Omar, kind of you to think of me. Alas, asking me about an English translation
of Tsurezuregusa is like asking a Japanese businessman about a Japanese
translation of Chaucer. He would be very unlikely to know what he was talking
about. I am in the same boat.
For a taste of the magnitude of the task see
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsurezuregusa ;
and compare the translations of the opening sentence of the book by Donald
Keene, now considered authoritative, and that by G. Sansom, which Keene
considers the best before his own.
With these reservations, I offer the possibility that the passage in question
is intended neither more nor less seriously than the observations in the rest
of the book. Judging by other passages available on line, the author favors a
humble life spent with a few good friends, who because they know each other so
well, can only make casual observations about what goes on around them. They
know where they stand on everything else. The types of individuals mentioned,
the powerful, the young, the drunkard, the fighter...are all likely to disturb
the equanimity and familiar companionship that the author most values.
That is how I would read it.
John
Sent from my iPad
On Nov 1, 2017, at 6:31, Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
We need to consult the Yokohama John for this, I dont think that the passage
is intended seriously.
On Tue, Oct 31, 2017 at 10:28 PM, Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This could be an ironic or sarcastic passage ?
On Tue, Oct 31, 2017 at 10:24 PM, Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Add a few more categories and it pretty much covers it that it is bad to
have any friends at all.
On Tue, Oct 31, 2017 at 10:21 PM, Lawrence Helm
<lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Essay 117 from the Tsurezure Gusa of Yoshida Kenko:
There are seven sorts of people whom it is bad to have as friends:
First, men of high rank and power.
Second, young people.
Third, strong people who are never ill.
Fourth, people fond of wine.
Fifth, fierce and bold military men.
Sixth, people whose speech is false.
Seventh, greedy people.
Good friends are three:
Friends who make gifts.
Doctors.
Friends who are wise.
I recall being in a long-standing series of discussions with a Russian who
worked in Moscow and was convinced that the Russian system, people,
everything was better than anything in the west. He finally got around to
the medical system and observed that I was at an age where I had
undoubtedly had treatments in hospitals. He intended no doubt to compare
his favorable treatment with what he assumed would have been my
unfavorable. But I told him that I had only been in a hospital once, when
I was four-years old, for appendicitis – and that may have been (another
doctor told my parents) a misdiagnosis. My Russian “friend” immediately
ended the discussion and never wrote me again.
Lawrence
