Sunday, February 24, 2013

Chogonka, part 2

21 金屋(に)粧ひ成て嬌(こび)て夜に侍す。
She finished her makeup in the golden building, and charmingly accompanied the Emperor in the evenings.

- 金屋 is another reference to Emperor Wu; once again the tireless Wikisource guy has put the original quote from the Book of Han up.  He also points out that the 嬌 here is probably a pun on Empress Chin Jiao, who Wu wanted to build the golden house for.

22 玉楼宴罷て酔て春に和す。
In the jeweled pavilions at the end of the banquets they were drunk, and relaxed in the spring.

- I'm assuming that 罷て is intended to be read as おわりて.

23 姉妹兄弟、皆列士
Her brothers and sisters were all made governors of land.

24 憐れむべし、光彩の門戸を生すること
Oh, how splendid, the thriving of the shining family! 

25-26 遂に天下父母の心をして、男を生むことを重んせずして、女を生むことを重んせしむ。
This soon affected the hearts of the mothers and fathers of the land -- it caused them to not value giving birth to boys, but rather giving birth to girls.

27 驪宮高き處、青雲に入る。
The high places of Lu Palace entered the blue clouds.

- This is the Huaqing Palace, the location of the Huaqing Pools mentioned earlier in the poem.

28 仙樂、風飄て處處に聞ゆ。
The music of the sages fluttered on the wind and could be heard here and there.

29 緩く歌ひ謾に舞て絲竹を凝らす。
The slow singing and the gentle dancing merged with the strings (of the instruments).

-  謾 seems to be a 仮字 for 縵.

30 尽日(ひねもす)君王看れども足らざるに、
The King watched all day but it wasn't enough.

31 漁陽の鼙鼓、地を動し来たる。
The war drums of Yuyang began to shake the earth.

- The next set of lines alludes to the events of the An Lushan rebellion; the wikipedia article on Yang Guifei has the full story of her death; without some knowledge of the basic story this part of the poem makes little sense.

32 驚破(そよや)、霓裳羽衣の曲。
Oh!  The song of rainbow skirts and feather robes.

- According to the den, this is the song that Guifei enchanted Xuanzong with.  I'm a little uncertain on what 驚破 means here -- both Hiromichi's furigana and the notes to the SKT indicate that it's an expression of surprise, but the meaning of the line isn't very clear.  The SKT's modern Japanese translation and Wikisource say it means the drums disrupted the dance.

33 九重の城闕、煙塵生す。
The ninefold palace became covered in smoke and dust.

34 千乗万騎西南に行く。
The large army went southwest.

- This refers to the King's troops fleeing the palace.

35 翠華、搖搖として行て復た止まる。
The jewels on the imperial flag rocked back and forth, stopping and starting.

36 西の方、都門を出ること、百余里。
They left the capital gate to the west and went over 100 li.

37 六軍発せず、奈何(いかん)ともすること無し。
The Imperial army was not sent out, and couldn't do anything.

38 宛転たる蛾眉、馬の前に死ぬ。
The curved eyebrows like a moth, died before the horse.

- A very allusive reference to Yang Guifei's execution; that's an odd simile -- I don't know if it was a poetic standard.  Wikisource suggests it could be an allusion to Mount Emei, where Xuanzong was going.  Guifei was strangled in a Buddhist temple, but since she was killed at Mawei (馬嵬), this may be a play on words.

39 花の鈿(かんざし)地に委(すて)て、人の收むる無し。
Her flower hairpin fell to the ground, and no one picked it up.

40 翠翹金雀玉の搔頭(さしくし)。
(Then,) her hair ornament made from the feather of a kingfisher, her gold sparrow (pin), and her jeweled hair clasp.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Chogonka, part 1

My goal is to post roughly 20 lines of the poem each post.  I'm only going to do the 訓読 based on Hagiwara's citation of the poem; this uses some different kanji and a few different kundoku from the 新釈漢文大系 (SKT) text that I'm using for annotations.  If you want to see the original Chinese text and pinyin, go to the Wikisource page.  That page has a good natural translation so I'll try to be a bit more literal and explain some more of the terms and such.

長恨歌 (Song of Everlasting Regret/Neverending Sorrow)

1 漢王、色を重んじて、傾国を思ふ。
The King of Han valued sex, and wanted a beautiful woman.

