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Hopelessly Esoteric Hour: Tale of the Heike, opening lines
I'm sure a grand total of zero people have thought very hard about how English translations of classical Japanese texts are forged into being, but here's a post all about it anyway. If you've ever wondered about what it is you're quoting, what might have been lost in between, or how to torture yourself by being excruciatingly thorough with a classical grammar, then read on. Otherwise, you'll probably fall asleep. You're probably already asleep. I'm sorry; I just needed a break (uh) from writing fic.
The opening lines of the Tale of Heike (平家物語 heike monogatari) are probably some of the most famous in classical Japanese literature, and you might've bumped into English translations somewhere along the way. Tomoe Gozen, the female warrior who gets reblogged a lot, comes from this text.
Here are two translations of the opening lines that I've snagged off of Tumblr:
Hang on! you might say (or not; why am I writing this again?). Those two translations are not the same, and it's not even just the word choice: they're actually picking and choosing entire subjects to translate.
To make things worse, here's another translation, by Royall Tyler:
Now we don't even have the very famous, very Japanese name of Gion Shōja in the opening line. Jetavana Temple? What's going on?
Let's take a closer look at original Japanese text. I'm using the Kakuichi manuscript (there are different ones floating around).
祇園精舎の鐘の声、諸行無常の響きあり。沙羅双樹の花の色、盛者必衰の理をあらはす。奢れる人も久しからず、唯春の夜の夢のごとし。たけき者も遂には滅びぬ、偏に風の前の塵に同じ。
Very kanji, so kobun. This text is in classical Japanese, which has a rather different grammar from today's modern Japanese. Classical Japanese is called kobun or bungo, and is awesome. Let's romanise the above, so that you can read along:
Gionshōja no kane no koe, shogyōmujō no hibiki ari. Sarasōju no hana no iro, jōshahissui no kotowari wo arawasu. Ogoreru mono mo hisashikarazu, tada haru no yoru no yume no gotoshi. Takeki mono mo tsui ni wa horobinu, hitoe ni kaze no mae no chiri ni onaji.
Now we can take a look at some assumptions a casual reader of the quote might've had, and break them down…
1: Gion Shoja, or Gion Temple, or whatever that place with the bells is called is in Japan
Gion Shoja is actually a Japanese name for the Jetavana Temple in India, where the Buddha is said to have taught. Betcha didn't figure that.
2: The bell in question is a big, metal bell
Also, no. As per Tyler, the bells in question were of silver and glass, and were hung at the four corners of the temple infirmary and rung when a disciple died. So the opening line really is hinting very heavily at the fact that there's going to be a lot of death and dying coming up.
3: The whole flower analogy is just that: a flower analogy.
It's actually full of Buddhist imagery; so full that it becomes a little difficult to parse it into English. Compare the three translations:
PGO and RT both mention trees; HCM just talks about flowers; RT mentions the colour of the flowers, while PGO and HCM just hint that the colour of the flowers is significant. Then there's the problem of subject: PGO doesn't really have one; HCM targets "the prosperous"; RT mentions "the great man", presumably Buddha. ???
Let's flip over to the Japanese: 沙羅双樹の花の色、盛者必衰の理をあらはす/ Sarasōju no hana no iro, jōshahissui no kotowari wo arawasu
The first part of the sentence literally translates to "The colour (色 iro) of the flowers (花 hana) of the two-trunk Sara (sala) tree (沙羅双樹 sarasōju)."
What's a sal/shala/sala tree? Here you go: shorea robusta; the tree under which Buddha was born. The flowers of this tree were said to turn white upon Buddha's death. That explains both Tyler's use of "the great man," and explains where he inferred the colour from. (By the way, if you're thinking of studying lots of Japanese classics, be prepared to also become a classical botanist. It's unreal how many flower/tree/shrub names you'll pick up.)
That said, here's the rest of the sentence: 盛者必衰の理をあらはす/ jōshahissui no kotowari wo arawasu
盛者必衰 is a phrase: 盛者 (prosperous people) 必衰 (must perish). The sentence therefore comes out to: […] expresses (あらはす) the principle (理) that prosperous people must perish (盛者必衰). We can now understand how each translation is valid in its own right. Since jōshahissui is a sort of proverbial phrase, you could translate out its moral ("to flourish is to fall"), or pick out the subject ("the prosperous"), or connect the dots and make the assumption that Buddha is about as good as it gets and make him the subject.
