title: Worlding Sei Shnagon: The Pillow Book in Translation (Perspectives on Translation)
author: Valerie Henitiuk
description: This fascinating collection offers a unique resource for courses in translation, in women's writing, and in East/West studies, and it is also a pleasure to read in itself: a gallery of reflections and refractions of Sei Shonagon's masterpiece through a kaleidoscopic array of translations across time, space, and culture.<br /><br />- David Damrosch, Harvard University<br /><br />Admirably rich in comment yet concise in treatment, this study of more than forty translations of a single passage from the Pillow Book of Sei Shnagon will engage and delight anyone who has an interest in translation and world literature. Translations of classical Japanese texts have had enormous impact on English and other European literatures, yet, outside of Japan, the classical Japanese language is studied only by a handful of specialists. With precision and clarity, this work unveils the complexities involved in the translation of that rare and beautiful language.<br /><br />- Sonja Arntzen, University of Toronto
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  ![](Images/image00216.jpeg)
  
  ![](Images/image00219.jpeg)
  
  > _To Corinne, ut semper,_
  
  >  _and to Perrine_
  
  >  _for her first birthday_
  
  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  
  I thank my esteemed teachers Régis Boyer and Georges Zink (Sorbonne); my old
  friend Ronald Grambo (Oslo) for his help; Jon Graham for his ongoing interest
  in my books and for his translations; and, last but not least, Michael
  Moynihan for valuable references and suggestions for expanding and updating
  the information in this volume.
  
  ![](Images/image00281.jpeg)
  
  Fig. 1. Picture stone from Lärbro on the island of Gotland, Sweden, eighth
  century. Photo by Jürgen Howaldt.
  
   **CONTENTS**
  
    1. Cover Image
    2. Title Page
    3. Dedication
    4. Acknowledgments
    5. Editor’s Note: How to Use this Encyclopedia
    6. Introduction
  
      1. I. THE SOURCES
      2. II. THE GERMANIC GODS
      3. III. RAGNARÖK AND THE RENEWAL OF THE WORLD
      4. IV. THE SURVIVAL OF THE GODS
      5. V. FOLK MYTHOLOGY
      6. VI. MYTHOLOGY, ARTS, A