I know it's Japanese, but what does it say?
From LibraryWiki
I found an image of a text doing a Google Image search using the keyword 和歌. Exploring it led to some surprising results.
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The text
Here's an image of a text in the hand of Ukita Hideie, who was exiled to Hachijou-jima after fighting on the losing side in the great battle at Sekigahara, over 400 years ago. According to notes written on the reverse of the actual paper, Hideie presented this text to a monk who was leaving their island prison and returning to the mainland after being pardoned:
宇喜多秀家和歌（個人蔵）
It's not all that easy to read. Luckily, on the website where I found this image (Ukita Hideie Waka), there was also a version of the text transliterated into 活字 (which I've arranged here in a 5-7-5[+1?]-7-7 pattern):
- 武蔵野は
- 行ども あきの
- 終ぞなき
- いかなる風か
- すへに吹らん
Otherwise I might have needed at least one of these:
This is probably the most difficult step in figuring out what the poem says. Even if you have access to dictionaries such as the ones cited above, they are not easy to use.
As it turns out, almost half of the ひらがな employed in the text are outmoded forms called hentaigana.
A tentative transliteration
Of course, recognizing the orthographic symbols that are on the page, while difficult, is only the first part of the problem. If you can't transliterate the 漢字 into 仮名, then you can't look up words you don't understand in a 古語辞典. So the next question is, how do you get from the 漢字仮名混じり文 above to a 全仮名 version like the one below?
- むさしのは
- ゆけどもあきの
- をはりぞなき
- いかなるかぜか
- すへにふくらむ
The reading for 武蔵 in 武蔵野 is not easy to get to. The place name in the written form 武蔵 is itself old, and the pronunciation むさし can be confirmed by the way it is written in the 『古事記』, viz. 无邪志 (See 日本古代史大辞典: 旧石器時代 -- 鎌倉幕府成立頃, p. 608 for details).
The reading for 武 as む is a common reading based on the original Chinese pronunciation. However, as for as I can determine, 蔵 is read さし only in the context of the name 武蔵. To get from the characters 武蔵 to the reading むさし, you can start by looking up 武 in a 漢和辞典.
Then, for example, you will find 武蔵 in the entry for 武 under the list of usages in personal names in this:
And you will find 武蔵 among the main entries under 武 in this:
This latter is especially informative. It will tell you that 武蔵 was once a feudal holding that took up most of modern Tokyo and parts of Saitama and Kanagawa prefectures.
If you had guessed that 武蔵 was a place name in the first place, you might find it in something like this: 日本歴史地名辞典.
This will tell you where 武蔵国 (むさしのくに) is. If you want to know where 武蔵野 is, you might look for present-day 武蔵野市. A book like A gazetteer of Japanese place names in characters and in Rōmaji script giving latitudes and longitudes will tell you the following:
- Musashino (Tōkyō Pref.) 武蔵野 35º 41' x 139º 33'.
A look on a map will show you an urban center in the Tokyo Metropolitan area. Is this the same 武蔵野 as the one mentioned in the poem? If you check 市町村名変遷辞典 you will see that while the political boundaries surrounding 武蔵野 have changed names several times, the village > town > city is in the more or less the same place. A detailed account can be found in 増補 大日本地名辭書 (Vol. 6, pp. 144 - 146). For an online exposition see this: 上野国・武蔵国の地名
As for the rest of the poem, you won't get far unless you recognize that what you are dealing with is a late-medieval text written in a Classical Japanese register, with its own grammatical and orthographical conventions. This sort of language awareness is essential for Japanese studies. (See Language awareness: Japanese for discussion.)
Classical Japanese uses 歴史的仮名遣い, which, depending on the word involved, does not always correspond to the 仮名 of modern Japanese. Until you memorize these alternate "spellings," you can't be assured that you'll find a 漢字 word where you expect it in a 古語辞典 based on the "spelling" of a Modern Japanese cognate. What can you do about this?
One way to find the right "spelling" for 終 is to look up the 漢字 in an old-style 漢和辞典, such as this one:
Among the various readings under the entry for 終 you will find the Classical "spelling": ヲハリ.
Another way to find the right "spelling" for 終 is to look up the Modern Japanese おわり in this book:
Among the various Classical Japanese words that are related to the concept denoted by the Modern Japanese word おわり, you will also find the Classical Japanese cognate, written 終, together with its "spelling," をはり.
(At this point I should point out that attributing to 終 a reading of をはり in this particular poem gives the second line a total of six mora, where the classic form requires only five. This surfeit of syllables is called 字余り. It is sometimes used as a conscious technique to give emphasis (sometimes ironic emphasis) to a particular line in a poem. But 字余り could also simply indicate that a different reading for 終 is intended in this poem. A less-commonly attested reading that resolves the 字余り is はて. I will return to this point below.)