It's also easy to note how all three translations thereafter converge pretty readily. The Japanese is pretty straightforward, too.
If anyone's bothered to struggle through to this point, I'll go on and briefly sketch out an outline of the grammar. Classical Japanese, like modern Japanese, has verbs and adjectives that inflect. Basically, the form of the verb changes depending on usage. There are six main inflected forms:
未然, the imperfective mizen;
連用, the continuative renyou;
終止, the final shuushi;
連体, the attributive rentai;
已然, the perfective izen; and
命令, the imperative meirei.
When I read anything classical, I generally gloss the text by annotating nouns, adverbs, verbs, auxiliary verbs (verbs that add more meaning to verbs; don't ask unless you really want to know), and adjectives, and also by appending the form they take. It's pretty hard to miss anything if you do this, and even harder to fool yourself into thinking that you understand something when you don't. Keeps you honest.
Here's the gloss, sans particles:
祇園精舎Nの鐘Nの声N、諸行無常Nの響きNありV-SS。
沙羅双樹Nの花Nの色N、盛者必衰Nの理NをあらはすV-SS。
奢れるV-RT人Nも久しからずADJ(SHIKU)-MZ、唯ADV春Nの夜Nの夢NのごとしAUX-SS。
たけきADJ(KU)-RT者Nも遂にADVは滅びV-RYぬAUX-SS、偏にADV風Nの前Nの塵Nに同じADJ(SHIKU)-SS。
Key:
N: Noun
V: Verb
Aux: Auxiliary verb
Adj: Adjective, with subtypes "Shiku" and "Ku"
Adv: Adverb
Inflections: MZ, RY, SS, RT, IZ, MR as per the order above.
So now you know! And probably are making a point never to become a Japanese literature major.
tl;dr: translations omit and lie, but the people who chose to craft those lies are probably hugely overeducated, so just go cautiously with the flow
The opening lines of the Tale of Heike (平家物語 heike monogatari) are probably some of the most famous in classical Japanese literature, and you might've bumped into English translations somewhere along the way. Tomoe Gozen, the female warrior who gets reblogged a lot, comes from this text.
Here are two translations of the opening lines that I've snagged off of Tumblr:
The sound of the Gion Shōja bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sāla flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline. The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind.
(Translation by Helen Craig McCullough)
The knell of the bells at the Gion temple
Echoes the impermanence of all things.
The colour of the flowers on its double-trunked tree
Reveals the truth that to flourish is to fall.
He who is proud is not so for long,
Like a passing dream on a night in spring.
He who is brave is finally destroyed,
To be no more than dust before the wind
.
(Translation by Patrick Geoffrey O'Neill)
Hang on! you might say (or not; why am I writing this again?). Those two translations are not the same, and it's not even just the word choice: they're actually picking and choosing entire subjects to translate.
To make things worse, here's another translation, by Royall Tyler:
The Jetavana Temple bells
ring the passing of all things.
Twinned sal trees, white in full flower,
declare the great man's certain fall.
The arrogant do not long endure.
They are like a dream one night in spring.
The bold and brave perish in the end:
They are as dust before the wind.
Now we don't even have the very famous, very Japanese name of Gion Shōja in the opening line. Jetavana Temple? What's going on?
Let's take a closer look at original Japanese text. I'm using the Kakuichi manuscript (there are different ones floating around).
祇園精舎の鐘の声、諸行無常の響きあり。沙羅双樹の花の色、盛者必衰の理をあらはす。奢れる人も久しからず、唯春の夜の夢のごとし。たけき者も遂には滅びぬ、偏に風の前の塵に同じ。
Very kanji, so kobun. This text is in classical Japanese, which has a rather different grammar from today's modern Japanese. Classical Japanese is called kobun or bungo, and is awesome. Let's romanise the above, so that you can read along:
Gionshōja no kane no koe, shogyōmujō no hibiki ari. Sarasōju no hana no iro, jōshahissui no kotowari wo arawasu. Ogoreru mono mo hisashikarazu, tada haru no yoru no yume no gotoshi. Takeki mono mo tsui ni wa horobinu, hitoe ni kaze no mae no chiri ni onaji.
