This is a moving and remarkable autobiography.
First, there is the quality of the writing itself, full of beautiful short poems (‘A hidden love and tears/enough to form a river-/were there a shoal of meeting/I would drown this self of mine’), comparisons (‘my years had passed as quickly as a racing horse glimpsed through a crack’) or metaphors (‘life is more fleeting than a dream within a dream’).
It confirms Lady Nijo’s saying that ‘the most important accomplishment for a beautiful woman is the ability to write poetry’.
Secondly, there is the extraordinary eventful itinerary of Lady Nijo emotionally as well as physically.
Emotionally, she cannot forget her father (‘I shed tears of longing when I recall the care my father gave me’) or her first lover at the age of 14 (the Emperor).
Physically, she gives birth before her 18th birthday to two children from different fathers and in her later life struggles for survival.
Thirdly, it gives an interesting look at court life in this period: drinking, singing, playing music, competition between the concubines and promiscuity showing general human characteristics (‘She complains that I am treating you as an empress’ or ‘This road is too easy to be interesting’).
But this book also paints aspects of commom life: the fact that many children are taken away from their parents, religious customs or prostitution.
Fourth, it gives a general impression of the importance of religion and psychology: the mighty influence of the karma principle (‘I am convinced that this unbearable passion is simply the working out of some karma from the past’) and the importance of dreams (‘I just dreamed that I turned into a mandarin duck and entered your body’).
The overall tone is melancholic (‘No matter how many tints the autumn leaves reveal, once the wind rises they do not last long’).
K. Brazell’s translation as well as her notes are excellent. I would have prefered an afterword instead of an introduction which reveals already the fate of the author.
This is a truly moving tale, not only for Japanese scholars.