- The "King of Han" is a poetic conceit to avoid naming Emperor Xuanzong, since the Tang Dynasty was still ruling.  There is no doubt who the poem is about, though.  The suggestion is that this is about Emperor Wu of Han and his relationship with Consort Li.  Li has been suggested as one model for the Kiritsubo Intimate.  The term 傾国 also comes from the Book of Han's biography of Consort Li; see the translated passage at wiktionary.

- "sex" is kind of a bold translation of 色 but I couldn't come up with a better one.  "Love" or "romance" don't really work.  Maybe the wikisource's choice of "dalliances", although somewhat Victorian, is more appropriate.

2 御宇(あめのしたしろしめして)多年求むれど、得ず。
He searched during the many years of his reign, but couldn't find any such beauty.

3 楊家に女(むすめ)あり、初めて長(ひと)と成れり。
In the House of Yang there was a daughter who had just come of age.

4 養はれて深閨に在りて、人未だ識らず。
She was raised and kept in the inner house, and people did not yet know her.

5 天の生(な)せる麗質、自ら棄て難し。
Her natural beauty was difficult to ignore.

- I'm not entirely sure how to interpret 自難棄; apparently it's just "impossible to ignore" but I don't fully understand the construction of that meaning.

6 一朝選ばれて、君王の側に在り。
One day, she was chosen, and went by the King's side.

7 頭を回らし、一たび笑しては百の媚生(な)る。
By turning her head and laughing once, it was one hundred times as sexy.

- None of the editions I've looked at really translate the meaning of the words, they just go with something like "Her entrancing smile could melt anyone's heart".  I'm really not sure if my more literal interpretation is accurate at all.

8 六宮の粉黛、顏色無し。
The powdered beauties of the palace had no beauty.

- Presumably in comparison to Yang Guifei.  A less literal translation would be "The other women in the palace could not compare to her."

9 春寒くして、浴を賜ふ、華清の池。
In the cold spring, the King gave her the gift of bathing in the Huaqing Pool.

10 温泉の水、滑らかにして凝れる脂を洗ふ。
The waters of the hot spring were smooth, and cleansed her white skin.

- 凝脂 is kind of an odd phrase; it seems to mean "(skin) white like solid fat" and is derived from the Shi jing.

11 侍兒(おもとひと)、扶け起して、嬌て力無し。
Her serving women helped her exit; she was slender and had no strength.

12 始を是れ新たに恩沢を承くる時。
This is just when she began to receive the King's favor.

-SKT reads 始 as まさしく and says it means "Just now".

13 雲の鬢(つら)、花の顏ばせ金の步搖(さしくしやり)
She had hair like a cloud, a face like a flower, and gold jewelry in her hair.

- 雲 may just mean "dark" but it might also refer to other aspects of clouds as well.

14 芙蓉帳暖かにして春宵を度る。
They spent the spring nights behind a warm screen of hibiscus.

15 春宵短きを苦しんで、日高(たけ)て起く。
They lamented the shortness of the spring nights, and rose when the sun was high.

16 此れ従、 君王、早朝(あさまつりごと)せず。
From this point, the King no longer did his morning government duties.

-従 is evidently read より here.

17 歓を承け宴に侍するに間暇無し。
She pleased the Emperor and accompanied him to banquets; she had no free time.

- SKT emends 宴 to 寝 from other manuscripts and says this means "she spent time in his sleeping chamber".   承歓 is evidently some kind of idiom.

18 春は春の遊びに従ひ、夜は夜を専にす。
In the spring she accompanied him on his spring outings, and at night she was with him every night.

19 後宮の佳麗、三千人。
There were three thousand beautiful women in the palace,

- SKT emends 後 to 漢 from other manuscripts, changing the meaning to "In the Han Palace..."

20 三千の寵愛、一身に在り。
(but) the love for the three thousand was with one woman alone.

Sounds like a great love story!  What could go wrong?

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Kiritsubo 1.4c

I checked a 古典 dictionary for あぢきなし; their etymology said it's from あづきなし, which is あ (sound variation of the わ in 分ける or 分かれる) + 付き + 無し, meaning unable to tell the difference or not distinguishing, which led to the other meanings by association.

This post has the 余釈 for the sentence.  I put in links to Wikipedia articles for the Chinese history figures mentioned.

もろこしにもかかる事の起りに
 殷の紂が妲己を愛し、周の幽王褒姒を寵せしより世の乱れたる事などを引きていふなり。

Sairyusho (1510): This is drawing from examples of the government falling into chaos from the love of King Zhou of Shang for Daji, or King You of Zhou for Bao Si.

