Eastern Literature

[Joely B]

Hello my literate fellows (I was unable to conceive a more righteous way of addressing you people, apologies).

I cometh here -to this forum that I frequently leaf through - to ask a question which doubtless has been asked before.

You see, I want to broaden my horizon, open myself up to new, diverse, until now unknown forms of literature. A quick mental enumeration of the authors who I've read over the past year tells me that I've only sampled a very narrow array of the greats (pretty much all that I've read, my literate fellows, has been written by Western, heterosexual, male authors in the early half of the twentieth century).

I thought I'd try some Eastern literature - whether that be poetry, novels writtin in blank verse, prose novels etc - as I recall deciphering, or indeed hearing, Henry Miller proclaim that Eastern artists are incomparably different to their Western counterparts. So I thought it would be interesting & enlightening to delve into the deep end of that which was produced by literate fellows half way across the globe.

Unfortunately - and this is where you people come in - I know **** all about Eastern literature. Off the top of my head I can't name a single Eastern writer. It appears contemporary Western society isn't exposed to such things. So, does anyone know any Eastern writers - preferably Chinese/Japanese - a curious sixteen year old literate fellow could dip his noes into?

Also, I don't consider someone like Salman Rushdie to be deeply rooted in Eastern tradition; he moved to Britain and is supersaturated with our consumer culture.

[stlukesguild]

Hakīm Abu'l-Qāsim Firdowsī Tūsī (حکیم ابوالقاسم فردوسی توسی)- The Shahnameh (The Book of Kings)
Abū Hamīd bin Abū Bakr Ibrāhīm (ابو حمید ابن ابوبکر ابراهیم) aka Farīd ud-Dīn or Attar- Divan; Conference of the Birds
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (جلال*الدین محمد بلخى)- aka Rumi- Poems
Abū-Muḥammad Muṣliḥ al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī (ابومحمد مصلح الدین بن عبدالله شیرازی ), pen name Saadi- Bostan (The Orchard) and Gulistan (The Rose Garden)
Khwāja Šamsu d-Dīn Muḥammad Hāfez-e Šīrāzī ( خواجه شمس*الدین محمد حافظ شیرازی ) aka Hafez- The Divan (poems)
Ali ibn al-Husayn ul-Isbahānī ( أبو الفرج الأصفهاني‎)- The Book of Songs (anthology)
Anon./anthology- One Thousand and One Nights
Omar Khayyám- Rubaiyat
anthology collected by Emilio Garcia Gomex/tr. Cola Franzen-Poems of Arab Andalusia-
Chinese anthology- The Book of Songs
Du Fu (Tu Fu)- Poems
Li Bai-(Li Bo)- Poems
Wang Wei- Poems
Ou-Yang Hsiu- Poems
(There are several important anthologies of Chinese poetry that JBI will undoubtedly bring along shortly)
Cao Xueqin- The Dream of the Red Chamber
Wu Ch'eng-en- Monkey
Luo Guanzhong- The Romance of the Three Kingdoms
anon.- The Mahabharata
anon.- Ramayana
anon.- Bhagavad Gita
Lao-tzu- Tao te ching
anon.- Analects of Confucius
Japanese anthologies: Man'yōshū, Kokin Wakashū and Shin Kokin Wakashū.
Murasaki Shikibu- The Tale of Genji
Sei Shōnagon- The Pillow Book
Yosano Akiko- Poems
Ryokan- Poems
Matsuo Bashō- Poems (haiku)
Yosa Buson- Poems (haiku)
Newer Japanese writers include:en Kenzaburō Ōe, Yukio Mishima, Yasunari Kawabata, Kōbō Abe, Haruki Murakami, etc...

All this barely scrapes the surface of what amounts to an ebtire world of literature in every bit equal to that of the West. Others will surely be along shortly to fill in other names.

[Mr.lucifer]

Wikipedia is a prety decent place to start for suggestions.

[YesNo]

Eknath Easwaran has translated The Bhagavad Gita, The Dhammapada and The Upanishads. These would be a good place to start with Indian wisdom literature.

[Paulclem]

Orhan Pamuck is a very good contemporary Turkish writer.

