Another post on Deep Kyoto this time of nearby cafe/diner/music venue Zanpano. Last night my sister suggested that I do a similar site for Middlesbrough. We could call it DEEP BORO - and write about all kinds of places to avoid.
Fiddling around with google analytics last night I was interested to see what word combinations people are putting into search engines that land them on my pages. The titles of books that I’ve reviewed (”What is the What”) or songs that I’ve mentioned (”Bluebird lyrics”) seem to be quite common, along with the obvious variations of my name plus “kyoto”. But I wonder what inspired the search “mike lambe kyoto w@nker”…
Anyway! Here is today’s promised effort at translation. If you remember, the meditation from Hozouji was this:
I’m a bit late with this one because the subject matter is Obon, the Japanese festival of the dead, which was two weeks ago, but nevermind! During obon the spirits of the dead are said to return home to their families and people pay their respects by lighting incense at their household shrines and visiting their family graves. They also light huge jolly bonfires on the hills around Kyoto, but that’s another matter. The point is, contemplating death, helps you appreciate the value of what you have now.
Here it is again in kanji, kana and romaji:
お盆＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿おぼん＿＿＿＿＿＿＿obon
生かされて＿＿＿＿＿＿いかされて＿＿＿＿＿＿ikasarete
今ある命＿＿＿＿＿＿＿いまあるいのち＿＿＿＿ima aru inochi
ありがたし＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ありがたし＿＿＿＿＿＿arigatashi
Now, see this is where I have a slight problem, because I’m not really sure what “生かされて” here is trying to say… But I’m guessing something like this:
Obon
Brings us back to life
And for this life we have now
We are grateful
(Masaya? Help?)This meditation also reminded me of a heart-warming message I read at someecards.com:
When work feels overwhelming,
remember that you’re going to die.
Well, I laughed anyway. Darkly.
Mike,
That’s a beautiful translation.
Well done!
生かされて（生かされる） is tricky, isn’t it?
It’s the passive form of 生かす(to let somebody live).
Do you have a verb to mean the same in English?
It’s a transitive verb, as opposed to the intransitive verb 生きる(to live).
So, the idea here is that some outside power (the fate, the nature, the universe, God or something else) lets you continue to be alive. You are allowed to live, as opposed to that you live on your own without any influence from outside.
That is why you are grateful, being allowed to continue your life.
Does it make sense?
Thanks Masaya,
Yes, that makes sense. My dictionary gave the verb “revive” for 生かす. So I suppose I could have translated it as “By Obon / We are revived…” but it sounded a little weak to me. And I am also taking the liberty of choosing “us” as the object pronoun, but that gives it the broadest meaning possible and I think that’s important. Perhaps the notion of the dead returning to the world during Obon was included in the meaning of 生かされて. This is the time when we are reunited with our departed ancestors, so I used “us” to mean “all of us”; both the living and the dead. Perhaps I am stretching it a bit by saying that but, well you can with this sort of thing can’t you?
And that’s the reason I like translating these things. I get to think about these ideas a little more deeply than I would perhaps, if I were a native speaker just looking it over one time…
And thanks very much for the high praise. I do like praise.
Mikey
Hi Mike,
You’re right.
As the title suggests, this poem is about Obon, the time when the dead return home, and certainly it deals with our departed ancestors.
Perhaps that is your ancestors that 生かす you by protecting you.
So, the appreciation of having a life is partly to the departed ancestors.
That’s my thought.
It’s a poem, so we can interpret it as we like.
Thanks for the good food for thought.
Masaya