus. Original Japanese collection. I couldn't find any "complete collection" in English, but the external links on Basho's wikipedia page have a large number of them

Lord Arthur Savile's Crime by Oscar Wilde

Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield - Excerpt from The Garden Party and Other Stories

Mrs Rosie and the Priest by Giovanni Boccaccio - Excerpt from The Decameron Original Italian English translation

My Dearest Father by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Some of the letters Mozart wrote. Original German scans English translation

O Cruel Alexis by Virgil - Poem from the Bucolics and Eclogues of Virgil. English Translation Original Latin

Of Street Piemen by Henry Mayhew - Excerpts from London Labour and the London Poor. There are four volumes of this on Gutenberg. Vol 1

Olalla by Robert Louis Stevenson - One of Stevenson's short stories. Collection

On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts by Thomas De Quincey - Collection of essays.

On the Beach at Night Alone by Walt Whitman - Poem. Collection

Remember, Body… by C. P. Cavafy - Poem. Greek and English collection

Sindbad the Sailor - From "Arabian Nights"/"The Thousand and One Nights" Original Arabic English translations (One) (Two)

Sketchy, Doubtful, Incomplete Jottings by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Excerpts and essays. Wolfgang von Goethe was very prolific, you may be best off just looking at his author page on Gutenberg

Socrates' Defence by Plato - excerpts from Apology. English translation Original Greek

Speaking of Siva - selection of Virasaiva vacanas (religious verses). I cannot find the original kannada or english translation collection of these outside of this book: The ones that do have one of these poems cite A. K. Ramanujan, who translated and annotated this. This is "the" source. You can borrow it from the Internet Archive's library. Please message me if you find a good alternative source for this!

The Atheist's Mass by Honoré de Balzac - Short story. Original French part of a collection English translation

The Beautiful Cassandra by Jane Austen - Excerpts from Austen's youth

The Communist Manifesto Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels - Original German English translation

The Dhammapada - English translation. Older manuscripts are in a few different versions, mostly Sanskrit/Pali, but this is a good site to read it on

The Dolphins, the Whales and the Gudgeon by Aesop - Selection of Aesop's fables. English translation Greek, Latin, French, and Spanish

The Eve of St Agnes by John Keats - Poem. Collection

The Fall of Icarus by Ovid - from the Metamorphoses. English translation Original latin

The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James

The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows by Rudyard Kipling - Short story. Collection

The Great Fire of London by Samuel Pepys - Excerpt from his diary. Gutenberg Annotated online

The Great Winglebury Duel by Charles Dickens - Short story. Collection

The Life of a Stupid Man by Ryunosuke Akutagawa - From 羅生門 (Rashomon). Original Japanese. I cannot find an English translation available free & legal online.

The Madness of Cambyses by Herodotus - Excerpt from the History of Herodotus. English translation Original Greek

The Maldive Shark by Herman Melville - Poem. Collection

The Meek One by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Also translated as "A Gentle Creature." Original Russian English translation

The Night is Darkening Round Me by Emily Brontë - Poem collection

The Nightingales are Drunk by Hafez - Poem. Original Persian English translation

The Nose by Nikolay Gogol - Short story. Original Russian English translation

The Old Man of the Moon by Shen Fu - Excerpt from "Six Records of a Floating Life". Original Chinese. I cannot find a free & legal English translation online, but you can borrow the Internet Archive's copy

The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell - Short story. Collection

The Reckoning by Edith Wharton - Short story. Collection

The Robber Bridegroom - One of Grimm's collected fairy tales.

The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue - Author unknown, this is one of the sagas of Icelanders. Text with modern icelandic spelling English translation

[paddysnuffles]

Young People

4th century BCE

“They think they know everything, and are always quite sure about it.” -- Rhetoric, Aristotle

“[Young people] are high-minded because they have not yet been humbled by life, nor have they experienced the force of circumstances.” -- Rhetoric, Aristotle

1st century BCE

“The beardless youth… does not foresee what is useful, squandering his money.” -- Horace

20 BCE

“Our sires’ age was worse than our grandsires’. We, their sons, are more worthless than they; so in our turn we shall give the world a progeny yet more corrupt.” -- Book III of Odes, Horace

