The Pillow Book’s written thoughts are vividly painting a picture for the reader. “At the dark of the moon, it’s beautiful when fireflies are dancing everywhere in a mazy flight,” the author describes a summer night. Those words bring back memories of when I was younger, running around on a soccer field with my cousins at sunset, anxiously waiting for night to fall so that our mason jars could soon be occupied with little fireflies. The “crimson-purple cloud” in the spring and the “pure white frost” in the winter brings me back to each season and distinct memories that come with it. The memories that I am taken back to all have one thing in common – bliss. The author is consistently using words such as enchanting, delightful, and lovely to describe a certain image in his mind. The eloquence of the text takes me to a happy place, growing on me and persuading me to appreciate those moments and memories more.
A poem on page 1137 is written; “With the passing years, my years grow old upon me, yet when I see, this lovely flower of spring, I forget age and time.” The beauty that we see in other things or even people can help us see the beauty in ourselves.
Questions:
- What does The Pillow Book strike in you? Does it bring back memories or maybe inspire you to appreciate a certain kind of beauty?
- What do you think The Pillow Book is; a collection of stores, a book of thought, a journal, etc.?
The thing that strikes me about The Pillow Book is how it is written. When reading these stories, the author used very descriptive and vivid words to tell these stories. She carefully thought out what words to use and brought life and excitement into these stories. I noticed this when we read the story in class about the seasons that was translated to a “modern” day English. The newer translated story got the same message across but it was very bland and had no substance to it. When reading the original story, you can appreciate the use of those descriptive words.
I think The Pillow Book is a series of journal entries by Sei Shonagon. The title gives the impression that these stories were written by her while she was laying in bed before she went to sleep. She would recall whatever interesting things occurred that day or whatever she may have thought of that she wanted to elaborate on.
One thing that strikes me about the pillow book is that it has so much descriptive details on each scenario that Sei Shonagon mentions. When writing the pillow Book you can see how much emotion and energy was put to it. I enjoyed it because it transports you to the world that Sei Shonagon saw through her eyes. For Example, when she describes the four seasons, She wrote down small details that represent each season. in summer, she mentions fireflies which she used it as a symbol to show summer here. She chose unique things to give her writing more meaning. I believe the pillow book is a series of journal entries on her experience throughout her life. She wrote down how she saw the world.