Miller, Barbara Stoler (ed.);
Masterworks of Asian literature in comparative perspective: a guide for teaching
M.E. Sharpe (Columbia project on Asia in the core curriculum), 1994, 583 pages
ISBN 1563242583, 9781563242588
topics: | literature | sanskrit | japanese | chinese | stolermiller-b-1994_masterworks-asian-literature.epub
Though details vary from version to version, the basic story remains recognizable. Once, the King of Banaras offers his daughter in marriage to a certain Brahman pandit, but she refuses on the grounds that she is a greater scholar than the pandit and cannot serve him. Determined to trick her, the pandit finds a handsome cowherd whom he dressed in the garb of a pandit and makes him memorize a Sanskrit greeting. Though he tries to carry out these instructions, the cowherd only utters nonsense syllables, but the pandit cleverly construes a benedictory verse to Siva out of them and the princess is tricked. When she discovers that he is a fool, she angrily assigns him to gather flowers. Each day he stops before an image of the goddess Kali and offers a few flowers to her with reverence. One of the palace maids, in order to tease him, conceals herself behind the image, chewing a ball of betel nut. When the cowherd finishes his usual prayers, the maid puts the remnants of her chewing into his hand. He thinks the goddess herself has presented it to him, so he swallows it. Instantly, unlimited knowledge of logic and grammar dawns in him, and he becomes a great poet, endowed with the power of speech. From his great reverence for the goddess Kali, he came to be known as Kalidasa, the servant of Kali. (p.59)
p.378 The modern haiku derives from the seventeen-syllable hokku (opening verse) of a haikai no renga, or comic linked-verse sequence. ... when Matsuo Basho* (1644-94) began his career as a haikai poet, the hokku was regarded primarily as the beginning of a linked-verse (renga) sequence. Basho* considered himself to be, first and foremost, a comic linked-verse poet and was a haikai teacher by profession, but he often composed independent hokku commonly referred to by modern readers as haiku for which he is primarily known today and which lie at the heart of his prose narratives.
In a linked-verse session, the author of the hokku was required to include a kigo (seasonal word), which functioned as a greeting... In the course of poetic history, the seasonal words used in classical poetry (the thirty-one-syllable waka and later orthodox-linked verse, or renga) had come to embody particular emotions, moods, and images. Thus, "spring rain" (harusame), which always meant a soft, steady drizzle, brought sweet thoughts; the endless, oppressive "summer rain" (samidare) connoted depression; and the cold and sporadic "early winter showers" (shigure) were associated with the uncertainty and impermanence of life. poems from the beginning and end of Basho's* The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Oku no hosomichi), which describes his Journey of 1689: yuku haru ya The passing spring: tori naki uo no Birds cry, and in the eyes me wa namida Of fish are tears. hamaguri no A clam being parted futami ni wakare From its shell at Futami yuku aki zo The passing autumn. The two respective seasonal references, "the passing spring" (yuku haru) and "the passing autumn" (yuku aki), indicate more than the temporal dimensions of the poems; in the classical tradition they are strongly associated with the sorrow of separation, particularly that caused by a Journey. In the opening poem, [nature], represented by birds and fish connotations of the seasons, also expresses Basho's sorrow at leaving behind his friends. In the final poem, the departure of autumn (and implicitly that of Basho) becomes as difficult and as painful as prying apart the shell of a clam. On the surface, the two poems appear to depict only nature, but the seasonal words, coupled with the larger context, underscore a recurrent theme of The Narrow Road to the Deep North: the sorrow of the eternal traveler.
