2009-06-22

La Traviata

Hagoromo 羽衣 is one of the most well-known Noh plays, even outside Japan, thanks to its simple folk-tale-based plot and spectacular dance scene. You do not need to have read the Genji or brushed up on Taira-Minamoto history to enjoy the story, which goes: Fisherman finds titular feathered robes. Celestial maiden appears, asks him to give it back to her. He refuses. She laments. He relents. She dances. (Here are some sketches.)

To be fair to the work, though, its popularity doesn't derive entirely from its simplicity. Hagoromo also contains one of the most famous exchanges in all of Noh.

It comes just after the fisherman decides to give the celestial maiden her feathered robes back after all. I'll give them to you, he says, but only if you dance for me first. Fantastic, she says, sure, let me show this human world how it's done. There's a great dance we do around the moon that I'd be happy to re-enact here for all you suffering folks down here. Only thing is, I can't dance without the robe, so please give that back first. He's skeptical: "No; if I just give this robe back, you won't dance; you'll go straight up to heaven" (いや此衣をかへしなば。舞曲をなさで其ままに。天にやあがり給ふべき). To which she replies:

いや疑は人間にあり。天に偽なきものを。

Here are four English translations of this line, in chronological order:

  1. Chamberlain (1880): "Fie on thee! The pledge of mortals may be doubted, but in heavenly beings there is no falsehood."
  2. Pound/Fenollosa (1916): "Doubt is fitting for mortals; with us there is no deceit."
  3. Waley (1922): "No, no. Doubt is for mortals;/ In heaven is no deceit."
  4. Tyler (1978): "No, suspicion's for the human realm; in Heaven there's no falsehood."

As is often the case, the ideal translator can be projected to lie somewhere between Waley and Tyler. Waley's "Doubt is for mortals" is a superbly pithy formulation, but wilts under close inspection (the fisherman is a mortal). Tyler's "Suspicion's for the human realm" makes the intended meaning of 人間 much clearer: the world of humans, rather than humans themselves. This is important because the play is about this world: the fisherman sings of wild coastal beauty at the beginning, but the Celestial Maiden is horrified at the idea that she might actually have to live there.

On the gripping hand, Tyler's use of "human" here strikes a false note for me. "Humans" meet celestial beings in sf. In fantasy, the celestial beings deal with Waley's "mortals." (I also prefer the doubt/deceit dyad to suspicion/falsehood, but I suspect I may be well into the wilds of taste by that point.)

Special mention for P/F's "with us," which gives the line an eerie, alien character. Chamberlain's version has little to recommend it, although that "Fie on thee!" is an interesting feudal flare-up: it isn't like the "fairy" (as he calls her) has the upper hand at this point, viewed objectively.

This line is allegedly borrowed from an exchange in the Tango (no kuni) fudoki 丹後國風土記 version of the Hagoromo myth:

「凡天人之志、以信為本。何多疑心、不許衣裳?」
「多疑無信、率土之常。」

"All celestial beings strive to make faith the basis of their actions. How many-doubted is your heart, that you will not give back my robe?" "Many doubts, no faith: Welcome to Earth, baby." (But he gives it back in the end.)

Bonus Hagoromo link: Pound scholar Peter Makin published a poem by the same name in Shearsman 62. Here's some commentary too.

Popularity factor: 6

Leonardo Boiko:

Incidentally, what’s the recommended way for a Westerner in the middle of nowhere to get started with Noh? Is there a DVD set for beginners or something? Or is that considered too much tech and I should just make do with books?


RDS:

So the NS-endorsed version would be: "No, no. Doubt is for the mortal realm; in Heaven there is no deceit"?

As an appeal to your greater wisdom, would you happen to have a recommendation for a Manyoushuu search system? I'd used 万葉集検索 for some time due to your long-past recommendation—so it seems reasonable to return to the source on that site's seeming demise. There seem to be enough contenders to make the problem non-trivial.


Matt:

Leo: I think the standard way is just to assume that it's great and maybe see a few scenes performed at the Japanese embassy once in a while. Big Noh doesn't seem that interested in making their art available except live on stage. (And, you know, fair enough if that's their thing, but I do think it's a shame.) There are a couple of DVDs out there, including an "introduction to Noh" series they sell in bookstores, but the ones I've seen are all fairly expensive -- 3000, 4000 yen plus. I shudder to think what they'd cost internationally. (YouTube can be your friend to a limited extent though.)

RDS: I'd probably go with only one "No", or maybe "Nay" depending on how I'd characterized her. And that second half I would want to make a little shorter and punchier, like "There's no deceit in Heaven" or "In Heaven no-one lies" (although if I used that last one someone would dig it up 30 years later and complain on their hyperblog that it was inaccurate.)


Matt:

Oh--and as for the MYS search... it's gone down and come back up before. I also might know a guy who, uh, has access to the data... though not in a user-friendly form.


Charles:

I think I've seen a version of this Noh play before. In fact, I've seen it hundreds of times. The line you seek to translate would be familiar to any American of a certain age:

"Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids."


Brian:

My first thought is that this is a world away from Hesiod's Heliconian muses ("Shepherds of the wilderness, wretched things of shame, mere bellies, we know how to speak many false things as though they were true; but we know, when we will, to utter true things," tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White [really]).

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