ShadowingsA menagerie of observation, philosophy, musing, and storytelling, Shadowings is quirky and charming, not unlike its author, transplanted Westerner Lafcadio Hearn. In this work, Hearn takes us from an ancient Japanese legend of love and spirits to an intimate contemplation on fear to a philosophical study of feminine Japanese names. Applying both his keen aesthetic eye and his uncanny ability to translate feelings as well as words, Hearn awakens the intellect and spirit, and offering us a prime view not only into his beloved adopted country, but into humanity itself. Bohemian and writer PATRICK LAFCADIO HEARN (1850-1904) was born in Greece, raised in Ireland, and worked as newspaper reporter in the United States before decamping to Japan. He also wrote In Ghostly Japan (1899), and Kwaidon (1904). |
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Common terms and phrases
able æsthetic appellation arch Baishu bamboo beautiful bell Benten Bodhisattva Buddhist called character child Chinese Chinese characters Chinese numeral cicada color creatures curious delight Dōjōji Dragon dream experience eyes fear feeling female names Filial Piety fishing flower ghosts girl Gothic Gothic architecture higurashi honorable temple horror imagined insects inyōshi iyoë Jizō kana kind Kono Kyōto live LOVE-SONG Province Matsu meaning Miidera moral mystery never night O-Kichi old Japanese onomatope Ōsaka pain passed person picture poem poets priest probably refer Samébito seemed Seiza Sémi no koë sensation sense Shinto ship shrilling signifying singing sometimes song Souls sound Stork strange suffix Sûtra syllables tanzaku Tennin thee things thou thought Thousand Tokkei Tōkyō Tonton Tontorori Tōtarō tōtō Tsuku-tsuku-uisu tsuru uttered verses voice Wave weep wife woman word written Yamabushi Yanrei YAYU yobina Yoitomosé Yoshi-ko young Zazanza
Popular passages
Page 12 - ... utter amazement, lying upon the naked boards of a mouldering floor. . . . Had he only dreamed a dream? No: she was there; — she slept. . . . He bent above her — and looked — and shrieked — for the sleeper had no face! . . . Before him, wrapped in its grave-sheet only, lay the corpse of a woman — a corpse so wasted that little remained save the bones, and the long black tangled hair.
Page 7 - But it was in the time of the thoughtlessness of youth, and the sharp experience of want, that the Samurai could not understand the worth of the affection so lightly cast away. His second marriage did not prove a happy one; the character of his new wife was hard and selfish; and he soon found every cause to think with regret of Kyoto days. Then he discovered that he still loved his first wife.