Haikai, or comic linked verse, deliberately employs contemporary language and subject matter, which was forbidden in classical poetry. Ichu, a haikai theorist of the Danrin school, once stated that "a poem that draws on the literary tradition and at the same time parodies it is haikal." The same is true of much of Basho's* poetry, though in a more subtle manner than in earlier haikai. A good example is Basho's famous frog poem, which marks the beginning of his mature poetry, in the so-called Basho-style: furuike ya An ancient pond kawazu tobikomu A frog leaps in, mizu no oto The sound of water. (1686) Kawazu (frog), a seasonal word for spring, was a popular poetic topic, appearing as early as the Manyoshu (Collection often Thousand Leaves, 759), the first major anthology of Japanese poetry. The following waka (vol. 10, no. 2165) appears in a section on frogs: kami tsu se ni On the upper rapids kawazu tsuma yobu A frog calls for his lover. yu * sareba Is it because, koromode sasumimi His sleeves chilled by the evening, tsuma makamu toka He wants to share his pillow? By the Heian period (late eighth to late twelfth c.), the kawazu was almost exclusively associated with the blossoms of the yamabuki (kerria), the bright yellow mountain rose, and with limpid mountain streams, as in the following anonymous spring poem from the Kokinshu* (Collection of Old and New Poems, 908): kawazu naku At Ide, where the frogs cry, Ide no yamabuki The yellow rose chirinikeri Has already scattered. hana no sakari ni If only I had come when awamashi mono o The flowers were in full bloom! In the medieval period, the poet was often required to compose on the poetic essence (hon'i) of a given topic. By then, the hon'i of the kawazu had become its beautiful voice. In a fashion typical of haikai, Basho's* poem on the frog works against these traditional associations. In place of the plaintive voice of the frog singing in the rapids or calling out for his lover, Basho* gives us the plop of the frog jumping into water. And instead of the elegant image of a frog in a fresh mountain stream beneath the bright yellow rose, the hokku presents a stagnant pond. One of Basho's* disciples suggested that the first line be "A yellow rose" (yamabuki ya), an image that would have remained within the associative bounds of traditional poetry. Basho's* version, by contrast, provides a surprising and witty twist on the classical perception of frogs. As a seasonal word, the frog thus deepens the contrast or tension between the first half of the poem, the image of an old pondthe atmosphere of long silence and restand the second part, a moment in spring, when life and vitality have suddenly (with a surprising plop) returned to the world. In Basho's time, the seasonal words in haikai formed a vast pyramid, capped at the top by the key seasonal topics (kidai) of the classical tradition - cherry blossoms (spring), the cuckoo (summer), the moon (autumn), and the snow (winter) - that remained the most popular subjects even for early Edo haikai poets. Spreading out from this narrow peak were the other seasonal topics derived from classical poetry. Occupying the bottom and the widest area were the kigo, which by Basho's day literally numbered in the thousands. In contrast to the seasonal topics at the peak, which were highly conventional and conceptual, those that formed the base were drawn from and directly reflected contemporary life. Unlike the elegant diction of the words at the top of the pyramid, the new words at the ever-expanding base were earthy, sometimes vulgar, and drawn from a variety of "tongues," particularly those of popular Edo culture and society. It has often been noted that the effect of the frog poem derives from the intersection of the momentary and the eternal, of movement and stillness. The two parts of the poem interpenetrate: the sound of the frog accentuating the stillness of the ancient pond and the quiet atmosphere highlighting the momentary. A similar effect can be found in the following poem, also from The Narrow Road to the Deep North: shizukasa ya How still it is! iwa ni shimiiru Penetrating the rocks, semi no koe The cicada's shrill. (1689) In this summer poem, the cries of the cicada, which seem to sink into the surrounding rocks, intensify the profound feeling of silence. According to Ogata Tsutomu, a modern commentator, the spirit of the speaker becomes one with the voice of the cicada and penetrates the rock, arriving at a deep, inner silence. Basho* and his disciples speak broadly of two fundamental kinds of hokku: the "single-topic" (ichimotsu shitate) hokku and the "combination" (toriawase) hokku. Examples of "single-topic" hokku by Basho* are: kegoromo ni In fur robes, tsutsumite nukushi They are warmly wrapped kamo no ashi The feet of the wild duck. (1693) bii to naku Crying "Bee," shirigoe kanashi The sadness of the trailing voice yoru no shika A deer at night. (1694) The "combination" (toriawase), by contrast, combines two or more different images in one hokku. Basho's * disciples further divide the "combination" into two types: those "outside the circumference," which bring together two (and sometimes more) images that traditionally are not found together, and those "inside the circumference," which combine images that are associated with each other in the classical tradition. Basho once said that "combinations that emerge from within the circumference are rarely superior, and all of them are old-fashioned." As we have seen, in classical poetry the frog usually appeared in combination with fresh water and the yellow rose to form an elegant and bright image. Basho's* poem effectively goes outside that "circumference," but had Basho* used "A yellow rose" (yamabuki ya) instead of "An ancient pond," as one of his disciples suggested, he would have stayed within the "circumference." Sometimes a "combination" of distant, "extra-circumference" images are held together by an intermediary image, as in the following poem by Basho*. aoyagi no Branches of the willow doro ni shidaruru Drooping down into the mud shiohi kana The tide is out. (Sumidawara, 1694) The gap between the two elements of the "combination," the willow (aoyagi) and low tide (shiohi), two classical images never associated in the poetic tradition, is bridged by the earthy, non-classical image of mud (doro). The haikai element derives from the vernal, feminine image of the elegant willow, admired for its gracefully drooping branches, being unexpectedly soiled by the mud on the bay bottom. Basho's* distant "combinations" are closely associated with the "links by scent" (nioi-zuke) that he regarded as an aesthetic and literary ideal in haikai linked verse. The following example is from a thirty-six-link verse sequence in Sarumino (The Monkey's Straw Raincoat, 1691). so* yaya samuku A priest returning to a tera ni kaeru ka Temple as he grows cold? (Boncho) saruhiki no A monkey trainer, saru to yo o furu Passing through life with a monkey aki no tsuki The moon of autumn. (Basho) In the first verse a priest has come back from a chilly day of begging for alms, and in the second verse a monkey trainer, fated to pass his days with a monkey, is Juxtaposed with the autumn moon, an image of loneliness. The two scenes are linked by a common mood, by the solitary and humble sadness of two individuals who stand outside the warm embrace of society. The second verse (by Basho*) probes the chilly atmosphere and loneliness of the previous verse (by Boncho*) even as it stands apart. To use haikai terminology, the new verse "lets go" (tsukihanasu) of the previous verse even as it catches its "scent" (nioi).
