歌詞： 「川の流れのように」

先生から二つの歌の歌詞をもらった。自分で訳した後で、一緒に歌を聞く予定だ。一番の歌詞は歌の題名は「川の流れのように」だ。歌手はひばり美空さんみたいだ。歌を聞ながら、漢字と仮名で、ロマ字で、英語で書いてみよう。

「川の流れのように」　"kawa no nagare no you ni"

作詞 秋元 康 sakushi akimoto yasu
作曲 見岳 章 sakkyoku mitake akira
lyrics： Yasu AKIMOTO
arrangement: Akira MITAKE

知らず　知らず　歩いて来た
shirazu, shirazu, aruitekita
[i've] walked [this path] without knowing
(The -zu ending is new for me.)

細く長い、この道　　（長く細きこの道）
hosoku nagai, kono michi
narrow and long, this road
(Why not hosokute? "Narrowly long"?)

振り返れば　はるか遠く　故郷が 見える
furikaereba haruka touku, furusato ga mieru
looking back, far in the distance, (you/I/one) can see home
(That's the same furi- as in furimuku in 「修羅の花」. I think also the same as in furisode. What's the difference between furimuku and furikaeru?)

でこぼこ道や、曲がりくねった道
dekoboko michi ya, magarikunetta michi
a rough/uneven road, a winding road

地図さえないそれもまた人生
chizu sae nai, sore mo mata jinsei
there's no map, but that's how life is

ああ　川の流れのように　ゆるやかに いくつも時代は過ぎて、
aa, kawa no nagare no you ni, yuruyaka ni ikutsumo jidai ha sugite
ah, like the flowing of a river, gently, many epochs pass

ああ　川の流れのように　とめどなく　空が 黄昏に 染まるだけ
aa, kawa no nagare no you ni, tomedonaku, sora ga tasogare ni somaru dake
ah, like the flowing of a river, forever, the sky is dyed only in twilight

生きることは旅すること　終わりのないこの道
ikiru koto ha tabi suru koto, owari no nai kono michi
living is a journey, an endless road

愛する人 そばに連れて　夢 探しながら
ai suru hito soba ni tsurete yume sagashinagara
leading loving people, searching for dreams
(Not sure what to make of 愛する人 here—people who feel love? Lovers? They're not 愛している人 or 愛が出来る人....)

雨に降られて、ぬかるんだ道でも
ame ni furarete, nukarunda michi de mo
even if rain falls and the road is muddy

いつかはまた晴れる日が来るから
itsuka ha mata hareru hi ga kuru kara
because sometime clear days will come again

ああ　川の流れのように　おだやかに この身を任せていたい
aa, kawa no nagare no you ni odayaka ni kono mi o makaseteitai
ah, like the flowing of a river, calmly [i] want to surrender to it
　　　　　　　
ああ　川の流れのように　移り行く季節 雪どけを待ちながら
aa, kawa no nagare no you ni utsuriyuku kisetsu yukidoke o machinagara
like the flow of a river, changing seasons, waiting for the snow to end

ああ　川の流れのように　この身を任せていたい
aa, kawa no nagare no you ni, kono mi o makaseteitai
ah, like the flowing of a river, calmly [i] want to surrender to it

ああ　川の流れのように　いつまでも　青いせせらぎを 聞きながら
aa, kawa no nagare no you ni, itsu made mo, aoi seseragi o kikinagara
ah, like the flowing of a river, listening to the stream indefinitely

Lots of work to do on that, but it's a start. 訳し始めたばかりだけんだ。人は悲しいものですね。

Genki (元気).

Genki (元気), the word/phrase, pleases me for its optimism: gen (元), the original, the root, and ki (気), the spirit/energy. お元気ですか？o-genki desu ka? Is your energy where it's supposed to be? Probably the understanding of it is no longer so literal, and possibly the kanji were retro-fitted to the spoken language, but for me it works.

漢字：列・なる、例・えば、烈、裂。

The kanji 列 (レ, レツ, RETSU) is also of interest because although it means a row/column/rank/file, if you add ninben (the 人 radical in the hen position, on the left) you get 例 (たと/レイ), an example.

