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.

"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.