Now we can take a look at some assumptions a casual reader of the quote might've had, and break them down…
1: Gion Shoja, or Gion Temple, or whatever that place with the bells is called is in Japan
Gion Shoja is actually a Japanese name for the Jetavana Temple in India, where the Buddha is said to have taught. Betcha didn't figure that.
2: The bell in question is a big, metal bell
Also, no. As per Tyler, the bells in question were of silver and glass, and were hung at the four corners of the temple infirmary and rung when a disciple died. So the opening line really is hinting very heavily at the fact that there's going to be a lot of death and dying coming up.
3: The whole flower analogy is just that: a flower analogy.
It's actually full of Buddhist imagery; so full that it becomes a little difficult to parse it into English. Compare the three translations:
PGO: The colour of the flowers on its double-trunked tree
Reveals the truth that to flourish is to fall.
HCM: the color of the sāla flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline
RT: Twinned sal trees, white in full flower,
declare the great man's certain fall.
PGO and RT both mention trees; HCM just talks about flowers; RT mentions the colour of the flowers, while PGO and HCM just hint that the colour of the flowers is significant. Then there's the problem of subject: PGO doesn't really have one; HCM targets "the prosperous"; RT mentions "the great man", presumably Buddha. ???
Let's flip over to the Japanese: 沙羅双樹の花の色、盛者必衰の理をあらはす/ Sarasōju no hana no iro, jōshahissui no kotowari wo arawasu
The first part of the sentence literally translates to "The colour (色 iro) of the flowers (花 hana) of the two-trunk Sara (sala) tree (沙羅双樹 sarasōju)."
What's a sal/shala/sala tree? Here you go: shorea robusta; the tree under which Buddha was born. The flowers of this tree were said to turn white upon Buddha's death. That explains both Tyler's use of "the great man," and explains where he inferred the colour from. (By the way, if you're thinking of studying lots of Japanese classics, be prepared to also become a classical botanist. It's unreal how many flower/tree/shrub names you'll pick up.)
That said, here's the rest of the sentence: 盛者必衰の理をあらはす/ jōshahissui no kotowari wo arawasu
盛者必衰 is a phrase: 盛者 (prosperous people) 必衰 (must perish). The sentence therefore comes out to: […] expresses (あらはす) the principle (理) that prosperous people must perish (盛者必衰). We can now understand how each translation is valid in its own right. Since jōshahissui is a sort of proverbial phrase, you could translate out its moral ("to flourish is to fall"), or pick out the subject ("the prosperous"), or connect the dots and make the assumption that Buddha is about as good as it gets and make him the subject.
It's also easy to note how all three translations thereafter converge pretty readily. The Japanese is pretty straightforward, too.
If anyone's bothered to struggle through to this point, I'll go on and briefly sketch out an outline of the grammar. Classical Japanese, like modern Japanese, has verbs and adjectives that inflect. Basically, the form of the verb changes depending on usage. There are six main inflected forms:
未然, the imperfective mizen;
連用, the continuative renyou;
終止, the final shuushi;
連体, the attributive rentai;
已然, the perfective izen; and
命令, the imperative meirei.
When I read anything classical, I generally gloss the text by annotating nouns, adverbs, verbs, auxiliary verbs (verbs that add more meaning to verbs; don't ask unless you really want to know), and adjectives, and also by appending the form they take. It's pretty hard to miss anything if you do this, and even harder to fool yourself into thinking that you understand something when you don't. Keeps you honest.
Here's the gloss, sans particles:
祇園精舎Nの鐘Nの声N、諸行無常Nの響きNありV-SS。
沙羅双樹Nの花Nの色N、盛者必衰Nの理NをあらはすV-SS。
奢れるV-RT人Nも久しからずADJ(SHIKU)-MZ、唯ADV春Nの夜Nの夢NのごとしAUX-SS。
たけきADJ(KU)-RT者Nも遂にADVは滅びV-RYぬAUX-SS、偏にADV風Nの前Nの塵Nに同じADJ(SHIKU)-SS。
Key:
N: Noun
V: Verb
Aux: Auxiliary verb
Adj: Adjective, with subtypes "Shiku" and "Ku"
Adv: Adverb
Inflections: MZ, RY, SS, RT, IZ, MR as per the order above.
So now you know! And probably are making a point never to become a Japanese literature major.
tl;dr: translations omit and lie, but the people who chose to craft those lies are probably hugely overeducated, so just go cautiously with the flow