(And now 例えば is making me think of conditional forms and なぜなら. たとえる, to give an example? たとえば, if an example were given.... なぜなら、　if you want to know why.... ほかの同様な表現があるかなあ。)

But in 列 and 例 we have those bones again, just as in 残 (ザン, ZAN). And cutting.　Henshall先生 explains that once (昔々) there was a strict sequence to dismembering a carcass (cutting it to the bone), one task after another, and that adding ninben led to people in a row and thus comparisons and somehow examples. (Henshall includes among the meanings of 例 likening and precedents.) So, 例外 レイガイ, reigai, outside of precedent—an exception.

Searching Saiga's kanji dictionary and Kotoba for all containing those two 部首 (bushu, radicals) yields a few other kanji:

• 烈 (RETSU. 列 with the fire radical) meaning violence/intensity
• 裂 (RETSU, sa・ku, sa・keru, 列 with the clothing radical), meaning severing/cleaving or bursting. Per Henshall, this originally referred to cutting cloth (in sequence), and then to rending cloth, and then to splitting or bursting other things. 凄い。

Kotoba adds eight more to the list, mostly with on'yomi of RETSU/RECHI/REI and no meaning given. With radical sansui, it's mayo・i, pure. With kusakanmuri, it's ashinoho, sedges. With kuchihen, a mouth, it's (not surprisingly) a gaping or stretched mouth, a grimace.

Anyway, so it makes sense that 列 might double for 連 sometimes, when the sense is linking/joining/continuity/sequence/succession—which is the question that got us thinking about RETSU in the first place. I guess it must have been chosen for meaning and then picked up the reading of つら・なる from existing spoken language.

面白い: Henshall gives as an example (例) the compound 烈女 (RETSUJO), a heroine, a furious/intense woman. Among the possibilities for "hero/protagonist", nothing seems to use 烈.

変：　Just looked up 例える (tatoeru), and the dictionary says it's "to compare". So there's once again that idea of comparison that Henshall says somehow evolved from ranks of people/soldiers. I kinda see how comparing might mesh with examples, but...実は。。。。

Google Booksで「完全マスター」が読めるの。

知ってる？ 「完全マスター」の日本語能力試験の勉強の本は、今Google Booksで読めるんだ。　凄いね！

Kanzen Master (完全マスター) is a series of book sI've heard spoken of highly as a JLPT learning aid. Expensive to buy and/or ship from Japan, but there are previews available (including their English books) on Google Books. Just previews, but still it's a big help.

Ｃlick here to preview 完全マスター (new window)

今日の漢字: 残 (ザン、のこ・る、そこな・う) ZAN.

今週の水曜日に日本語の先生に会えなちゃった。会社で残業しなくちゃいけなかったんだ。本当に残念だったよ。それじゃあ、「残」の漢字をちょっと勉強しよう。This week I missed my Japanese lesson because I had to work late (残業). That was disappointing (残念), but it did lead me to notice that both overtime and disappointing use the kanji, 残 (ザン). Hmm.

音読み：　ザン、サン (ZAN, SAN)
訓読み：　のこ・る、のこ・す、そぞな・う (noko・ru, noko・su, sozona・u)

Kotoba says 残 means remainder/leftover/balance, so 残業 (zangyou) makes sense as "work-beyond-work". 残念 (zannen) as regret/disappointment is less clear, since 念 seems not to have particularly negative connotations.

Henshall's explanation of this is really compelling: that "muchness/overness" either is a borrowed meaning (though from what, he doesn't say) or derives from an earlier sense of cruelty/brutality/excess. The hen radical is bare bone / death, as in shi・nu (死). In the tsukuri there's clearly a halberd (as in, eg, na・ru 成), which Henshall says is doubled for emphasis. So, says Henshall, cutting to the bone, cutting beyond the extent necessary for death—with, um, a halberd. That's certainly my experience of 残業.

So, 残 has several 訓読み forms, inluding -る and -す:

- 残・る, nokoru, to stay behind or to remain
- 残・す, nokosu, to leave behind
- 残らず, nokorazu, completely/without exception

Aligns with, eg, 渡る/渡す—る performing action on oneself vs す on something/someone else. So could we say 夕食を食べた後で、食べなかった料理が少なかった? Also need to look into that -らず adverbial form; is there a pattern?

Kotoba also lists a 訓読み of そこな・う; 字引によると, the meaning is to injure/mar/spoil, or to fail to do something, but その言葉の漢字は違う。The kanji is different. (Also, per dictionary entry, the kanji used in that sokonau is not そこな・う but そこ・なう. A borrowed meaning?)

