What Can You Say about Sei?

[She was] a complicated, intelligent, well-informed woman who was quick, impatient, keenly observant of detail, high-spirited, witty, emulative, sensitive to the charms and beauties of the world and to the pathos of things, yet intolerant…

The Wonderful Sei Shōnagon

No one had sharper ears than the Minister of the Treasury. He truly could have heard the fall of a mosquito’s eyelash.  The mountain dove is a very pure-hearted and touching bird—they say it can…

The Good News, 3.8.2017

I once asked Mayuko and Minami (both in my fall 8 a.m. MWF Humanities class) if they had heard of Sei Shōnagon (清少納言). Of course they had!  They had read her years ago in school. …