The Poetic Memoirs of Lady Daibu

by Kenreimonin Ukyo no Daibu, Philip Tudor Harries (Translator)

English, Japanese (translation)

Genres: Poetry, Japan

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1233

Reviews

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I come across a used book that was written by a woman, not originally published in English, and is old as balls, barring any sort of unreasonable pricing, I will acquire it. This runs the risk of me subsequently running headlong into a situation that I have zero to no peripheral context awareness of, thus making my reading experience one where I dig myself out of centuries of historical morass with a badly bent and rusted spoon. Fortunately, I got lucky with this particular work, as it turns out my (slog of a) sojourn through The Tale of the Heike last year had at least made the main conceit of this work familiar: the Genpei War, a violent civil war fought in the late 12th c. between the reigning aristocratic Taira clan and the upstart warrior Minamoto clan, ending with the Minamoto routing the Taira from the capital and bringing back any of the former rulers in order to parade in chains, public execute, and display their heads on mounted pikes. In contrast to the first work, a long and relatively cohesive epic whose poetical structure didn't forbear it from indulging in aggressive propagandizing for the winners, this memoir/poem by Lady Daibu defies constraints of genre, time, and the course that history took during her lifetime, choosing as it does to gently humanize individual members of the doomed Taira and refuse to directly comment on the events of the ruling clan's undoing. It was hardly the easiest or most immediately satisfying read at times, but it contrasted enough with my typical 2022 reading to be a breather, with major bonus points for being aesthetically pleasing (and not a doorstopper) in its edition composition.

When it comes to any work traversing seven intervening centuries of recopying and translation, there's a high chance of the resulting read being less than engaging for an autodidact such as I. As such, I chose to evaluate this based on how well it rounded out my prior experiences with material hailing from this period, rather than simply on its own individual merits. In light of that, a piece like this will not forgive anyone who has a habit of skipping any supplemental material without a backward glance. This edition comes equipped with a good 100 pages or so of stuff that I'd consider absolutely necessary for understanding purposes, so not only would I not recommend it to any newcomers, I'd prefer that folks have the likes of at least The Tale of the Heike, The Tale of Genji, or preferably both under their belt before tackling something deceptively slimmer. For all that effort, the prose can be frustratingly vague while the poetry is repetitive and not the most brilliant, the latter opinion being a historically approved determination when taking into account the sheer wealth of four centuries of Heian poetry. Still, this meditation did for the most part satisfy the singular itch I at times have for Heian period readings, and the fact that it was much shorter and simpler than the majority of its fellow works didn't hurt either. I don't mind at all getting to know a literary period mainly through its more epic scale works, but I also appreciate being able to squeeze something gentler in between my still-getting-used-to fulltime commitments.

Finishing this work means moving on from a 100% classics (a promise not always fulfilled by the experience) focused reading and into the realm of more contemporary (but hardly guaranteed to be comparatively lacking) literature. A jump of three-quarters of a millennium years looks simple in mathematics and would be soul-disemboweling if ever experienced in the physical plane of things, so undergoing it in reading falls somewhere between the two. I'm glad we've moved into a time where most women are largely capable of being known, and yet if there's anything "progress" has guaranteed, it's the transformation of said process of being acknowledged into a price paid for every pound of flesh, per hour, per existence. Similarly, even with the introduction's demonstration that the tearing apart of Lady Daibu's world was not only understandable, but inevitable, one cannot help but wish it had survived a tad longer so that poetry, rather than a morass of paper and metal and imaginary symbols known as currency, ruled the roost of humanity's common concern. And on a more personal level, looking back, I can see exactly how many years, and of what kind, it took to earn these last two months of my life, and while logically I can point out that the past was too high a price to pay for such a present, I doubt I would appreciate what I have now a tenth as much had the exchange been any less extreme. A chance birth, and what you were bred to do. An inherited time, and all your assumptions laid to rot. Lady Daibu would likely think it extremely presumptuous of me, if not downright intolerable, to think of her and her work in any fashion. But I do hope she found peace at the end her life, in a year lost to the knowledge of modern men. It seems to be the only way to guarantee sanctity of self these days.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

First read through of the Memoirs and Phillip Tudor Harries' commentary. This covers the period of The Tale of the Heike from the view of a noble court lady with a focus on her personal situation.

Finished a second reading on US Memorial Day 2025.
Harries’ translation of one of the final poems seems so appropriate for those that remember the losses from wars past:

Whenever I hear of one
Who dies an ordinary death,
It seems to me
Mine are the only memories
So utterly beyond compare.

[Celia · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the worst translations I've ever read. While his introduction is fabulous, his prose is awkward at best and his poetry translations are laughable.