A few more compounds / other uses of 残:

- 残酷, zankoku, cruelty/harshness
- 残らず, nokorazu, completely, without exception
- 名残り, nanokori, remains or vestiges
- 生き残り, ikinokori, survivor
- 残金, zankin, remaining cash

Interesting that it carries not only the sense of excess, but also the sense of leaving excess behind—or, a separation between an amount that's active/relevant and a smaller amount that's not. In the shipwreck most passengers die, but there are a few 生き残り. The ancient civilization is no more, but local people still find 名残り.

PS: There does seem to be a pattern with -らず, so I'll look into that next. 残業 very much. :-D

今日の漢字: Kanji: 連 (れん、ren)

Exploring 連 (ren) today. It's about continuity, carrying along. Pretty soon in shuuji we'll start learning renmen 連綿, the style of connecting hiragana written with kofude into continuous lines. (綿 is actually わた, cotton.) The 部首 (radicals) are しんにゅう (shinnyuu) again and 車, kuruma, a vehicle, so a (continuously) moving vehicle. Ren. Lots of compounds involving 連 are about alliance or continuity:

- 連濁 れんだく rendaku, voicing the initial consonant of a word when it's used in a compound

- 連合 れんごう rengou, an alliance or union

- 連続 れんぞく renzoku, continuously, consecutively (続 being 続ける　つずける tsuzukeru, to continue doing) (変: although this is adverbial and ends in く, the く seems integral to the 音読み reading, so I assume usage would be 連続に.)

- 関連 かんれん kanren, relevance/connection, both kanji reinforcing

- 連絡　れんらく renraku, contacting (連絡する)

- 国連 こくれん kokuren, the United Nations (国 being a country)

連 seems usually to be read as れん (ren), but it also can be つら (tsura), as in 連ねる (to link or join) and 連れる (つれる、to take/lead someone). The つら uses are sometimes doubled by the kanji 列, also レン, as in 列なる, つらなる, to extend / stretch out. Hmm.

面白い: Per Kotoba, 連 also was a title of high nobility, むらじ (muraji).

Next up will be 残, as in both 残業 and 残念. 面白い漢字だね。

Fun with compound verbs (動詞) .

There's something particularly expressive about compound verbs, something I'm liking. Many of them seem to involve 思う (to think):

- 思う (to think) + 出す (to emerge) = 思い出す (to remember)
- 思う (to think) + がく (? possibly to frame, as in a picture) = 思いがく (to imagine)
- 思う　(to think) + 切る (to cut) = 思い切る (to reach a decision)

Other examples:
- 閉める (to tie/cinch) + 殺す (to kill) = 絞め殺す (to strangle)
- 考える (to consider) + 直す (to correct) = 考え直す (to reconsider)
- 呼ぶ (to call) + 掛ける (to hang or suspend) = 呼び掛ける (to telephone, to address a crowd)
- 選る (to decide) + 分ける (to classify) = 選り分ける (to sort out)
- (just about anything) + 始める (to begin) or 続ける (to continue) or 終わる (to finish) = begin to do / continue doing / finish doing that thing

And, of course, with our friend 付く:

- 思う (to think) + 付く (to connect/attach/stick) = 思い付き （notion/(brainstorm)

This one's puzzling:

- 酔う (to get drunk) + 払う (to pay) = 酔っ払う ("to get drunk", but...to blow money getting drunk? Must be a nuance to the meaning.)

Verbal adjectives "bind" in this way, too:

- 読む (to read) + やすい (easy) = 読みやすい (easy to read)

Here's a really neat one derived from an ichidan verb:

- 耐える (to endure) + 難い (difficult) = 耐え難い (unbearable). There's muzukashii 難 again.

I notice that the first verb is in the base 2 form; is this related to the "continuation form" I mentioned before? そうかも知れないね。。。。 今眠いので考え寝よう。

Kanji: 駄.

「駄目」の駄と「下駄」の駄は同じ漢字だみたい。面白い。どうしてんだろう？　

The radicals are a horse (馬へん) and fat/thick (太い)。先生 told me that often kanji that share a tsukuri will also share the 音読み of that tsukuri—so I think TA must come from 太.

