though I'm sure this is but a pale shade of the original Japanese, McKinney's translation of Sei Shōnagon’s Pillow Book is spectacular. Sei lives in and masterfully evokes a world of color, elegance, and longing, where you can plan a special trip to seek the song of a certain bird and you can talk for hours with the most powerful people in the land about poetic allusions. 

when we imagine what life can be, I think we stop far short of what it already has been at so many points throughout history. as a white guy I'll only ever catch glimpses of Sei's reality, but it is a useful reminder that I can dream up my own. this is a miraculous work of art.