With experience, students of Classical Japanese will come to remember, for example, that the Classical Japanese equivalent to Modern Japanese [o] is sometimes written お and sometimes を, just as [wa] is sometimes written わ and sometimes は. And they also learn, for example, that in the Classical Japanese word corresponding to Modern Japanese 末(すえ), the sound [e] in the second mora may be written へ (as in the poem above), and it may even be written ゑ. And they learn that when they see ん in final position in a verb phrase, it may be a substitute for む. And they will learn that にごり are not employed, so 濁音 must be inferred from context.
Most of this large set of one-to-many mappings is due to the process of sound change collapsing older distinctions, and subsequent conventions of writing adjusting to the change and thereby obscuring those older distinctions. You can find charts detailing the alternate "spellings" for 仮名 of Modern Japanese in the back of most 古語辞典, for example, pp. 1530 - 1532 in this:
Or for a brief explanation online, see Historical kana usage.
There's quite a lot to remember when it comes to how the language and writing system have changed over time. So for the novice, the 「現代語から古語が引ける古語類語辞典」 cited above can be a useful shortcut. (It comes into its own as a resource when to try your hand at writing 和歌.)
To ascertain the morphological forms of the final mora of the verb roots for 行~ and 吹~ preceding their respective auxiliaries ~ども and ~らむ (for which Hideie gave us no 送り仮名), you have to know more about how the grammar of Classical Japanese works. Then you'll know that what Hideie implied (but did not write) is 行(け)~ and 吹(く)~. (The け and the く do not need to be written out because the vocalic value of the 「く」行 root-ending in both cases is determined by the type of auxiliary that follows the verb root in question.)
An interpretation
And speaking of grammar, once you've found the readings for the symbols, a whole new problem arises: How does it all fit together to mean something? And ultimately what does the poem have to say?
To arrive at your own answer about what it all means, you'll need various bits and pieces of Classical Japanese grammar, all of which can be found in 「岩波 古語辞典」, (pp. 1467 - 1509). There are many other good summaries of Classical Japanese grammar, but this one is, if not the most accessible, then at least both concise and complete.
If you have trouble understanding the many example sentences used in a 古語辞典 like the one cited above, you might want to use a 全訳古語辞典 like this:
- 全訳古語例解辞典 PL675 .Z36 1998 (The 1987 edition is available for checkout: PL675 .Z36 1987
Dictionaries of this sort give Modern Japanese translations of all the example sentences used in their definitions. They can be a big help in building a confident understanding of the grammar and vocabulary of Classical Japanese.
So what does it all mean? I haven't been able to find any translation of it, either into English or into Modern Japanese. So I have made my own rough attempt at a translation of Hideie's version:
- To Musashino
- though go you may, the Autumn
- will have no ending.
- What manner of wind will be
- blowing where you are destined?
Maybe this is just sour grapes. Or perhaps Hideie is genuinely concerned about what kind of reception the monk will receive back home. A little more research into the historical background of the people in question and the conventions of 短歌 composition current at that time might be in order. Exactly what did Hideie have in mind when he penned this text? As is often the case with 和歌, a well-informed interpretation refers to comparisons with other poems in the canon.
The provenance
Sometimes poetry anthologies provide some commentary about the meaning of a poem, or its context. Sometimes you may even find a Modern Japanese translation of it. If the poem is an old one, we can find it in an anthology such as the Shinpen Kokka taikan:
- (The CD-ROM version, below, has a search function which makes it extremely easy to use. Here's a preview of what you get (1996 edition): http://www.jissen.ac.jp/library/cdserv3.htm)
Even if the poem is not old, it may employ allusions to older poems. It is a commom practice to borrow one full line from a poem in the canon and incorporate it into a new poem. The 新編国歌大観 indexes poems by line, making it possible to identify such allusions quickly.
A search on the 国歌大観 CD-ROM by lexical item (keyword: 武蔵野) produced 212 results, and among these we find some surprises: There are citations in the following form:
- 十 181 歌枕名 5421 歌 武蔵野やゆけども秋のはてぞなきいかなる風のすゑにふくらん
This form corresponds too closely to the text in Hideie's hand for it to be coincidental, and the later variant borrows too much to be considered an allusion. Could it be that Hideie was not composing but rather quoting?