ヘンシャー先生の本に調べよう*。。。。 Couldn't easily find in Henshall because it's filed as DA, a reading that I thought was primarily rendaku; Henshall doesn't even include TA. But Kotoba is very well cross-referenced and leads me to Henshall 1541.

Kotoba gives a primary meaning of burdensome, and the compounds it lists tend to be about foolishness/worthlessness or shoddiness. Henshall says it means a pack-horse, written with 太　or 大, and that because pack-horses were cheap it took on that meaning, too.

So do you suppose geta is written 下駄 because geta are under you and support your weight, or because they're under you and they're cheap? 「駄目」の表現の場合には、よく使う言葉だから、漢字の意味か音が重要だかも知れない。 I guess the sense of foolishness works, but 目 may be there just phonetically.

Here's something fun I discovered while looking up 駄目: damemoto (駄目元)—which Kotoba defines as giving something a try because one has nothing to lose. 「する」と使われるかなあ。**

*Originally I was going to use 相談する instead of 調べる, but I couldn't decide on "を相談する" or "二相談する".
**That's me trying to use the passive form of 使う. 駄目元したね。

Google has let me down; 下駄を張っている動物の写真がないんだ。

Another thing I like about kanji.

I like using the meanings of radicals (部首) to build spurious mnemonics.* 例えば、susumu (進む), to advance/to progress: the kanji radicals are shinnyou, meaning forward movement, and something else (in the tsukuri position) meaning a bird. I tend to associate shinnyou with roads (道) rather than with movement more generally, so, There's a bird in the road; move on.

凄い—per Henshall先生, shinnyou is actually tomaru（止まる)! Never made that connection before, but it makes sense, sort of. Stopping-へん is actually movement-へん.

この漢字の部首の試験によると、つくりは「ふるとり」と言う部首だ。That quiz on radicals says the tsukuri is called furutori. No kanji in the name in the quiz, but I assume とり is 鳥, and I suppose ふる (furu) may be 古い, antiquated, as in the old way of writing 鳥.

*If a mnemonic can be spurious.

今日の一番好きな言葉。

飛ばされる, tobasareru. Saw it in the Murray book; he defines it as to be blown away. To・bu (飛ぶ), flying, is a kanji I'm working on in shuuji. It's the third down in the image at right. (The others are kei and un/kumo; 景雲飛 is a group of three that I've been doing, though so far only in kaisho.)

The plethora of syllables in tobasareru makes me think that maybe this is tobu being wrung through a tense or two that I haven't learned yet. Something causative or passive or causative-passive. I've tried manipulating tobu into something that might work, but so far no luck. There's a passive feel to it, like suru/sareru, that suggests being an unwilling participant in flight.

That's something I don't yet understand well, like wataru vs watasu or okiru and okosu—the -ru form meaning acting for oneself and the -su form meaning acting upon someone else. I feel that there's a pattern there that I'll be really glad to know about once I do.

So, I guess,
橋を渡る, cross bridge
橋が渡れる, bridge can be crossed
橋が渡られる, bridge is crossed
橋を渡す, be conveyed across bridge

渡られる, be crossed, 渡す, be carried across

Now I'm confused, because a page I was just reading about the passive form says that you can passivize ichidan verbs by changing the final u to a and adding -reru. But doesn't that create the potential form? Eg, 食べる / 食べられる—am I saying that a thing is edible or that it's eaten (by some unspecified agent)?

Hmm.

命名書。 (Christening-writings?) (part II)

もっと読みやすい命名書お写真を見つけ、今友達のCーさんと一緒に読んでみている。
Found a clearer image of that 命名書 from below, so we've been trying to read it. Here's what we're thinking:

たくさんの夢
がいっぱい
大きく咲かせ
輝く[___い___)

正しいだろう？最後のテクストは何と言うだろう？Does that look right? Can you read the last bit of the last line?

面白い漢字の点の書き方。 (Interesting shodou.)

右の漢字：　遊、楽
中の：　花、心、愉
左の：　咲、頑？

だれが買いたか分からないけど。　Interesting way of forming dots (点). If that's 頑, どうしてんでしょうかな。　

Loving this one:

サイトによると「命名書」と言うことなんだ。僕はまあまあに読めるけど、実は分からない。

に付いて?

