The last part of the Diary is concerned chiefly
with accounts of pilgrimages and dreams. She mar-
xxxii



Introduction

ried, who and when is not recorded, and bore children.
Her husband dies, and with his death the spring of
her life seems to have run down. Her last entry is
very sad: "My people went to live elsewhere and I
lived alone in my solitary home." So we leave her,
" a beautiful, shy spirit whose life had known much
sorrow."



y



I

THE SARASBINA DIARY



DIARIES OF
COURT LADIES OF OLD JAPAN



THE SARASHINA DIARY

A.D. 1009-1059

I WAS brought up in a distant province * which lies
farther than the farthest end of the Eastern Road. I
am ashamed to think that inhabitants of the Royal
City will think me an uncultured girl.
Somehow I came to know that there are such
things as romances in the world and wished to read
them. When there was nothing to do by day or at
night, one tale or another was told me by my elder
sister or stepmother, and I heard several chapters
about the shining Prince Genji.^ My longing for such
stories increased, but how could they recite them all
from memory? I became very restless and got an
image of Yakushi Buddha ^ made as large as myself.
When I was alone I washed my hands and went
secretly before the altar and prayed to him with all
my life, bowing my head down to the floor. "Please

' Her father Takasue was appointed Governor of Kazusa in 10 1 7,
and the authoress, who was then nine years old, was brought from
Kioto to the Province.
" Prince Genji: The hero of Genji-monogatari, a novel by Mura-
saki-Shikibu.
