#長月 naga-tsuki (‘the long month; the month of long nights’) covers the 2nd half of october & the 1st half of november | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

abyssus-aeterna · 11 months ago

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暗き夜の闇に於きて描かれたる我は、腐りの眞中に宿る。

此れ等の壁は又再び閉ざし行き、各々の物は死に似たり。

己作りの何某の己が憎み、己が身を捜し求むる何某の穴。

我が土は我が魂にして、我が棺は我が肉にして、我が神殿は我が體也。

神無月の旭に照らされたる我が體は、いみじく血塗れ也。

[Classical transliteration]

Kuraki yo no yami ni okite wegakaretaru ware fa, kusari no manaka ni yadoru. Kore-ra no kabe fa mata futatabi tozasi-yuki, ono-ono no mono fa si ni nitari. Ono-dukuri no nani-gasi no ono ga nikumi, ono ga mi wo sagasi-motomuru nani-gasi no ana. Wa ga tuti fa wa ga tama ni site, wa ga fitugi fa wa ga sisi ni site, wa ga kamu-dono fa wa ga karada nari. Kamu-na-duki no asa-fi ni terasaretaru wa ga karada fa, imiziku ti-mamire nari.

[Modern transliteration]

Kuraki yo no yami ni okite egakaretaru ware wa, kusari no manaka ni yadoru. Kore-ra no kabe wa mata futatabi tozashi-yuki, ono-ono no mono wa shi ni nitari. Ono-dzukuri no nani-gashi no ono ga nikumi, ono ga mi wo sagashi-motomuru nani-gashi no ana. Wa ga tsuchi wa wa ga tama ni shite, wa ga hitsugi wa wa ga shishi ni shite, wa ga kan-dono wa wa ga karada nari. Kan-na-dzuki no asa-hi ni terasaretaru wa ga karada wa, imijiku chi-mamire nari.

pictured in the blackness of the dark nights, I dwell within decay:

these walls are closing in again, & every object resembles death,

some self-created self-hatred, some hole in which I seek myself,

my soil is my soul, my casket is my flesh, my church is my body;

bloody, so bloody is my body in the morning light of november.

#🫀#.#poetry #voidic3ntity #translation to classical japanese #translator’s notes below #the recurring root word in the translation is おの ono #己／自 ono or 己れ onore is a reflexive pronoun meaning ‘one’s self’#各々 ono-ono is likely related thereto & it means ‘each & every’ (as in ‘each & every individual self counted together’)#‘church’ in modern japanese is usually 敎會 kyōkai but its literal meaning is ‘(a place of) gathering & (receiving) doctrine’#so i went with 神殿 kan-dono ‘temple; sanctuary’ (literally: ‘house/hall of god(s)’)#塗れ mamire ‘covered/stained all over with/in (some liquid or particles)’#‘november’ in modern japanese is simply 十一月 jū-ichi-gatsu; ie. ‘the 11th month’#in japanese poetry though one would rather use archaic names of the months that followed the traditional lunar calendar #there are also 12 months in total in the japanese lunar calendar but they do not map nicely to the gregorian calendar #長月 naga-tsuki (‘the long month; the month of long nights’) covers the 2nd half of october & the 1st half of november #the month that covers the 2nd half of november & the 1st half of december is called 神無月 kan-na-dzuki #BTW this one has a whole story behind it #it is a compound of 神 kami ‘god; deity’ +‎ な na (genitive particle; a modified form of の no) +‎ 月 tsuki ‘moon; month’#so it just literally means ‘the month of gods’#however な na came to be written with the character 無 (‘naught; none; null’) & the meaning shifted to ‘the month of NO gods’#therefrom arose the folk etymology wherein all of the gods were said to gather at the Grand Shrine of Izumo during this month #(leaving no gods in the rest of the land)#in the Izumo Province itself this month would be sometimes called 神有月／神在月 kami-ari-dzuki ‘the month when the gods are (here)’

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