今日は涼しくて晴れて素晴らしい。いい天気ですから、散歩しましょう。

Thinking about について, ni tsuite, "about". Do you suppose it's derived from 付く (tsuku)? I can see a rationale for it. Tsuku is one of those verbs that keep appearing where you don't expect them, like kakeru. (Depending on kanji, kakeru can be about running, hanging, telephoning, betting, flying....) Generally tsuku is about sticking or attaching, 林檎についての質問がある。I have a question attached/connected to apples. I suspect tsuku is also behind the "included" sense of "one night, two meals" in hotel vocabulary.

Of course, depending on kanji, tsuku can also be about stabbing, haunting, immersing, pounding rice....

ADDENDUM: Reviewing vocab from Genki ch. 17. Turns out かける can also mean getting a perm. There's just nothing that verb can't do.

Sugiru (過ぎる）.

That line 時過ぎて has me thinking. I've always heard of 過ぎる as meaning going beyond or too much, but now I see that it can also mean passing, as in time. Henshall先生 says the kanji depicts movement (the radical shinnyuu/shinnyou) and vertebrae, with some uncertainty about the kuchi. He says the tsukuri carried a phonetic sense of substantiality.

今日の習字のレッソンで伊呂波の勉強した仮名。

今日、小筆を使ってこの仮名を書いてみた：

と　ち　り　ぬ　る　を
わ　か　よ　た　れ　そ

僕のラインは大抵太過ぎる。小筆を使って書くのが難しいと思う。

At shuuji lesson today, we continued with kofude (小筆) and kana in the old Iroha order: i ro ha ni ho e.

We reviewed to chi ri nu ru wo and moved on to wa ka yo ta re so. Beautiful kana.

先生が僕の買った書を読んでくれる。

三月の櫻祭り(櫻の日曜日、サクラ・サンデー)でいろいろな日本語の詩の書を買ったけど、草書で書いてあるから、僕はあまり読めない。　（草書は読めなくてもいいから、日本人にも時々読みにくいそうだ。）　だから今日、習字の先生に見せて、先生が読んでくれて、訳してくれた。　買った書道の詩は三句*ある：

春宵一刻値千金

実は、値の漢字は人偏がなくて（直）、意味はちょっと違うと思う。　可笑しいね。次は僕の一番好きのだ:

時過ぎて
いつものように
櫻さく

深いね。ほかの買った書は書き方がちょっと可笑しいから、先生にも読みにくかった：

一えだに
ひかり? [...「のひかり」って書いてあるかも知れない]
のさして?
里の春

変だね。「里の春」をgoogleで探したが、この詩を見つけなかった。

*詩の助数詞は何だろうかな。句（く）？知れば教えてください。

サインを作った。 その日本語が正しいかな。

友達がアパートへ来る予定なので、サインを作ってお手洗いの壁に付けた：

配管設備が古いから、二回押し流したほうがいいでしょう。

もちろん、その下に英語で書いた。日本語は正しいかな。

Murray book delivers.

すばらしい。 Just a few weeks ago I was thinking that every language textbook should include, as early as possible, a lesson on expressing things you don't know the word for. Eg, you want to say "crow"—a thing, an animal, a type of animal (making flying motions with arms)—ah, yes, そうです, 鳥ですね, 黒い鳥ですね。。。。 Well, this Murray book has one! He divides his examples into things, places, actions, people, and other, and he successfully (IMO) expresses non-Genki concepts like murder, baldness, sharks, an aqualung. (Of course, given Genki's philosophy of vocabulary, any of those terms could appear anywhere.) Essential. Moreover, he has a sense of humor, like Jay Rubin.

Murray recommends these substitutes:

• things: 物　もの　mono


• actions: 事　こと　koto


• states: 状態　じょうたい　joutai


• places: 所/場所 ところ/ばしょ　tokoro/basho


• people: 人　ひと　hito


• misc. nouns: a vehicle that... 車　　a book that.... 本

I think the only one of those I didn't know was 状態, but seeing it in a book builds confidence. 僕は日本語を勉強している人で、「生徒」か「学生」と言う人だね。

More on the -おう form.

Turns out that, whatever it is, the same thing that's happening with 有難い・ありがとう is happening with おめでとう (愛でたい/目出度い) and おはよう (早い). So why don't we say おありがとう?

