Sunday, April 14, 2013

Konjaku Monogatarishū Vol. 2, Tale 1: Śuddhodana's Death #1 (part 8)

Fig. 1: 然レハ
諸ノ衆生皆

ニ踊リ騒ク
We continue the description of Śuddhodana's funeral from last time:
レバ諸ノ衆生しゅじょうにわかニ踊リ騒グ。
So many living things all suddenly [began] to hop up and down and make a racket  (fig. 1).
Fig. 2: 水ノ
ニ有ル船ノ波
ニ値ヘルカ
如シ
The first word, 「然レバ」, can be read in modern Japanese as either 「しかれば」 or 「されば」, but a classical Japanese dictionary only lists the reading 「されば」, which is why I selected it.

Also note the use of the word 「踊リ」. The modern meaning of the verb 「踊る」 refers to dancing. But the original meaning was equivalent to the modern Japanese word 「飛び跳ねる」: to jump or hop up and down.
水ノ上ニ有ル船の波ニヘルガ如シ。
They were like boats on the water being struck by waves (fig. 2).
Note the irregular use of the kanji 「値」 for the verb 「与える」. It seems like it was selected purely for its phonetic value here, as its meaning ("price"/"cost"/"value") is not used at all here.

Fig. 3: 其ノ
時ニ四天

王佛ニ
シ請テ
ヲ荷ヒ
奉ル 
I'm not sure how to grammatically parse the phrase 「値ヘル」. Since 「ガ如シ」 has to be preceded by a verb in the attributive form (連体形), 「ル」 is likely an auxiliary verb in that form. It is most likely the perfective verb 「り」, which itself is preceded by the perfective/realis form (已然形) of yodan verbs. This makes sense, since the yodan verb 「値フ」 would be 「値ヘ」 in the perfective form. However, I couldn't find an entry 「値フ」 in any dictionaries, so I'm not entirely sure.

Edit: Chris has suggested that 「値ヘル」 is actually a contraction of 「ひ」+「ある」.  However, it's still not clear exactly what the meaning of this is.
其ノ時ニ四天王してんおう仏ニ申シうけテ、棺ヲになヒ奉ル。
At that time, the Four Heavenly Kings asked the Buddha [for permission to] shoulder the coffin (fig. 3)
The Four Heavenly Kings (caturmahārāja, or चतुर्महाराज, in Sanskrit) mentioned here "are the protectors of the world and fighters of evil."

Fig. 4: 佛
此レヲ

テ荷ハシ
メ給フ
The word 「荷ヒ」 is related to the modern Japanese word 「荷なう」, and appears to have the same meaning: "to carry on [one's] shoulders".
レヲゆるしテ荷ハシメ給フ。
The Buddha permitted this, and had them shoulder [the coffin] (fig. 4).
Fig. 5: 佛ハ
香爐ヲ取

大王ノ前ニ
歩ミ給フ
The construct 「荷ハシメ給フ」 can be broken down into the previously encountered verb 「荷フ」 in the imperfective form (未然形), followed by the causative auxiliary verb 「しむ」 in the continuative form (連用形), followed by the honorific auxiliary verb 「給フ」, in the predicative form (終止形).
仏ハ香炉こうろとつテ大王ノ前ニあゆミ給フ。
The Buddha, holding an incense burner, walked in front of the Great King (fig. 5).
Fig. 6: 其
墓所ハ
霊鷲山
ノ上也
By "in front", I'm guessing it means "in the front of the procession", one with the Buddha in front and the Four Heavenly Kings following him, shouldering the coffin.
その墓所むしょ霊鷲山りょうじゅせんの上なり
The graveyard was on top of Vulture Peak (fig. 6).
Note that the reading used for 「墓所」 is not a modern one (which would be either 「はかしょ」 or 「ぼしょ」). Rather, it's the classical reading 「むしょ」.

Edit: in the comments, Chris has suggested that 「墓所」 could also be read using kun'yomi, as 「はかどころ」.

Vulture Peak, which we encountered in a previous post, comes up again in fig. 6.

Finally, we once again encounter the archaic copula 「也」. It has appeared before, in a previous Konjaku post (see fig. 2).

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Shunshoku Umegoyomi Vol. 1: The Yōshi (part 3)

Fig. 1: それから宅へ
出入もならず。
Fig. 2: 音信
不通とさ
れたのは。
みんな

がふつゝか

ゆゑ。
Things have been very busy over the last month, but I finally got a chance to write another post. Also, it's gotten to the point now that most of the time for creating a post is spent constructing the annotated images, such that my translations sit in Google Docs for a while before I get around to actually putting up the corresponding post. Hopefully I can come up with an easier/faster solution for annotation at some point - it would certainly allow me to post much more often.

Today we continue to learn about Tanjirou's misfortunes:
"From then on, [I] didn’t even go to and from the house (fig. 1). The break in contact was entirely because of my incompetence (fig. 2)."
Fig. 3: また
そのうへに
養子先の

上はふんさ
んして。
 The only thing to note in fig. 1 is the pattern 「ならず」. It can likely be parsed as 「なら」, the imperfective form (未然形) of 「なる」, followed by the negative auxiliary verb 「ず」. As explained in this dictionary entry, the meaning is equivalent to the modern Japanese 「でない」 or 「ではない」.

In fig. 2, we see the phrase 「音信不通」, meaning "break in contact" or "having no communication with". Note that 「みんな」 here actually means "everything" (paraphrased as "entirely" in the translation above), rather than "everyone". That particular meaning is listed in Tangorin as a secondary entry.

Fig. 4: まだ後日
にはこれがある
と。
We also see the word 「ふつゝか」, which means, among other things, "inexperienced" or "incompetent". Finally, 「ゆゑ」, equivalent to 「ゆえ」 in modern kana or 「故」 in kanji, means "reason"/"cause".
"And on top of that, the assets that didn’t come from [my] adoption were dispersed (fig. 3). Later, saying 'I have this,' (fig. 4) the clerk Matsubei [produced a bond] for 500 ryō he had lent to Hatakeyama-sama (fig. 5)[He said that] he would give this to me in return [for giving him]  (fig. 6) 70 of the remaining 100 ryō of [the funds from the adoption that were] dispersed (fig. 7)He said he would give it to the others later, (fig. 8) [but] saying he was going to [the capital] Kyoto [lit. ascending], he disappeared (fig. 9)."
Near the end of fig. 3, we see the word 「ふんさん」.  This is most likely the word 「ぶんさん」(「分散」 in kanji) with the dakuten missing. It means "scatter" or "disperse".

In fig. 8, we see the verb 「登る」, which has a literal meaning of "to ascend", but can also refer to the act of going to the capital. Remember that Umegoyomi is set during the late Edo period, when Kyoto was still the official capital of Japan. As the novel itself is set in Edo, we can assume that Matsubei has absconded to Kyoto. This claim is strengthened by the fact that 「登る」 is preceded by the place name 「上方」, which referred to the "Kansai region (esp. during Edo period)".

The rest is fairly self-explanatory, but one word to note is 「其身」(in fig. 9), which literally means "body". In this context, I used the pronoun "he" instead in the translation.

Fig. 9: 其身
は上方へ

るといつ

行方なく。
Fig. 8: 後は他の
者へつかはし
ますといつて
Fig. 7: 分散
残りの百両は。
七十両。
Fig. 6: この証
はおまへ
に上ますそ
の代り。
Fig. 5: 言て番
頭松兵へが。
畠山さまへ

してある五百
両。