楊貴妃のためし
湖師 玄宗の寵愛ゆゑに安禄山が乱出来たるためしなるべし。

Kogetsusho shisho (1673): This is the example of Xuanzong's love allowing for the An Lushan rebellion to occur.

 桐壺の帝の更衣をおくれ給へることを、唐の玄宗の楊貴妃に離れ給ひて嘆き給へるにたとへて、長恨歌の言葉を借りて一巻の始終を書き侍れば、そのことをいはんとて「楊貴妃のためしも引き出でつべく」とまづ言出だせり。作者の意趣すぐれて聞こえ侍り。

Kacho yosei (1472): The Kiritsubo Emperor survives the Kiritsubo Intimate; this is similar to Xuanzong being separated from Yang Guifei. This whole chapter is written based on the Song of Neverending Sorrow, and so first the text says that the "example of Yang Guifei should be brought out." The author's craft is excellent.

 云々 前の「もろこしにもかかる事」といへるとは別段と見るべし。花鳥には一つの心に注せらるるか云々

Mingo nisso (1598): (first part omitted) The "In China too, these things" sentence is talking about other examples, although the Kacho yosei seems to say they are the same.

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The (somewhat trivial) issue is whether the "In China too" included Yang Guifei or not, something that divided the early commentaries.

 「かかる事の起こり」とある中に楊貴妃の例もこもるべし。さて、この巻は長恨歌によりて書かれたることは論なきを、かの歌の全文を知らざればこの文のいみじきことどもの知られがたき故に、わづらはしけれど白氏文集のままをここに挙げつ。引き合はせて見るべし。

You should view the "In China too" line as including the Yang Guifei example. Now then, it doesn't even need to be said that this chapter is based on the Song of Neverending Sorrow. Therefore if you don't know the entire text of that poem, it's hard to understand the excellence of this chapter. So even though it's troublesome, I will give the entire text from Bai Juyi's works here.

この次に陳鴻が選べる長恨歌の伝といふ物一篇あり。玄宗と楊貴妃との始終を記したれど、長ければここには省きて、ただその要とある所のみをいささか抜き出でて、注しつけぬ。詳しくは本書を見るべし。

Next, there is a Legend of the Song of Neverending Sorrow by Chin Ko. This records the story of Xuanzhong and Yang Guifei from start to finish. It is long, so I will include only an excerpt showing the main point here, and without annotations. You should see the main text for details.

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Hagiwara does indeed include the entire Song as well as excerpts making up about a fourth of the Legend (a prose version included in the complete works of Bai Juyi).  Initially I thought I would skip over this but I have to read these for my dissertation anyway, and it better represents Hagiwara's intentions to include it.  There's already a good annotated translation on Wikisource, although the Legend doesn't seem to be translated anywhere.  So it might be useless duplication to do it here too, but I suppose that's OK.

Also, I'm leaving Japan at the end of March and I'm presenting at a conference in a month so my free time will be a bit more limited until April.  I'll still try to get a post out every 7-10 days or so but things could be a bit slower during that period.  Thanks for reading!

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Kiritsubo 1.4b

A very full word section today, with 6 entries.  First I feel like I have to defend Hagiwara; on the last word post there were some very harsh comments about the philological efforts of the Edo-period scholars (one commenter called them "junk etymologies" and another compared them to jokes).  The etymologies aren't that bad, though -- a decent number of them are accurate or at least one possibility for an unknown word.  Of course there are some missteps, though.

Also, I want to say hi to a Chinese person living in France who is providing the second-most hits to the blog (next to Matt).  Here's an interesting post where he(?) compares three Chinese translations of the first few sentences of "Kiritsubo". 我的中文不太好。欢迎、欢迎

あいなく
 この詞、数もなく多く有るぞをことごとく見渡し合はせて考ふるに、何といふ弁へもなしに、うちつけに物することなり。ここもその意にて、おのが身にかからぬ人までも何といふことなしに目を側むる也。注に「愛無シ也」「あぢきなく也」などいへる皆かなはず。

Tama no ogushi (1796): This word occurs many times in the Tale. When you examine them all, it means to do unreasonable things with no thought put into it. The meaning here is the same; it means that even people not directly related to the circumstances are averting their eyes without any reason. The notes that say it means 無愛 or ajikinashi are wrong.