And now we have めでたい. Per Kotoba, the kanji for めでたい　is 愛! お愛でとうございます。 Kotoba also lists two ateji forms of めでたい, 目出度い　and 芽出度い.

Well, one more: オフレコ, a mash of off the record.　僕は日本語が上手じゃないけど、オフレコだよな。

New (to me) Giles Murray book.

夕べ友達にいろいろな日本語の本を貰った。　（———さん、ありがとう！）　

友達の———さん has given me some fantastic Japanese-language books. The first I'm reading is this one, by the author of Breaking Into Japanese Literature (which I have) and Exploring Japanese Literature (which I've wanted but can't justify buying until I've made more progress with the books I have).

I'm only a few pages in, but already I've found something I love: 脱サラする, to escape from the life of the サラリーマン, the salaried employee. 僕も脱サラしたいんだね。

ありがとう/ 有難う (arigatou).

Yesterday a friend was asking me whether arigatou is written with kanji or kana. I said I'd never seen it in kanji but assumed that at one point kanji were associated with it, whether for meaning or just for pronunciation.

Turns out the old kanji are a good match for meaning: 有難う,　有 being to be or exist and 難 the same kanji as for 難しい, difficult. 有り難い / 有難い is apparently an adjective that involves gratitude, but it's a new one to me. Can anyone explain how 有難い becomes 有難う? Can other -い adjectives use -おう? Eg, does 違おう mean anything? 暖こう? 寒おう？ 若う？食べとう？ Or is there no pattern here?

ADDENDUM: Google does show examples of 暖こうございます and 食べとうおざる. If there is an -ou form, maybe it refers to a state that the speaker is or was in.

ADDENDUM 2: According to this,

The "ou" ending comes from the conjunction of the adjectival arigataku with the polite verb gozaimasu.... Other common examples of this type of conjugation include omedetou gozaimasu (congratulations) from medetaku and ohayou gozaimasu (good morning) from hayaku. The word arigatai existed in Japanese long before the Japanese ever encountered Portuguese. It can be found in some of the earliest Japanese literature such as the manyoushuu....

Now, if I can just figure out why a -く form would precede である....

Kanji: 振 (fu・ru/SHIN).

A thing I really like about studying Japanese is that kanji, though maddening, are endlessly intriguing. I'm constantly encountering new kanji that suddenly fit into three or four other spaces and create a kind of resonance, and though it underscores my ignorance it's also exciting and satisfying.

例えば—not to belabor the Meiko Kaji song, but—振り向いたの振の漢字。Turns out it's the same ふり as in 振袖, furisode, the dressy young-woman's kimono with "swinging sleeves" (pictured at right; click to enlarge). To me, swinging and turning/facing are pretty different, but しょがないだろうね.

Similarly, 振り向いたの向の漢字。。。。"muku" is the same "mu" as mukou (向こう), meaning opposite, as on the other side of the street, or meaning beyond, as in right down there past the brick building. Or mukau (向かう), to face (toward) something, and muki (向き), orientation. I hypothesized that 向 might also appear in mukashi, as in a long time ago (like beyond remembering), but not so; that's a single kanji without okurigana, 昔 (むかし). 「言葉」の携帯アップリによると, 「昔」の漢字はたくさん熟語が使う。All have something to do with the distant past. Maybe it's a case of inconsistent assignment of kanji to existing words; maybe "mukashi" and "mukou" are related etymologically in Japanese spoken language but now are expressed in unrelated kanji. Or maybe not. かも知れないね。

会社の自分の「ヘンシャー」が要ると思う。

ADDENDUM: Kotoba says that 振る also carries several other meanings, including that of changing heading or direction. So I guess 振り向いた makes sense as a double-kanji item emphasizing the turning around (to see、川に, the 旅の灯 go off into the distance). If I can assume the subject is inverted again (as in 行く女).（命の道を行っている女は）振り向いた。川に、旅の灯が遠ざかる（のを見た). Not so sure about the tenses there. Hmm.

Grammar: base 2 ending and continuity.

Thinking of 「修羅の花」 again and trying to figure out 身を委ね. The verb is 委ねる, to entrust to or give up to.

恨みの川に身を委ね（て）
女はとうに捨てました
Casting herself into a river of vengeance/enmity/resentment,
the woman is already left behind / abandoned / forgotten.

