Mugdha's Reviews > As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams

Even if this book has an interesting title it is just a diary. What makes it interesting is, it was written one thousand years ago by a woman in Japan during the Heian Period.

The diary starts with the day when the author (lady Sarashina), was a young girl and curious about Capital City. She is also a huge fan of "Tale of Genji". The book follows her life as a young girl to a woman, even though quite an important part of her life is not mentioned (like marriage, childbirth, etc) it still gives us an idea about the type of girl she used to be.

As poetry was an important form of literature in Japan, there is quite a lot of poems about nature, the author missing her friends, father and some other things.

As a translator, Ivan Morris did a wonderful job, as we can still relate to her after 1000 years!!! that's something.

One thing truly different about this book/diary is Lady Sarashina never belittles anyone or gets jealous, or envious of someone. She just lives her life, reads fiction (and daydreams about it), in later years pilgrims to holy places, also works as court lady. There is also a detail about death and her grief afterward.