[JBI]

Hakīm Abu'l-Qāsim Firdowsī Tūsī (حکیم ابوالقاسم فردوسی توسی)- The Shahnameh (The Book of Kings)
Abū Hamīd bin Abū Bakr Ibrāhīm (ابو حمید ابن ابوبکر ابراهیم) aka Farīd ud-Dīn or Attar- Divan; Conference of the Birds
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (جلال*الدین محمد بلخى)- aka Rumi- Poems
Abū-Muḥammad Muṣliḥ al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī (ابومحمد مصلح الدین بن عبدالله شیرازی ), pen name Saadi- Bostan (The Orchard) and Gulistan (The Rose Garden)
Khwāja Šamsu d-Dīn Muḥammad Hāfez-e Šīrāzī ( خواجه شمس*الدین محمد حافظ شیرازی ) aka Hafez- The Divan (poems)
Ali ibn al-Husayn ul-Isbahānī ( أبو الفرج الأصفهاني‎)- The Book of Songs (anthology)
Anon./anthology- One Thousand and One Nights
Omar Khayyám- Rubaiyat
anthology collected by Emilio Garcia Gomex/tr. Cola Franzen-Poems of Arab Andalusia-
Chinese anthology- The Book of Songs
Du Fu (Tu Fu)- Poems
Li Bai-(Li Bo)- Poems
Wang Wei- Poems
Ou-Yang Hsiu- Poems
(There are several important anthologies of Chinese poetry that JBI will undoubtedly bring along shortly)
Cao Xueqin- The Dream of the Red Chamber
Wu Ch'eng-en- Monkey
Luo Guanzhong- The Romance of the Three Kingdoms
anon.- The Mahabharata
anon.- Ramayana
anon.- Bhagavad Gita
Lao-tzu- Tao te ching
anon.- Analects of Confucius
Japanese anthologies: Man'yōshū, Kokin Wakashū and Shin Kokin Wakashū.
Murasaki Shikibu- The Tale of Genji
Sei Shōnagon- The Pillow Book
Yosano Akiko- Poems
Ryokan- Poems
Matsuo Bashō- Poems (haiku)
Yosa Buson- Poems (haiku)
Newer Japanese writers include:en Kenzaburō Ōe, Yukio Mishima, Yasunari Kawabata, Kōbō Abe, Haruki Murakami, etc...

All this barely scrapes the surface of what amounts to an ebtire world of literature in every bit equal to that of the West. Others will surely be along shortly to fill in other names.

I could (though what is available in pristine translation is no longer clear to me, now that I have moved to primary texts and seen a few thousand awful "local" translations into English) - but ultimately, you have about a year of reading there, and all those are pristine works. Just throw in the Shi Jing for Good measure, and you have a decent enough Canon there for anyone.

Either way, for Chinese lit, one can't go wrong with picking up first J. Y. Liu's introduction to Chinese Literature, and then just reading through Owen's Anthology of Chinese Literature (Norton), or the Columbia Anthology. For Japanese literature, one couldn't really go wrong with the Japanese anthology either from Columbia, which, in several volumes, will take as long as the Norton English to get through, and will contain the major players from the major genres.

That's as close to canon as you can get - ultimately, I cannot recommend well from India or Persia, or Arabia, or other places, though I would like to know if a Norton-length anthology of Arabic or Persian has surfaced yet. That is ultimately the place to start literary adventures, as they tend to have great bibliographies and notes.

[mortalterror]