1330s

"Modern fashions seem to keep on growing more and more debased … The ordinary spoken language has also steadily coarsened. People used to say ‘raise the carriage shafts’ or ‘trim the lamp wick,’ but people today say ‘raise it’ or ‘trim it.’ When they should say, ‘Let the men of the palace staff stand forth!’ they say, ‘Torches! Let’s have some light!’” -- Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness), Yoshida Kenkō

1624

“Youth were never more sawcie, yea never more savagely saucie . . . the ancient are scorned, the honourable are contemned, the magistrate is not dreaded.” -- The Wise-Man’s Forecast against the Evill Time, Thomas Barnes

1771

“Whither are the manly vigour and athletic appearance of our forefathers flown? Can these be their legitimate heirs? Surely, no; a race of effeminate, self-admiring, emaciated fribbles can never have descended in a direct line from the heroes of Potiers and Agincourt…” -- Letter in Town and Country magazine republished in Paris Fashion: A Cultural History

1790

“The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth…” -- Memoirs of the Bloomsgrove Family, Reverend Enos Hitchcock

1843

“…a fearful multitude of untutored savages… [boys] with dogs at their heels and other evidence of dissolute habits…[girls who] drive coal-carts, ride astride upon horses, drink, swear, fight, smoke, whistle, and care for nobody…the morals of children are tenfold worse than formerly.” -- Anthony Ashley Cooper, the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, Speech to the House of Commons

1904

“Never has youth been exposed to such dangers of both perversion and arrest as in our own land and day. Increasing urban life with its temptations, prematurities, sedentary occupations, and passive stimuli just when an active life is most needed, early emancipation and a lessening sense for both duty and discipline…” -- The Psychology of Adolescence, Granville Stanley Hall

1925

“We defy anyone who goes about with his eyes open to deny that there is, as never before, an attitude on the part of young folk which is best described as grossly thoughtless, rude, and utterly selfish.” -- The Conduct of Young People, Hull Daily Mail

1938

“Cinemas and motor cars were blamed for a flagging interest among young people in present-day politics by ex-Provost JK Rutherford… [He] said he had been told by people in different political parties that it was almost impossible to get an audience for political meetings. There were, of course, many distractions such as the cinema…” -- Young People and Politics, Kirkintilloch Herald, 1938

1951

“Many [young people] were so pampered nowadays that they had forgotten that there was such a thing as walking, and they made automatically for the buses… unless they did something, the future for walking was very poor indeed.” -- Scottish Rights of Way: More Young People Should Use Them, Falkirk Herald

1995

“The traditional yearning for a benevolent employer who can provide a job for life also seems to be on the wane… In particular, they want to avoid ‘low-level jobs that aren’t keeping them intellectually challenged.’” -- Meet Generation X, Financial Times

2017

“Millennials are lazy and think basic tasks are beneath them.” -- A generation with a huge sense of entitlement, Daily Mail

[passengerpigeons]

In all things, perfect regularity is tasteless. Something left not quite finished is very appealing, a gesture towards the future. Someone told me that even in the construction of the imperial palace, some part is always left uncompleted. In the Buddhist scriptures and other works written by the great men of old there are also a number of missing sections.

Yoshida Kenko. 82, Essays in Idleness [Tsurezuregusa], trans. Meredith McKinney

[plateapugnator]

Del Tsurezuregusa 吉田兼好 Yoshida Kenkō

[lindasipsandspills]

A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees

By Yoshida Kenko

General Information

Edition:

Translated by Meredith McKinney under Pinguin Books as a Pinguin Classics.

"Selection taken from Essays in Idleness (Tsurezuregusa), which was probably written around 1329-31."

Author:

Urabe Kenkō, also known as Yoshida Kenkō, or simply Kenkō, was a Japanese author and Buddhist monk. He was allegedly born in 1283 and died in 1352 in Japan. His most famous work is Tsurezuregusa, one of the most studied works of medieval Japanese literature.

Short Synopsis (via goodreads):

'It is a most wonderful comfort to sit alone beneath a lamp, book spread before you, and commune with someone from the past whom you have never met...' Moonlight, sake, spring blossom, idle moments, a woman's hair - these exquisite reflections on life's fleeting pleasures by a thirteenth-century Japanese monk are delicately attuned to nature and the senses.

