Who’s There?
Sei Shōnagon
Sei Shōnagon was a Japanese author, poet and court lady who served the Empress Teishi around 1000 AD. During this time, she kept a diary which has since become known as The Pillow Book: a collection of gossip, lists, musings, poems, and observations about the inanities and mundanities of everyday life. It concerns no great events, nor great historical figures — rather it is a rare and remarkable glimpse into the mind of a regular citizen who existed a millennium ago. Shōnagon wrote with honesty, never intending for her work to be published, and in doing so inadvertently created an essential artefact. Her poetry is much the same; she wrote it for herself, expressing the feelings and emotions we all go through in a way that made sense for her. To read her work is to get a profound sense of time-travelling, and to feel the distance between the past and the present shrink with each sentiment. Shōnagon’s problems, musings and queries are much the same as ones we have today. The unadulterated experience of existence is consistent through eras, dynasties and nations — we are all still sometimes unsure of ‘who’s there when I say I’.