The first line reads 武蔵野や, not 武蔵野は. A search for one variant or the other would not yield results for both. The solution is to search for another line (preferably one less likely to be used in an allusion, hence yielding fewer results). The line immediately following seems particular enough. A search on the 国歌大観 CD-ROM by 句 (key: ゆけどもあきの) produced 7 results, all but one of them consistent in content (if not orthography), but none of them corresponding exactly to Hideie's text:
| 巻 | 集 | 略称 | 歌 | 本文 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 一 | 8 | 新古今 | 378 | むさしのやゆけども秋のはてぞなきいかなる風かすゑに吹くらむ |
| 五 | 277 | 定十体 | 121 | むさしのやゆけどもあきのはてぞなきいかなる風のすゑにふくらむ |
| 五 | 278 | 自讃歌 | 42 | むさし野やゆけども秋のはてぞなきいかなる風の末に吹くらん |
| 五 | 328 | 三五記 | 115 | むさし野やゆけども秋の果ぞなきいかなる風の末に吹くらむ |
| 五 | 385 | 撰集抄 | 43 | むさしのは行けども秋のはてぞなきいかなる風のすゑにふくらん |
| 十 | 123 | 新三撰 | 114 | むさし野やゆけども秋のはてぞなきいかなるかぜの末にふくらむ |
| 十 | 181 | 歌枕名 | 5421 | 武蔵野やゆけども秋のはてぞなきいかなる風のすゑにふくらん |
These citations predate Hideie's text. There are two definite discrepancies between the poem as it appears transliterated on the website and the poem as it appears in its seven citations in the 国歌大観. The last mora of the first line reads や, not は in six out of seven versions. The last mora of the fourth line reads の, not か in six out of seven versions.
In addition, the first word in the third line of the original reads はて, so presumably Hideie's intention was for 終 to be read as はて, not をはり as I guessed earlier. While this resolves the 字余り, it is a less-commonly attested reading for 終.
Let's look at the authorship of the earlier versions, and consider the extent to which this poem was anthologized. It is possible that this was a well-known poem.
The user interface on the 国歌大観 CD-ROM gives an option for 本文表示. Using this option for each citation gives us the following results:
| Anthology | Note | Author | Number | Text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 新古今和歌集 | 水無瀬にて、十首歌たてまつりし時 | 左衛門督通光 | 三七八 |
むさしのやゆけども秋のはてぞなきいかなる風かすゑに吹くらむ |
| 定家十体 | 通光卿 | 一二一 | むさしのやゆけどもあきのはてぞなきいかなる風のすゑにふくらむ | |
| 自讃歌 | 中納言通光 | 四二 | むさし野やゆけども秋のはてぞなきいかなる風の末に吹くらん | |
| 三五記 | 左衛門督通光 | 一一五 | むさし野やゆけども秋の果ぞなきいかなる風の末に吹くらむ | |
| 撰集抄 | 武蔵野の事（編者） | 四三 | むさしのは行けども秋のはてぞなきいかなる風のすゑにふくらん | |
| 新三十六人撰 | 正元二年 | 後久我前太政大臣通光 | 一一四 | むさし野やゆけども秋のはてぞなきいかなるかぜの末にふくらむ |
| 歌枕名寄 巻第廿一 | 新古四 | 通光 | 五四二一 | 武蔵野やゆけども秋のはてぞなきいかなる風のすゑにふくらん |
The author of this variant is much more well-known than Ukita Hideie, and predates him by over 350 years: 久我通光 It is possible that Ukita Hideie's variant is an inaccurately remembered version of Koga Mititeru's original, a combination of the variants compiled in the 新古今和歌集 and the 撰集抄. (which would account for the use of は in place of や in the first line, and か in place of の in the second line).
Most citations of the poem use の to mark nominative case in the fourth line. This usage was already outdated (for root context nominatives) in the vernacular of Hideie's era. Hideie's version has question marker か instead of の, paralleling the 新古今和歌集 version. Here か is at an intermediate position, which creates a 係り結び construction requiring 連体形, and question marker か finds concord with the interrogative in いかなる風. The form of the auxiliary suffix らむ is ambiguous between 終止形 and 連体形. Arguably, らむ is analyzed as 終止形 in the versions with の, and as 連体形 in the versions with か. The suffix らむ itself denotes conjecture, so the basic interrogative force of the variant is arguably present in both variants. (One other possibility is that Hideie's か is meant to read as nominative が. This is perfectly plausible, as the use of にごり is a later development. In such a case the grammar would parallel that of the versions with の more closely.)
One thing that seems clear by the attribution on the website for Hideie is that the creators did not refer to the canon when they analyzed Hideie's text.
In conclusion
Working from primary sources is the best way to do research, but they can be intractable in their raw form. Thankfully, the better part of old texts have been pored over by philologists and historians, who have catalogued, annotated, and interpreted them. (As this process has been going on for hundreds of years, in some cases the annotations are in 漢文, however, and are not immediately accessible.) Furthermore, most of the problems that learners face have been anticipated by lexicogaphers, so when you have a job to do, you'll likely find the right tool for it.
In this case, the hardest part of the work had already been done by the cataloguer who put it up on the internet, making it much easier to for us to decipher here. And the creators of the 新編国歌大観 CD-ROM have created an extremely useful tool as well. One that the composers of the website http://www.city.okayama.okayama.jp/museum/rekidai/ukita/legacy/hideie-waka.htm would probably have done better to consult.
For what it's worth, I think the fact that Hideie's text is a quotation rather than an original work doesn't detract from the aptness of the sentiment to the occasion.
