Reading notes: Essays in Idleness
Kenkō's fourteenth-century miscellany, read slowly over one spring.
Essays in Idleness (Tsurezuregusa) — Yoshida Kenkō, various translations, 1332.
Read in parallel: the original 徒然草, a modern Japanese rendering, and an English translation. Reading three versions at once is slow, and the slowness is the point.
- Section 137, on the moon and cherry blossoms, is the one everyone quotes: things are most beautiful when incomplete, or about to end.
- Kenkō is funnier than his reputation. He is often petty, opinionated and wrong, which makes him good company.