Hakīm Abu'l-Qāsim Firdowsī Tūsī (حکیم ابوالقاسم فردوسی توسی)- The Shahnameh (The Book of Kings)
Abū Hamīd bin Abū Bakr Ibrāhīm (ابو حمید ابن ابوبکر ابراهیم) aka Farīd ud-Dīn or Attar- Divan; Conference of the Birds
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (جلال*الدین محمد بلخى)- aka Rumi- Poems
Abū-Muḥammad Muṣliḥ al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī (ابومحمد مصلح الدین بن عبدالله شیرازی ), pen name Saadi- Bostan (The Orchard) and Gulistan (The Rose Garden)
Khwāja Šamsu d-Dīn Muḥammad Hāfez-e Šīrāzī ( خواجه شمس*الدین محمد حافظ شیرازی ) aka Hafez- The Divan (poems)
Ali ibn al-Husayn ul-Isbahānī ( أبو الفرج الأصفهاني‎)- The Book of Songs (anthology)
Anon./anthology- One Thousand and One Nights
Omar Khayyám- Rubaiyat
anthology collected by Emilio Garcia Gomex/tr. Cola Franzen-Poems of Arab Andalusia-
Chinese anthology- The Book of Songs
Du Fu (Tu Fu)- Poems
Li Bai-(Li Bo)- Poems
Wang Wei- Poems
Ou-Yang Hsiu- Poems
(There are several important anthologies of Chinese poetry that JBI will undoubtedly bring along shortly)
Cao Xueqin- The Dream of the Red Chamber
Wu Ch'eng-en- Monkey
Luo Guanzhong- The Romance of the Three Kingdoms
anon.- The Mahabharata
anon.- Ramayana
anon.- Bhagavad Gita
Lao-tzu- Tao te ching
anon.- Analects of Confucius
Japanese anthologies: Man'yōshū, Kokin Wakashū and Shin Kokin Wakashū.
Murasaki Shikibu- The Tale of Genji
Sei Shōnagon- The Pillow Book
Yosano Akiko- Poems
Ryokan- Poems
Matsuo Bashō- Poems (haiku)
Yosa Buson- Poems (haiku)
Newer Japanese writers include:en Kenzaburō Ōe, Yukio Mishima, Yasunari Kawabata, Kōbō Abe, Haruki Murakami, etc...

All this barely scrapes the surface of what amounts to an ebtire world of literature in every bit equal to that of the West. Others will surely be along shortly to fill in other names.

That's a pretty good list. To the Persian, I'd add Nezami Ganjavi's Khamsa, and Jami's Haft Awrang. To the Arabic add the Mu'allaqat. To the Sanskrit I'd add Kalidasa's play Shakuntala and the Ring of Recollection, and his epic poem Meghaduta. I'd also include Jayadeva's poem Gita Govinda and the poems of Kabir. To the Chinese add Bai Juyi's poems especially The Song of Unending Sorrow and Song of the Lute Player. Also add the novels Outlaws of the Marsh, The Plum in the Golden Vase, the short stories of Lu Xun, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling, and Romance of the Western Chamber by Wang Shifu. For Japanese add Soseki's Kokoro and Akutagawa's short stories and you should be good.

[stlukesguild]

Accck!!! How did I forget Nezami?! The Khamsa definitely. I've yet to read Kalidasa... but from all I've read or heard he definitely seems a canonical writer. I should have added the Plum in the Golden Vase... but I just came across it myself... and in 4 volumes it will take some time. Another major Indo-Persian epic is the Hamzanama or Adventures of Amir Hamza. The Amir Hamza story dates back to at least 616 with a major illuminated manuscript commissioned c. 1562. The Hamzanama exists in several other illustrated manuscript versions. One version by Navab Mirza Aman Ali Khan Ghalib Lakhnavi was printed in 1855 and published by the Hakim Sahib Press, Calcutta, India. This version was later embellished by Abdullah Bilgrami and published from the Naval Kishore Press, Lucknow, in 1871. This version has been recently translated into English.

You might also add the poems of Adonis (or Adunis) to the list. He may be the finest poet currently writing in Arabic.

[Joely B]

Thanks for all the responses, the suggestions - they are much appreciated.

Once I've finished with Lawrence and Miller, I'll proceed onto a newly forged list of Eastern literature, one that shall keep me busy all through summer I suspect.

[mortalterror]

That's as close to canon as you can get - ultimately, I cannot recommend well from India or Persia, or Arabia, or other places, though I would like to know if a Norton-length anthology of Arabic or Persian has surfaced yet. That is ultimately the place to start literary adventures, as they tend to have great bibliographies and notes.

