Abstract
Some literary techniques constitute rhetorical devices that are considered to be unique to the history of Japanese verse. Nevertheless, some English translations of Japanese texts lose connotation such techniques, and few studies of this phenomenon have been written in languages other than Japanese. This study applies the insights of two approaches, i.e. morphological and semantic analysis and a hermeneutics interpretation. The result is twofold. It offers a detailed linguistic analysis, providing many insights into the interpretation of these expressions; and accommodates the hermeneutical explanation given by M. Heidegger, showing the very core of makura-kotoba. First of all, I will give a brief review of previous scholarship on the matter, followed by structural and semantic analyses. Finally, I will attempt to use definitions of hermeneutics to speak about rhetorical devices of Old Japanese verse. Translations of Old Japanese songs with glossing and morphemic analyses will be given in the Appendix.
Download
Carmen Blacker, The catalpa bow. A study of shamanistic practices in Japan, UK: Unwin Hyman Limited, 1989.
David Couzens Hoy, ‘Heidegger and the Hermeneutic Turn’ in Cambridge Companion to Heidegger, Charles B. Guignon (ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Edwin A. Cranston, Waka anthology. Volume one: The gem-glistening cup, USA: Stanford University Press, 1993.
Ekaterina Levchenko, Songs of “Kojiki” and “Nihon Shoki”: a new Russian translation with the original text, romanization and glossing. USA: Amazon publ. 2017.
Frellesvig, Stephen Wright Horn, Kerri L. Russell, Peter Sells, The Oxford Corpus of Old Japanese. [http://vsarpj.orinst.ox.ac.uk/corpus/ojcorpus.html#Kojiki].
Haruo Shirane, Constructing «Japanese literature»: global and ethnic nationalism in Japanese hermeneutics. Current debates on aesthetics and interpretation, ed. M. Marra. USA: University of Hawai’i Press. 2002
Hellen Craig McCullough, Brocade by Night: „Kokin wakashu” and the court style in Japanese classical poetry. Stanford University Press, 1985.
Hisataka Omodaka et al. (ed.) Jidai betsu kokugo dai jiten. Jyodaihen. [A large dictionary of the national language by periods. Old Japanese], Tokyo: Sanseidô, 1967.
Jin'ichi Konishi A History of Japanese Literature, Volume : The Archaic and Ancient Ages. Princeton University Press. 1984.
M. Marra (Ed.) Japanese hermeneutics. Current debates on aesthetics and interpretation, USA: University of Hawai’i Press. 2002.
Martin Heidegger, On the way to language, USA: Harper and Row, 1982.
Martin S. E. The Japanese language through time. USA: Yale University Press. 1987.
Sergei Starostin, Anna Dybo, and Oleg Mudrak Etymological Dictionary of the Altaic Languages. vol. -3. Leiden: Brill. 2003.
Suzuki Sadami, What is bungaku? The reformation of the concept of «literature» in early twentieth century Japan in Japanese hermeneutics. Current debates on aesthetics and interpretation, ed. M. Marra. USA: University of Hawai’i Press. 2002.
Download the article