Contents by country Contents by Genre xi Preface xv Guide to the Reader xvii Principles of Transliteration and Pronunciation Guide xix Introduction : Masterworks of Asian Literature in Comparative Perspective Barbara Stoler Miller xxv
The Imaginative Universe of Indian Literature Barbara Stoler Miller 3 A Note on Modern Indian Literature David Rubin 15 The Imaginative Universe of Chinese Literature Pauline Yu and Theodore Huters 21 The Imaginative Universe of Japanese Literature Haruo Shirane 37 A Note on Modern Japanese Literature Paul Anderer 51
Classical Sanskrit Lyric: Poetry of Love and Loss Barbara Stoler Miller 55 Classical Tamil Poetry and Tamil Poetics Rajagopal Parthasarathy 66 Devotional Poetry of Medieval North India John Stratton Hawley 78 Lyric Text: Hindi Lyric Poetry in Urdu: The Ghazal Shamsur Rahman Faruqi and Frances W. Pritchett 94 Lyric Text: Urdu 104 The Poems and Stories of Rabindranath Tagore William Radice 109
The Mahabharata, Including the Bhagavad Gita Barbara Stoler Miller 123 The Ramayana of Valmiki Robert P. Goldman 133 Anita Desai: Fire on the Mountain and Games at Twilight Robin Jared Lewis 149 R. K. Narayan's The Financial Expert Bharati Mukherjee 157 The Short Stories of Premchand David Rubin 167 Salman Rushdie: Midnight's Children Robin Jared Lewis 178 Samskara: The Passing of the Brahman Tradition Rajagopal Parthasarathy 189 p--Drama-- Two Classical Indian Plays: Kalidasa's Sakuntala and Sudraka's Little Clay Cart Barbara Stoler Miller 201
The Book of Songs Pauline Yu 211 The Poetry of Retreat Pauline Yu 222 Tang Poetry: A Return to Basics Burton Watson 232
Chuang Tzu Shuen-fu Lin 245 The Records of the Historian Joseph Roe Allen III 259 The Journey to the West Andrew H. Plaks 272 Cao Xueqin's Hongloumeng (Story of the Stone or Dream of the Red Chamber) Anthony C. Yu 285 Liu E's The Travels of Lao Can C. T. Hsia 299 The Stories of Lu Xun Theodore Huters 309 Camel Xiangzi (Rickshaw) by Lao She David D. W. Wang 321 Contemporary Chinese Lettres Theodore Huters 330 Timeline of Significant Events in China, 1911-1987, in Relation to Contemporary Chinese Lettres 345
Story of the Western Wing (Xixiang ji) (Romance of the Western Chamber) Stephen H. West and Wilt L. Idema 347
The Man'yoshu and Kokinshu Collections Donald Keene 363 The Poetry of Matsuo Basho Haruo Shirane 378
The Tale of Genji Edward G. Seidensticker and Haruo Shirane 390 A Book of One's Own: The Gossamer Years; the Pillow Book; and the Confessions of Lady Nijo Barbara Ruch 404 "An Account of My Hut" Paul Anderer 420 Seven Japanese Tales Ken K. Ito 428 Beyond Absolution: Enchi Fumiko's The Waiting Years and Masks Barbara Ruch 439 The Woman in the Dunes John Whittier Treat 457 Mishima Yukio, The Allegorist Richard Torrance 470 Kawabata Yasunari's Snow Country Michael C. Brownstein 481 Soseki's Kokoro Paul Anderer 493
Three Plays of the Noh Theater Thomas Blenman Hare 501 The Love Suicides at Sonezaki http://www.yavanika.org/classes/reader/keene.pdf Donald Keene 517
East-West Literary Relations: The "Wisdom" of the "East" Lucien Miller 526 Summaries of the Masterworks 539 Historical Timelines 553 Indian History 555 Chinese History 558 Japanese History 561 Index 563 Contributors
Stoler Miller died in 1993 while compiling this book, and the volume is dedicated to her. She was 53.