This makes sense to me as a -て form, because then the verbs 委ねる and 捨てる would sequence:

恨みの川に 身を委ねて、
女は
とうに 捨てました。

I'm thinking the position of 女は can't be just poetic (as is 行く女 earlier in the song); it feels like we're already talking about someone, the someone with the parasol and the geta, and now we're emphasizing the trait of womanliness. She has given herself up to a river of vengeance, and her woman-ness is already / long ago forgotten.

I guess 委ね would correspond to ichidan base 2, no? -- like 食べ. Lampkin先生 discusses bases.... Aha! It must be what Lampkin calls a continuation form, maybe less discrete in sequence than a -て form would be. So, she casts herself into the river of vengeance, and her womanliness is already left behind. The sequence still feels a little weird with とうに, but it's starting to make more sense. I didn't know about that use of base 2.

Kanji: 足りるの漢字 / 当て字。

足りるの漢字は、どうして足のと同じだかな。　Why does "to suffice" use the kanji for "leg"? ヘンシャーの漢字についての本によると、。。。。でもちょっと待って、まずヘンシャーの本を探す。。。。

見つけた。　According to Henshall先生, tariru (to suffice, 足りる) and ashi ([lower] leg/foot, 足) use the same kanji because ashi was picked up for phonetic reasons and also (as an intact leg) may have suggested ability. Not so satisfying. Not sure whether this qualifies as ateji, kanji used phonetically rather than semantically -- like when I tried to make the kanji 本当 (root, striking right on) into "truth" through meanings -- reasonable, I think! -- when in fact it's probably to at least some degree phonetic match, ateji. Maybe that's a classic example, because 当　is apparently also the a in ateji (当て字). でも実は「足りる」の漢字の説明はちょっと足らないと思う。

Grammar: まだ何も書いてあっていない？

So I was trying to create a placeholder introductory post, and I wanted to write that "nothing is written here yet", and I ran into a grammar issue. I was going to try まだ何も書いてあっていない—but can I conjugate 書いてある like that?

• 書く kaku, write


• もう書いた mou kaita, already wrote/written


• まだ書いていない mada kaiteinai, not yet written, still haven't written


• 書いてある kaitearu, written by no one specified


• 何かが書いてある nanika ga kaitearu, something is written [here, by someone unspecified]


• 何も書いてない nanimo kaitenai, nothing is written [here, by anyone]


• もう何か書いてあった　mou nanika kaiteatta, something was already written here


• まだ何も書いてあっていない mada nanimo kaiteatteinai, nothing's been written here yet

正しいかなあああ。。。正しくなければ、直してください。

"Shura no Hana" (修羅の花).

Intended to kick off Japanese-language blog with an explication of the lyrics to Meiko Kaji's "Shura no Hana" -- but immediately found a much better attempt than I could produce! There are still some points I'd like to ask about, but props to CATOさん.

Took me forever to figure out 逸れ犬の遠吠え, the far-away barking of a stray dog. Things I'm still not clear on include (but are not limited to) these:

• 因果な重さ見つめて歩く: walks with eyes fixed on a karmic weight? I want it to be that the speaker is weighed down with this desire for vengeance, but—assuming I can assume an omitted を between 重さ and 見つめる and that the な is adjectival—it's hard to think of weight as something one can fix one's eyes on while walking.
• 委ね: どうして「委ねて」じゃないか分からない。 A -て form would make more sense to me, right now.
• 泣いた雨と風: I want a subject for 泣く. I assume this 泣く somehow connects with the wind and the rain, but how かも分からない.
• 水もに vs 水面に: minamo ni (in the surface of the water) seems to make more sense, but mizu mo ni (even in the water) seems like it might also work, and in the Meiko Kaji recording I have, she pretty clearly says みずもに.

In which I begin a blog.

Hello! I've been studying Japanese and shuuji for more than a year now, and jsut this morning (or maybe yesterday) it occurred to me to start a blog to track my learning, and maybe to gather insight from anyone who should happen through. So, this is that blog. It's mainly geared toward students of Japanese, but please feel free to join the discussion...if ever there should be any.

I'll probably be writing in a pastiche of English and Japanese, roumaji and kana and kanji, so I'll set transliterations and translations in hover text wherever I can. Just hover over the kana or kanji, and there should be some info.

Thanks for reading!

木の陰