Genji’s Irony: The Folly of Men

About this poem

The eleventh century classical ‘Tale of Genji’ (Genji Monogatari) by a court lady, Murasaki Shikibu, concerning the lifestyle and culture of the imperial palace aristocracy of the Fujiwara clan during the Heian period of feudal government, is depicted and delivered from the perspective of a Buddhist society’s ethical philosophy demonstrating the illusive nature and temporality of life; that nothing is lasting; nothing endures. Murasaki Shikibu’s classical tale is developed with a very complex plot, and can be analyzed from multiple perspectives, and with many levels of interpretation. This haiku poem, composed in an extended format of eight stanzas, offers its readers one such interpretation that turns the table of deception and chicanery on Genji as the tale’s protagonist, identified as a character of unapologetic romantic rascality, revealing him, in profile, to be no more than a “Ukifine,” a drifter, a wanderer, a “Kaimani” or Peeping Tom, a sad sack; a sheepish hero, led to the slaughterhouse of buffoonery at the service of comedic irony championed by anonymous powdered women of influence, with fancy ambiguous sobriquets, better known more intimately by their fragrance than by their hidden real names; ‘modest’ presentable women of the Palace, knowledgeable in Court intrigue, and in parlaying delicately with the knavery and brass pomposity of men of the aristocracy, shallow and superficial in manners, despite their deep lineage, their patronage, and ranking. This picaresque depiction is so artfully developed by Murasaki Shikibu, whose portrayal of courtly imperial life during Japan’s Heian tenth century culture, can only be truly recognized as a poetic critique of and stab at that lifestyle and culture, of which she herself is a part. Readers desirous of learning more about The Tale of Genji, are invited to also read, review, discuss, and compare the much longer poem composed by me, entitled “A Senryu Tale of Genji” that focuses on the bitterness and the sweetness; on the impermanence of life, and the tragic irony that pervades throughout The Tale of Genji, from its beginning to its very ending. more »