Quitting while you’re ahead

Posted: September 4th, 2006 | Author: amake | Filed under: Japan, Translation | 8 Comments »

My father claims that he’d rather die spectacularly at 60 than deteriorate slowly into even older age. With that deadline looming not so far away now, I’m interested to see if he puts his money where his mouth is.

I bring this up because I was reading a classical Japanese text from the 1330s called 徒然草 (officially “Essays in Idleness” in English according to Wikipedia) today, and chapter 7 deals specifically with this issue.

あだし野の露消ゆる時なく、鳥部山の煙立ち去らでのみ住み果つる習ひならば、いかにもののあはれもなからん。世は定めなきこそいみじけれ。

命あるものを見るに、人ばかり久しきはなし。かげろふの夕べを待ち、夏の蝉の春秋を知らぬもあるぞかし。つくづくと一年を暮すほどだにも、こよなうのどけしや。飽かず、惜しと思はば、千年を過すとも、一夜の夢の心地こそせめ。住み果てぬ世にみにくき姿を待ち得て、何かはせん。命長ければ辱多し。長くとも、四十に足らぬほどにて死なんこそ、めやすかるべけれ。

そのほど過ぎぬれば、かたちを恥づる心もなく、人に出ヰで交らはん事を思ひ、夕べの陽に子孫を愛して、さかゆく末を見んまでの命をあらまし、ひたすら世を貪る心のみ深く、もののあはれも知らずなりゆくなん、あさましき。

My translation, in which I take extreme liberties:

If people didn’t disappear like the morning dew, instead just hanging around in this life like so much LA smog, how tacky that would be. Life’s a bitch, then you die; and that’s the way we likes it.

Of all the creepy crawlies in the world, none seem to live as long as humans do. The mayfly barely gets to see the sun set; a cicada born in summer will bite it before ever seeing spring or fall. Given that, having the luxury of dicking around Europe to “find yourself” for a year is the height of opulence. If you’re not satisfied with your lot, even living 1,000 years would feel about as long as a dream to you. Do you really want to get all old and wrinkly? Being old sucks. At the very oldest, plan to die before 40.

If you break 40, you’ll lose all sense of shame in your appearance, and somehow you’ll think it appropriate to put on airs of being “cool” and “with it” to the younger generation. In your final days you’ll still want to live on, to see how your ungrateful children and grandchildren turn out. Your greed for life in this world will consume you, and you’ll wind up a pathetic old coot with no understanding of propriety or pathos.

一味違った現代語訳もある。

While we’re talking classical literature and whatnot, here’s something I rediscovered recently: The shortest letter in Japanese history.

一筆啓上　火の用心　お仙泣かすな　馬肥やせ

Translation:

Greetings. Be careful of fire. Don’t make Osen (our son) cry. Feed the horses.

This came up in one of my Japanese classes at UW, and for some reason it recently came to mind, but I could only remember the last line. Wikipedia to the rescue!

This letter was written by Shigetsugu Honda in 1575. He sent it to his wife from the front lines of the Battle of Nagashino.

Yes, this kind of thing is horribly interesting to me. Yes, I am a nerd.

8 Comments on “Quitting while you’re ahead”

1 momoko said at 6:33 on September 5th, 2006:
すごいイイ訳だね：）本当おもしろい。徒然草を理解できるなんて、頭が下がります・・・。でも、長生きしたら人間熟すと思うけどなぁ。早く死にたいなんて、死ぬ予定がない人がいう贅沢なような気がするけど。どうでしょ。
2 Rui said at 9:39 on September 5th, 2006:
Dude, I can’t even read that right. How Japanese are you???
3 R said at 9:56 on September 5th, 2006:
久々の古文！嵯峨のあだし野念仏寺に行ったことを思い出したわ～．ミネソタの博物館でミイラを見ました．３５００歳の彼を見て，「生まれたからには，これ位まで（体だけでも）この世に残っていたいわ～」とうらやましく思ってしまう私は，とてもとても兼好法師の心境にはなれません．
4 utsana said at 13:02 on September 5th, 2006:
I agree with R eventhough I can’t prove your Jps is perfect, my guess (intuitively) is that you have mastered the Nihon literature to the point where native Jps speakers must bow before you…

Anyway, ‘Death’ is an interesting subject matter. I reckon it’s a powerful term with powerful meaning cuz it ends everything and just the thought of it freaks a lot of people out… I used to sit down and look at images of beautiful people that passed away (literally and not so literally beautiful) and think… gee.. how sad… but then again, there wouldn’t be any space for the newer gens were they not deceased to make space… I heard from somewhere (probably just in my own head) that the birth rate is still out numbering the death rate .. is that considered a good thing or a bad thing? Am I asking you directly?… urr .. yeah I am. But you can most certainly take it as rhetorical if you wish

If I had to choose… I’d rather die of old age then through some horrific accident. But I can’t choose (and neither can anyone) so death comes as SURPRISE SURPRISE!!!
5 Brian said at 18:57 on September 5th, 2006:
Hey Aaron,

Here is a fun nerd note for you.

I am browsing your website using a Korean language browser, from Vietnam, and your site is based in America.

I am a worldly man.
6 Richard said at 9:53 on September 6th, 2006:
First off, its 65 not 60. Second, I don’t pretend to be hip, I am hip. Third, once you turn 40 you are above worrying about mere appearances. Fourth, don’t forget who MIGHTpay for grad school.
7 utsana said at 11:15 on September 7th, 2006:
LOL… ouch~~~
8 amake said at 14:57 on September 9th, 2006:
momoko > そうですね、長生きはそんなに悪いものかな、まだ疑問に思っています。

Rui > I took a class on classical Japanese literature. It’s so different I don’t think there’s any way to decipher it without having formally studied the grammar.

R > あだし野、行ったことあるんだ！すごい！徒然草を読んで僕も行きたくなった。　R さんもミイラになりたい？ミイラになったらもう美人じゃないよ？まあ、その時には R さんにはそんなことどうでもいいだろうけど（笑）

utsana > I don’t know much about modern Japanese views on death; I’ve never been to a funeral here (or anywhere that I can remember, for that matter). That might be an interesting research subject.

Brian > You truly are Captain International. Too bad you don’t have my car, which is named “the Internationalizationmobile” according to the keychain they gave me.

Richard > Ok, 65 not 60; noted. But don’t get mad at me for the rest of that; I’m just a vessel through which the words of Kenko Yoshida are transmitted from medieval Japan into the present.