Anyone interested in classical Japanese literature?

[srunni0]

Hi there,
If anyone's interested in classical Japanese literature, I've started a new blog called Kakekotoba, on which I intend to analyze various classical works in Japanese. I've decided to start with a 19th century novel called Shunshoku Umegoyomi. I'm starting from the original, calligraphed version of the text (kuzushiji), so I'll also be discussing how to read handwritten Japanese from the pre-modern era.
My introductory post on Umegoyomi can be found here. You can find links to my translation posts for the novel on that page as well.
For future updates, be sure to follow me on Twitter! My username is @srunni0. You can subscribe to a mailing list from my blog as well.
Thanks!

 

[undrentide]

Very interesting.

I cannot find the original text on the internet so I might be misunderstanding or missing something, but 出て来たんでありまさァな is 出て来たんですよ in modern Japanese （～であります＝～です）, there's no indication of a name 有馬（ありま）here...

 

[srunni0]

The name "Arima" came up a few sentences back, in an earlier post. It crossed my mind that it might be some form of 「である」, but I couldn't figure out a valid verb conjugation there for it.

I formally studied classical Japanese, but the dialogue portions of this text are not written in pure classical Japanese, so there are dialectical/colloquial aspects of the speech that I'm not familiar with, particularly the verb endings. I could really use some help there, especially if there's some sort of primer on Edo-period grammar out there.

In any case, I'll note your observation.

 

[Toritoribe]

You can see the etymology of まさあ in a dictionary. Unlike ますわ, it's basically used by male. I believe it's Kanto dialect (at least in Modern Japanese).

まさあ
(連語)
〔補説〕 丁寧の助動詞「ます」に終助詞「わ」の付いた「ますわ」の転。短呼して「まさ」とも
「ます」を強調して、威勢よく言う言い方。

病気はきっと治り―

まさあ - Yahoo!辞書

BTW, isn't it 志たじツ子が･･･ありまはアな?

 

[srunni0]

You can see the etymology of まさあ in a dictionary. Unlike ますわ, it's basically used by male. I believe it's Kanto dialect (at least in Modern Japanese).
まさあ - Yahoo!辞書
BTW, isn't it 志たじツ子が･･･ありまはアな?

Right on both counts, thanks for the corrections!

 

[srunni0]

So I'm thinking of simultaneously working on Konjaku Monogatarishu - does anyone have any favorite tales from it they'd like to see?

 

[srunni0]

I've started work on Konjaku. The intro post is here and the first translation post is here. Let me know what you guys think!