WITMonth Prep | The Classics Challenge | Part 1

As promised, here is the first installment in my potential titles for the Classics challenge in this year's Women in Translation Month! These lists will unfortunately be very scattered and disorganized, with no consistency in terms of list-building and of course extremely limited to what is available in English. There are hundreds more works of classic literature that have simply never been translated. I'm still trying to collect as many potential titles as possible, so these lists will inevitably be messy in terms of language, era and genre. I also cannot necessarily vouch for the titles on these lists in terms of quality and/or content, as I have only read a handful...

Happy WITMonth planning!

Note: Titles in bold are readily available and are in print (in English). Translator names were not included in order to prevent any confusion as regards specific editions.

• The Tale of Genji (c. 11th century) - Murasaki Shikibu - Japanese
• The Diary of the Lady Murasaki (c. 11th century) - Murasaki Shikibu - Japanese
• The Pillow Book (1002) - Sei Shōnagon - Japanese
• Dark Soliloquy: The Selected Poems of Gertrud Kolmar (c. 1920-40s) - Gertrud Kolmar - German
• A Jewish Mother from Berlin; Susanna (c. 1930s-1940s) - Gertrud Kolmar - German
• The Princess of Cleves (1678) - Madame de Lafayette - French
• The Nobleman and Other Romances (c. 18th century) - Isabelle de Charrière - French
• The Book of the City of Ladies (1405) - Christine de Pizan - French
• Brocade River Poems: Selected Works of the Tang Dynasty Courtesan (c. 9th century) - Xue Tao - Chinese
• The Clouds Float North: The Complete Poems of Yu Xuanji (c. 9th century) - Yu Xuanji - Chinese
• Complete Poems (c. 12th century) - Ching-Chao Li (Li Qingzhao) - Chinese
• The Alexiad (c. 1148) - Anna Komnene - Attic Greek
• Parvin E'tesami: Life and Poetry (c. 20th century) - Parvin E'tesami - Persian
• Ruba'iyat of Mahsati (c. 12th century) - Mahsati - Persian

A few collections which include works by classic women in translation:

• Women Poets of Japan - ed. Ikuko Atsumi and Kenneth Rexroth
• Women Writers of Traditional China: An Anthology of Poetry and Criticism - ed. Kang-i Sun Chang, Huan Saussy

And this is just the start! Many, many, many more titles to come. Feel free to add your own recommendations in the comments and let the WITMonth preparations begin!