 ナニトナウ ムサト ナンノハリ合モナク

nani to nau (何となう), musa to, nan no hariai mo naku

 新釈に「愛敬なきを略して愛なきといふ也」とある。「略して」といはれたるはいかがなれど、なほ愛なきの意にはあるべし。何といふことなしに打ちつけにものするも、やがて愛のなき意なればいたく違(たが)へるにはあらず。

In the Shinshaku it says "This is shortened from aigyou nasi and means 愛なき."  The "shortened" part is doubtful, but this should be seen as 愛なき.  "Doing something unreasonable with no thought put into it" is, in the end, not that different from "with no care/love".

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This word is still of unknown etymology (愛なし is listed as a possible etymology in modern dictionaries), and the exact meaning of the word in this sentence is still not certain.

そばめ
 「そば」は側の字の意、「め」はめ、む、むるとはたらく辞なり。側(そば)へ向きて、まさしく向かはぬ意にて、物妬(ものねたみ)するさまなり。

soba is the character 側. me is the word conjugated as me, mu, muru.  The word means to turn aside and not face directly at something, indicating a grudge.

まばゆき
 拾遺に「日の輝く時まばゆくて見がたきやうの意なるべきにや」といへるごとくにて、なべて人に目をそばめらるる、これまばゆきなり。

Tama no ogushi (1796): The Genchu shui says This perhaps should mean that it is like the difficulty of looking at the bright sun." This is correct; generally people averting their eyes is referred to as mabayuki.

あぢきなう
 人の情を五味に譬(たと)へて、うまし、からし、にがしなどいふ中の、にがにがしきといはんがごときことを、味気(あぢき)なしといふなり。

Shinshaku (1758): People's feelings are often compared to the five senses, for instance, umashi, karashi, nigashi, etc. In this case it is like niganigashiki; something that has no taste.

 フアンバイナ ムヤクナコトヂヤ ラチモナイ

fuanbai na (不安倍な), muyaku na koto ja (無役なことじゃ)、rachi mo nai (埒もない)

雅集 やくにもたたず、せんのないといふ心なり。真字伊勢物語「味気無(アヂキナク)」。契沖云、せんかたなし。史記伍子胥伝、無益を「アヂキナシ」とよめり。宣長云、俗言にいらざること、むやくのことといへる意なり。

Gagen shuran (1849):  This means "useless" or "nothing can be done." In the Ise monogatari manabon the characters 味気無 are read as ajikinau. Keichū says that in the Shi ji, in the biography of Wu Xizu, 無益 is read as ajikinashi. Norinaga says that in the vernacular it means irazaru koto or mueki na koto.

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The Ise monogatari manabon is a version of the Ise monogatari written entirely in Chinese characters, perhaps in the Kamakura era (the cite here is in poem 90).  The practice of using Chinese works to gloss the Genji words is a curious one that dates back to the oldest commentaries; it survived into the 19th century for unclear reasons.  I believe this etymology for the word is completely wrong and that 味気 is ateji, but I'm not 100% certain.

はしたなき
 枕草子に「はしたなき物」といふ下の一つに、「人をよぶに我かとてさし出たる、まして物くるるをり」など書けり。これにて心得べし。竹取物語に「宮は立つもはした居るもはしたにてゐ給へり」といふに同じ云々

Genchu shui (1698): In the Makura no sōshi there is a section called "hashitanaki things." One of the items is "When someone else is called, and you appear thinking you're the one being called. It's even worse when they give you something." There are other items; this should be consulted. Also in the Taketori Monogatari it says "The prince was uneasy(hashita) standing or sitting." This is the same meaning.

 俗にどちらつかずといふ意なり。又めったに、又ひよんな事などいふ意なり。

Genchu yoteki (1830): In the vernacular this means things like dochira tsukazu, or metta ni, or hiyonna.

 フツガフナ ツキモナイ 思ヒガケナイ ツキホガナイ フサウオウナ フツツカナ

futsugafu na (不都合な), tsuki mo nai, omohigakenai, tsukiho ga nai, fusauouna (不相応な), futsutsuka na (不束な).

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I believe Keichu is correct about hashita and hashitanaki meaning the same thing -- the nashi is a suffix (not 無い) that is in other words like いときなし.

御心ばへ 
 心延(こころばへ)の意にて、心のひき延(はへ)て出でるおもふきをいふ語なり。心のさしゆくを志(こころざし)といひ、心を馳(はせ)出でるを意(こころばせ)といふ、皆同じおもふきなり。

This word is 心延, so it is extending (延) your spirit (心). This is similar to kokorozashi, which is pointing (指し) your spirit (心), or kokorobase, which is running (馳せ) your spirit (心). 

 ココロムケ オモヒナシ

kokoromuke (心向け)、omohinashi (思ひなし).