Page count:

51 paper pages.

Trigger warnings:

Misogyny, alcohol consumption, social anxiety.

Initial thoughts post-read:

This work serves as a powerful reminder that not all creations of a writer necessitate publication. Were they the next Sokratis or Plato? Certainly not, and Kenko himself knew it. He explicitly stated that these writings were intended solely for his own consumption. So why, then, override his wishes and publish them? While certain passages may spark conversation, do they offer a singular thought that could only be derived from his mind? Doubtful.

You'll find some solid life advice here and the thoughts of someone who's had the luxury to really mull over life's big questions through deep introspection. Yet, beyond that, there appears to be little else. The text reflects the contemplations of someone who has had the time and privilege to ponder the essence of their existence. But is there profundity here beyond personal reflection? It's hard to say. This text is more about personal reflection than groundbreaking insight.

Quotes:

[...] but such a friend is hard to find, and instead you sit there doing your best to fit in with whatever the other is saying, feeling deeply alone. (page 7)

After all, things thought but left unsaid only fester inside you. So, I let my brush run on like this for my own foolish solace; these pages deserve to be torn up and discarded, after all, and are not something others will ever see. (page 10)

We long to leave a name for our exceptional wisdom and sensibility - but when you really think about it, desire for a good reputation is merely revelling in the praise of others. (page 16)

In general, I find that reasonably sensitive and intelligent people will pass their whole life without taking the step they know they should. (page 19)

'A beginner should not hold two arrows,' his teacher told him. 'You will be careless with the first, knowing you have a second. You must always be determined to hit the target with the single arrow you shoot, and have no thought beyond this.' (page 25)

It is because they have no fear of death that people fail to enjoy life - no, not that they don't fear it, but rather they forget its nearness. (page 26)

'While he's up there among the trecherous branches I need not say a word - his fear is enough to guide him. It's in the easy places that mistakes will always occur.' (page 28)

There is so much talking when people get together. It is exhausting, disturbs the peace of mind and wastes time better spent on other things. (page 39)

[fedeposts96]

Dislocaciones

del latin “relatus” participio pasado de “referre” que significa “llevar de vuelta” “contar” compuesto por el prefijo “re” que indica repetición y el verbo “ferre” que significa “llevar”, de modo que relato quiere decir “algo que se lleva de vuelta” o una narración que se cuenta de nuevo

se derivan:

relativo: que depende de su contexto para dar una respuesta definida o exacta

crónica: narración de un suceso histórico

ferre: transportar, portar: llevar,

en japonès - monogatari: mono: cosa, “gatari” historia o palabra” de modo que refiere a la historia de las cosas, un monogatari famoso “tsurezuregusa”se puede traducir como “ensayo del ocio”, es una colección de reflexiones sobre la vida diaria, la muerte, la amistad, la belleza de lo cotidiano, la impermanencia de la vida o la fugacidad de la felicidad de una manera sencilla, lo simple como virtud.

[meyer-sensei]

紫の朱奪ふことを悪む

『子曰、惡紫之奪朱也、惡鄭聲之亂雅樂也、惡利口之覆邦家。』

“The Master said, I hate the manner in which purple takes away the luster of vermilion. I hate the way in which the songs of Chang confound the music of the Ya. I hate those who with their sharp mouths overthrow kingdoms and families.”

Warum wollte Go-Daigo-Tennō gerade diese Stelle nachschlagen? Konfuzius beklagt, daß Dinge, die früher am chinesischen Kaiserhof gut und richtig waren, jetzt in Unordnung geraten sind und verurteilt diejenigen, die durch ihr unangemessenes Verhalten das Reich in Gefahr bringen. Ich denke, daß Go-Daigo-Tennō in den Worten des Konfuzius eine Bestätigung für sein Streben nach Wiederherstellung der direkten kaiserlichen Herrschaft gesehen hat.

