Takashima & the Yilin · Read in English
A purse, a letter, a stony road
Start with a businessman who cannot stop trading, a letter that goes unanswered, or a traveller who cannot make himself understood. Read short stories from Takashima’s casebook and poems from the Yilin in English.
Takashima’s casebook
From Takashima’s casebook
Godai knows he should stop. He makes one more deal.
An Osaka businessman asks about the year ahead. Takashima reads “a tied-up sack” as a closed purse. Godai has a business to keep running.
Read the story →From Takashima’s casebook
The money is overdue. Should Nagai go to Hokkaido?
Nagai has lent money to a merchant. A reminder brings no reply. Takashima reads Xu, Waiting, and advises him to stay home.
Read the story →From Takashima’s casebook
His plans go nowhere. He finds someone else to work with.
One of Ōkura’s employees asks about his prospects. Takashima takes a line about a marriage match into the workplace.
Read the story →From Takashima’s casebook
The company has articles. It still needs a president.
Shares and articles of association are part of the plan. Asked whether the company will succeed, Takashima wants to know who will run it.
Read the story →From Takashima’s casebook
A friend recognises the heir in Takashima’s description.
A question about a wealthy household becomes a portrait of its heir. Listen for the moment the visitor supplies the family story.
Read the story →From Takashima’s casebook
They ask how to give up the shipyard. They keep it.
Two merchants bring Takashima a loss-making ship repair business. The ending of his account turns on the following year’s war.
Read the story →From Takashima’s casebook
A poem in his robe for a visit to the abbot
Before meeting Imakita Kōsen in Kamakura, Takashima casts a hexagram and writes a poem. Then the two sit down to tea.
Read the story →From Takashima’s casebook
A carrying bar for a fine cauldron
A merchant asks about his prospects. Takashima answers by explaining how to pick up a cauldron.
Read the story →Poems from the Yilin
A poem from the Yilin
A stony road, and nobody to translate
In the Yilin’s Qian to Qian poem, a traveller cannot get his words through. Read the Chinese verse beside a new English translation.
Read the poem →A poem from the Yilin
The carriage overturns. The poem keeps going.
Qian to Zhun moves from isolation and a wrecked carriage to a pair finding each other. An English close reading of one Yilin verse.
Read the poem →A poem from the Yilin
Two people turn towards each other.
Three short phrases bring a young woman and an eldest son face to face. Read Kun to Tong Ren in Chinese and English.
Read the poem →A poem from the Yilin
Three rams run all day. None of them eats.
The Yilin’s Qian to Da Chu follows three rams through an exhausting contest. The Chinese verse and a new English translation.
Read the poem →A poem from the Yilin
Robes held up, the traveller steps into deep water.
A person tries to wade across a river. A boatman appears halfway through the Yilin’s Kun to Cui poem.
Read the poem →A poem from the Yilin
The hole gets deeper. There is still no jade.
The Yilin’s Meng to Lin opens with someone digging a well in search of jade. A famous treasure makes an awkward comparison.
Read the poem →A poem from the Yilin
A fine day to take the road
No wind, no rain, bright daylight: Qian to Tai opens the way for a journey. Read the Yilin verse in Chinese and English.
Read the poem →A poem from the Yilin
A crane calling from the marsh
A crane’s cry introduces a person living apart. The Yilin’s Shi to Gen makes a quiet ending to a stretch of reading.
Read the poem →