Translation of Soseki

[karenk]

Hi,

I have a question concerning a text from Soseki. A young man pays a visit to the author and presents a pheasant as a gift.

国から届きましたからといって、それを当座の贈り物にした

When he uses "国", does he mean that he received it from his folks home or simply that it come from the countryside?

I translated it as: "I received it from my folks who live in the countryside, please, accept it".

Thank you in advance

 

[Toritoribe]

Unlike いなか, くに doesn't mean "rural/country". It refers to his home town, and, this is needless to say, one's home town is not always "rural/country". (山鳥 shows that he would be from country side, though.)

来るたびに自分の国の景色やら、習慣やら、伝説やら、古めかしい祭礼の模様やら、色々の事を話した。
二週間経てば、国から届くはずだからその時はすぐと御返しするという答である。
その後色々の事情があって、今国へ帰っている。

 

[karenk]

I see...

Later in the same text, the young man brings something described as follows: 菊の花を乾して、薄い海苔のやうに一枚一枚に堅めたものである。精進の疉鰯だと云つて

I figured out it is something that resembles "a dried chrysanthemum on which tiny pieces of nori seaweed were glued one by one", he says that it is some sort of buddhist dish called 疉鰯, which I interpreted as sheets of dried young sardines, is it right or have I misunderstood it?

 

[nekojita]

疉鰯 (modern day たたみいわし) is made from sardines, but 精進の suggests it's not actually made from fish in this case.

のやうに = のように, so it's like nori, e.g. chrysanthemum dried and pressed together like nori. (薄い means thin, not tiny/small pieces)

 

[karenk]

Hi, Nekojita!

So it is actually a dried chrysanthemum sheet, a vegetarian version of 疉鰯, perhaps?

Another question about this text. Next the young man brings a tie to the author:

その次來た時には御納戸の結び目に、白い蝶を刺繍つた襟飾りを

I would translate it as: Next, he brought a graysh-blue tie with a white butterfly embroidered on its knot.

Is it right to say that the embroidery was on the knot (結び目)? And 襟飾りis really a necktie? About the butterfly, is there a way of telling that it was more than one?

Thank you!

 

[Mike Cash]

Why do you think it's on the tie itself?

襟飾り

 

[karenk]

Why do you think it's on the tie itself?

襟飾り

I thought that the 結び目に indicated the place where the embroidery was, that is, in the knot of the tie (襟飾り). What is this "つた" after 刺繍? I thought it was a verb conjugation, but now I'm very confused. So the grayish-blue knot was not the color of the tie, but the color of whatever was holding the package (a string, perhaps) made of newspaper and the tie itself was an embroidery made of butterflies motifs?

Oh, I`m very confused now, could you explain were my mistake is?

 

[Mike Cash]

You're right about the conjugation. This was written before the small っ came into use.

Your mistake comes from overlooking 襟飾り....a lapel pin. The butterfly was an embroidered lapel pin stuck in the knot of the necktie. (Embroidering a tie so that a design would come out in the knot, or even tying a tie so that the design always came out neatly in the knot would be a difficult thing to do, don't you think?)

Did you look up 襟飾り? Google or Google image search has lots of results:

 

[karenk]

Your example made more confused because the lapel pin in this particular photo is called 職章 and it is stuck in the buttom hole of the 襟飾, in this case, the collar...

襟飾り could mean necktie and collar...

 

[Mike Cash]

Your example made more confused because the lapel pin in this particular photo is called 職章 and it is stuck in the buttom hole of the 襟飾, in this case, the collar...

襟飾り could mean necktie and collar...

For the purposes of understanding the story...does it matter a hill of beans?

 

[karenk]

... and brooch, I've just seen it in my daijirin, so you are right, but still, a butterfly embroidery as a pin sounds funny...

Thank you, Mike!

 

[Mike Cash]

... and brooch, I've just seen it in my daijirin, so you are right, but still, a butterfly embroidery as a pin sounds funny...

Thank you, Mike!

For some vocabulary items in old writings, Google image search is a valuable resource,