Ich finde es amüsant, mir vorzustellen, daß Go-Daigo-Tennō die Frage nach der genauen Textstelle als Test für die Gesinnung seiner Minister genommen hat. Und daß diejenigen, die wie er den Sturz des Kamakura-Bakufu verfolgten, dies als Aufforderung verstanden haben, genau darüber zu sprechen. Kritik am herrschenden Regierungssystem ist immer ein gefährliches Unterfangen und so zu tun als würde man nur über die Geschehnisse aus vergangenen Zeiten und/oder fernen Ländern reden, ist eine gute Vorsichtsmaßnahme.

[notshonagon]

And so, watching the new year dawn in the sky, you are stirred by a sense of utter newness, although the sky looks no different from yesterday's.

Priest Kenkō (兼好法師 Kenkō hōshi, or Yoshida Kenkō 吉田兼好), Essays in Idleness (徒然草 Tsurezuregusa)

19th essay: The changing seasons are moving in every way...

Translated by Meredith McKinney.

[7adreen]

[…] Well then, if people hate death they should love life. Should we not relish each day the joy of survival? Fools forget this— they go striving after other enjoyments, cease to appreciate the fortune they have and risk all to lay their hands on fresh wealth. Their desires are never sated. There is a deep contradiction in failing to enjoy life and yet fearing death when faced with it. It is because they have no fear of death that people fail to enjoy life— no, not that they don’t fear it, but rather they forget its nearness. Of course, it must be said that the ultimate gain lies in transcending the relative world with its distinction between life and death.

Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness

[werewoofers]

Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness) by Yoshida Kenkō

[arno631]

#徒然草 #今日の習字 #書道 #tsurezuregusa #calligraphy #japanesestyle #traditional #artist #men #hiragana #仮名 #blackandwhite https://www.instagram.com/p/BwDKkn8gwDe/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=v1gjoyumdrba

[forgottenbones]

A book I read recently called Tsurezuregusa written in 1330 said「Those who're starting to learn an art tend to say "I don´t want anyone to know at the beginning, I'll practice secretly til I get better then I won´t be embarrassed." But those people never achieve even one thing」 pic.twitter.com/H0M6OOyYUU

— tkasasagi (@tkasasagi) 29 luglio 2018

"Only those who practice with advanced people before knowing any techniques and don´t give up even though they get told off or laughed by others will success. Even without a natural talent"

— tkasasagi (@tkasasagi) 29 luglio 2018

[ashitakaxsan]

Yoshida Kenko gets welcomed in Iran

It’s a real Good one when the writings of Shinto,Japanese monk Yoshida Kenko* get officially licenced in Iran.See: https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/478393/Tsurezuregusa-of-Kenko-published-in-Persian *He lived between Muromachi and Kamakura period.

“Tsurezuregusa of Kenko” published in Persian

Jahan-e Ketab is the publisher of the book, which has been compared to the Gulistan (The Rose Garden), Persian poet Sadi’s masterpiece. It has been translated into Persian by Hashem Rajabzadeh.

Despite the turbulent times in which he lived, the Buddhist priest Kenko met the world with a measured eye.

As Emperor Go-Daigo fended off a challenge from the usurping Hojo family, and Japan stood at the brink of a dark political era, Kenko held fast to his Buddhist beliefs and took refuge in the pleasures of solitude.

Written between 1330 and 1332, “Essays in Idleness” reflects the congenial priest’s thoughts on a variety of subjects.

His brief writings, some no more than a few sentences long and ranging in focus from politics and ethics to nature and mythology, mark the crystallization of a distinct Japanese principle: that beauty is to be celebrated, though it will ultimately perish.

Through his appreciation of the world around him and his keen understanding of historical events, Kenko conveys the essence of Buddhist philosophy and its subtle teachings for all readers.

Insisting on the uncertainty of this world, Kenko asks that we waste no time in following the way of Buddha.

An English translation by Donald Keene was published in 1998. This critically acclaimed translation is joined by a new preface, in which Keene himself looks back at the ripples created by Kenko’s musings, especially for modern readers.

“Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenko” is his most famous work was and is one of the most studied works of medieval Japanese literature.

Kenko (1283?–1350?) was a Japanese author and Buddhist monk. He wrote during the Muromachi and Kamakura periods.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian edition of Yoshida Kenko’s “Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenko”.