The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces is really good. http://www.amazon.com/Norton-Anthology-World-Masterpieces-Expanded/dp/0393971430

I used to have a copy. Now, I have their old Masterpieces of the Orient, which came out in the sixties. http://www.amazon.com/Masterpieces-Orient-George-Lincoln-Anderson/dp/0393091961/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1303587632&sr=1-1

They are both very nice, but neither impresses me as much as the old Trubner's Oriental Series, now about a century out of print and available online. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022992410

Also, I'm intrigued by this new Clay Sanskrit Library which just came out. I haven't seen any of their books yet, but supposedly they are doing for Sanskrit what Loeb did for Latin and Greek. http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/

[mortalterror]

Stluke and I have had a few conversations about which translation of the Shahnameh is best. Here are a couple of different versions of the same passage translated by different authors.

They grasped their deep curved bows and arrows made
Of poplar wood. Their fury dimmed the sun.
Sparks flashed from armor as the arrowheads
Stitched chain mail links to flesh. Esfandiyar
Grew furious at this. His face and brows
Were creased in rage. When he drew forth his bow
No one escaped his arrows. The world turned red
With blood; the bright sun hid its face in fear.
Esfandiyar uncased his tight strung bow-
It was as though the sun had cloaked its head.
His arrowheads were tipped with diamond points.
Both steel and paper were as one to them.
He loosed a hail of arrows from his bow
That pierced the bodies of Rostam and Rakhsh.
tr. Clinton

They turned then to their bows and poplar wood arrows; the sun turned pale and fire flashed from Esfandyar's armor where the arrow heads struck. He frowned with shame, since he was a man whose arrows no one escaped: he notched diamond headed shafts to his bow, bolts that pierced armor as if it were paper, and sorely wounded both Rostam and Rakhsh.
-tr. Dick Davis p. 405

They took their bows and shafts of poplar wood;
The sun's face lost its lustre; but, while Rustam
And Rakhsh both suffered injury whenever
A shaft was loosed from the prince's hand,
The shafts of Rustam injured not the prince,
And noble Rustam, in bewilderment
At such a contest, said: "The warrior,
Asfandiyar, hath got a form of brass!"
-tr. Warner

But when they were rested they fell again one on another, and they fought with arrows and bows. And the arrows of Isfendiyar whizzed through the air and fastened into the body of Rustem and of Rakush his steed; and twice thirty ar-rows did Isfendiyar thus send forth, until that Rakush was like to perish from his wounds. And Rustem also was covered with gore, and no man before this one had ever done harm unto his body. But the arrows of Rustem had done no ill unto Isfendiyar, because Zerdusht had charmed his body against all dangers, so that it was like unto brass.
-tr. Zimmern

[mal4mac]

A House for Mr Biswas by V.S. Naipul

He's a modern Indian writer who was brought up in Western third world circumstances (Trinidad)

[JBI]

A House for Mr Biswas by V.S. Naipul

He's a modern Indian writer who was brought up in Western third world circumstances (Trinidad)
I don't meant to nitpick but, he is a modern Trinidad writer who cashed in enough selling out Trinidad, to the point where, after exhausting that, he moved on to Indian themes.

After that though, we can clearly call him a Western author - he conforms to Western aesthetics, is written within a Western tradition, and writes for a Western audience.

[Gregory Samsa]

Kenzaburo Oes "A Personal Matter" is amazing. He is a Japanese Sartre.

The book is set in the 1960's and tells the story of Bird, a young Japanese man facing both the imminent birth, like Ōe himself, of his first child and what he believes to be the imminent loss of his dreams. As the novel chronicles his struggles to avoid the responsibilities that come with the child's difficult birth, it also explores themes relating to the nature of parent/child relationships in general, and to the necessity of letting go of the past.

"If I don't fight now, I'll not only lose the chance to go to Africa forever, my baby will be born into the world solely to lead the worst possible life - it was like the voice of inspiration, and Bird believed."

[lawpark]

Is there an English translation of a good text / collection of essays by al-Jahiz?

[Aylinn]

Natsume Soseki is believed to be the best author of the Meiji period. His most famous novels are Botchan, Kokoro - I'm reading it right now - it's a page turner for me.

I don't know if you are interested in children's literature, but there is also Night on the Galactic Railroad by Kenji Miyazawa

[Intuition]

I'm not sure if you'd like to classify Mesopotamian literature as Eastern, but I think you might have been missing The Epic of Gilgamesh.