Analysis of Genji’s Tragedy of Distraction

About this poem

In its essence, the Tale of Genji is a lyrical tragedy. To understand the Daoist message of this extended five-line, 5-7-5-7-7 meter Tanka poem, the reading of my three online poems, on poetry.com, namely “A Senryu Tale of Genji,” “Ode to Murasaki Shikibu” and “Genji’s Irony: The Folly of Men;” and especially the reading of Murasaki Shikibu’s classical eleventh century Japanese Heian period epic oeuvre d’art, “Tale of Genji,” on which these three poems are based, is highly recommended. Postscript: Readers are asked to observe that the sentiments expressed in this Japanese-style tanka poem relate very well with the Taoist-type of sentiments expressed in the Biblical New Testament Gospel of Luke 10:38-42, in the account of Christ in the house of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus where Jesus, making an important distinction of the supreme archetypal significance of the one important thing [qua, the DAO, ‘The Way,’ or Ultimate Truth] over that of the many things [qua, ‘the 10,000 things’ of the secular world], declares with emphasis to Martha, in verses 41-42, the following statement: 41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered “You [with your distractions] are worried and upset about many things, 42 But few things are needed. Mary [as my disciple] has chosen what is better [qua, to focus on ‘The Way’]. And it will not be taken away from her.” more »