Also the まゝ —what’s up with modern versions forgoing the awesome repetition marks? And I like 云う better than plain, gormless いう. OTOH I can’t say I’m a fan of kyūkanazukai, like the large tsu above.

I will cop to liking the printing presses used pre-War. They had very nice and sharp lettering, like the words were being cut onto the page. And the kana repeaters are nice. But c'mon, do we really want to have to futz around with giant sized つs and weirdo kana-dzukai?

I see Boiko came up with more or less the same comment as I did while I left the page open and ate some cereal. A consensus builds!

I believe this is the situation where, in the vernacular, they say: «hivemind!».

Speaking of old-style lettering, the software repository of my Linux system suddenly produced a font called Dejima Mincho; it’s claimed to be based on «tsukiji-tai» from Meiji era. All I know is, I fell in instant typographic love.

Stipulating that it's got to be all old or all new (i.e. I would like a half-modernized text less than either)... I can sympathize with a preference for texts which use a small つ (as well as ゆ, etc.). But I have no problem with 云ふ for 云う, わう for おう (王) -- in fact I prefer them that way. That kanadukai (three people, three spellings) is your inheritance! And I think you'll agree that it's not long before you get used to it (there are very few situations where it's actually ambiguous, once your old-timey vocabulary is big enough).

That font is totally awesome, by the way. Thanks for the heads-up.

Leonardo, thanks for the font. I will use it in business e-mails from now on, and try and see how people react to it.

Personally, I read at the speed that words are read aloud (very bad habit carried over from reading music scores), and so I don't have the same objection to しばらく taking up four morae, because the tempo is the same either way.

I do agree though that the "visual rhythm of the text" (I like this phrase) is totally different when only hiragana is used.

I've had the odd experience of being unable to remember if something was all old-style kanazukai or modernized. It was like the つ just shrank in my memory!

Anyway, on reading this I had two thoughts that diverged in a yellow wood. One was wondering whether the classics get their kanji brought more to the 常用 level than modern writers' texts show--because there are writers that love themselves things like 暫く or 就中 or even 侭. (And there's even a modern scholar I read sometimes who deliberately uses the old-school, and I'm amazed the editors let him get away with 思ふ the way he does.)

And the other thought was: Bah! You haven't read Ryūnosuke until you've read it in the original kambun.

Sorry to hear that you are literally (meaning: as a matter of fact, and not of metaphor) being ground into a paste. That must hurt.

Literal, I suspect that you think my use of "literally" is hyperbolic. I assure you that it is not so. It does indeed hurt and I will be entirely pastulent by mid-2010 unless I get relief.

Dumb question, I'm sure, but what's up with "shibaraku"? My trusty Kenkyusha says "(for) a while [time]; (for) some time; (for) a long time; for the present." How does it get to mean "briefly"?

Also: Please God not the "literally" brigade! It's been used metaphorically for centuries and is now far more often so used than in the restricted "literal" sense; get over it already.

I should probably let the adults answer that, but in my mind shibaraku reflects that "for a while; for some time" of your definition. In my (limited) experience, shibaraku is often used in the sense of a noticeable, non-ignorable time; for example, the message when a TV channel is out of air is "shibaraku omachi kudasai", "please wait a few moments". Souseki has: "shibaraku suru to, hi ga pachipachi to naru" --- "after shibaraku, the fire made a pachipachi sound"; i.e. from time to time, the fire crackled --- it did not crackle continously, you have to wait an interval of silence between crackles.

I think the word refers to either a short or a long time, but in any case the emphasis is that you cannot skip or gloss over it; it's a length of time, as opposed to a point in time.

Hm, that "from time to time" feels wrong. Make it "after some time" instead. I probably mixed it up with another line from the same story: "tokidoki kagaribi ga kuzureru oto ga suru"...

...Here am I playing the Japanese expert to friggin' languagehat when I'm really just quoting lines I memorized from "Breaking Into Japanese Literature" :oD

Hey, the Japanese I know could fit in a teacup, so I'm grateful for any assistance. I can see how it could mean "some time" (either short or long); I guess my question is, what makes it mean "briefly" here? Why "The two of them among the corpses, briefly, without words, grappled" rather than "The two of them among the corpses, for some time, without words, grappled"?

This is a good question. Let's look at some other translations. Google books has the Hibbert translation (presumably from the 60s):

- "... they struggled, fell among the corpses, and grappled there. The issue was never in doubt. In a moment he had her by the arm..."

And the more recent Jay Rubin translation:

- "For a time, the two grappled in silence among the corpses, but the outcome of the struggle was never in doubt."

And here's another by Rene Malenfant (linked from Wikipedia):

- "For a while, the two grappled among the corpses without saying a word."

What I mean by "briefly" is basically what Leonardo says: "a noticeable but not lengthy period of time" -- longer than "for a moment", but shorter than "for a while."

The fact that the next sentence starts with "but" could be evidence for either short or long: "there WAS a battle for a non-zero period of time, but the outcome was clear from the beginning (so the battle was short)" or "there was a battle for a long period of time, but the outcome was clear from the beginning." In the next sentence, Akutagawa uses the word とうとう to describe the servant getting the upper hand on the woman, by which he might mean "at last" or "in the end."

My conclusion from the above is that Rubin's "for a time" is probably the best solution in terms of ambiguity-preserving.

"Shibaraku" is of course also a famous kabuki thing. (Although... how "shibaraku" is that whole scene?)

I'm trying to remember what was the word we'd keep running across in Fujiwara no Munetada's kanbun that was sort of shibaraku-y in that it could mean both "slightly" and "rather." (I'm blaming my fuzziness on my prescription, which I would offer you Matt, because I'd suspect it'd help with the pain of being in actual fact being pastified.)

(And トリビアの泉 told me how 面黒い meant both "interesting" and "boring" once.)

Nothing to add to the discussion. Just wanted to say great post. And great kanji for shibaraku.

Matt:

Literal, I suspect that you think my use of "literally" is hyperbolic. I assure you that it is not so. It does indeed hurt and I will be entirely pastulent by mid-2010 unless I get relief.

so, will there be a "Pepsi-Matt" flavour in Japan soon?

All I can tell you is, don't go near the Men's Pocky next year.

I like the "visual rhythm" idea too. It crystallises something I've been sensing recently about the blandness and monotony of some kana-heavy modern prose.

I like "for a while" for "shibaraku" partly because there's a nice symmetry between the E and J usages, in that "shibaraku" can be used where we'd say "hey, it's been a while" as a greeting, and both can also denote shorter periods.

"All I can tell you is, don't go near the Men's Pocky next year."

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