Thoughts from Episode 6: New year, new ranks!

I’m back from my break, and I’ve been making some more progress with the translation! We left off last time at the end of the first volume, so now let’s move on to Episode 6: The New Emperor.

As that title suggests, this chapter opens with a range of characters gaining new roles at court. The poorly old Emperor has stepped aside in favour of his younger brother, and there are promotions for Marumitsu, Sara and Tsuwabuki. Kakumitsu misses out on a promotion, and he’s more eager than ever to make Sara his son-in-law. Meanwhile, the former Emperor is worried about his young daughter, who has now taken over as Togu (crown prince). He suggests that Suiren become her naishi no kami (a close attendant), leaving Marumitsu with two tricky requests to handle...

At first, Sara and Suiren both refuse. But soon, Sara realises that the only way to counter Umetsubo’s suspicions about him is to agree to marry Kakumitsu’s daughter Shi no Hime. Tsuwabuki is distraught about this because of his existing feelings for Sara Shi no Hime. He calls off his and Sara’s friendship – unless Sara helps him marry Suiren. Then, to deal with this new mess, Suiren agrees to go and work for Togu.

There’s a lot going on here! With the new Emperor crowned – he remains Emperor for the rest of the story – it reframes the first volume as a bit of a preamble. It’s now that characters move into their longer-term roles, and it’s now that Sara and Suiren’s problems really start to rack up.

What I’d like to focus on today is something I talked about back at the beginning: the various ranks and titles the characters hold. This time around, several of them change ranks/titles, and that changes how people refer to them. To summarise:

·       The Emperor (帝) is now Emperor Emeritus (上皇) or Suzakuin (朱雀院)

·       The Crown Prince or Togu (東宮) is now the Emperor (帝)

·       The former Emperor’s daughter (referred to briefly as 女一の宮, “girl first-born prince”) is now Togu (東宮, also 女東宮, “girl crown prince”) and is nicknamed Nanten no Togu (南天の東宮)

·       Old man Fujiwara, the one-time Chief Advisor to the Emperor (関白) has retired and entered the priesthood

·       His son Marumitsu, formerly a Provisional Upper Councillor of Court (権大納言), is now both Chief Advisor to the Emperor (関白) and Chancellor (左大臣)

·       His son Sara, formerly a fifth-rank Chamberlain (五位の侍従), is now a third-rank colonel of the Imperial Guards (近衛府の三位の中将)

·       Tsuwabuki, already a colonel, is now also a councillor (中将)

·       and Suiren is being offered a position as the new Togu’s naishi no kami (尚侍)

Many of these have been translated in multiple ways before in Willig’s two versions of Torikaebaya monogatari. I won’t necessarily use the same translations as Willig, but I want to be internally consistent at least. The tricky part, as I mentioned in that earlier post, is knowing when to come up with an English version and when to just transliterate.

So far, Togu is still Togu – this is partly to ensure that as in the original, the same term is used whoever holds the position. In my earlier notes, I had it as “Crown Prince”, even after Suzakuin’s daughter takes on the role. I think this does chime pretty well with the manga’s themes, so there’s still the possibility I’ll go back to this later, but we’ll see.

Elsewhere, some roles are translated, but I’ve opted for a transliteration when they’re used as a term of address, such as Marumitsu’s new dual role “Kanpaku Sadaijin”. On the other hand, I’m undecided about naishi no kami. Willig – and others – translated this as “Maid of Honour”, and maybe that’s what I’ll go with too, but I’m unsure. I don’t exactly have great alternatives either, so for the time being, it’ll continue to be naishi no kami, just transliterated.

It's lucky that a lot of these characters do also have nicknames so that we don’t have to refer to them only by their job titles the way the original Torikaebaya monogatari did. Other modern versions do this too – Willig’s published version (The Changelings) sort of does it as well – and for the sake of my sanity, I’m relieved that Saito followed in their footsteps!

Thoughts from Episode 5: Names, names, names

This week’s chapter revolves around a hunting trip organised by the Emperor. The most important people at the court go and have a good time in the outskirts of Heian-kyo (around here), and the citizens get an opportunity to see them in their finery. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that the stars of the event are to be Sara and Tsuwabuki!

But before the excursion, somebody comes and bothers Sara. This person is an unnamed woman who once worked for Suiren’s mother and now works for the jealous Lady Umetsubo. The woman learns that Sara takes a few days’ break every month and reports this back to Umetsubo, who quickly concludes that this is due to tsuki no sawari – menstruation. As ridiculous as her own attendants find this idea, Umetsubo becomes certain that Marumitsu has two daughters and has forcibly raised one to be a man.

On the hunting trip, Sara races into an early lead, causing Tsuwabuki to leave in a huff. Suddenly, a mysterious man (who we’ve just seen having a chat with Umetsubo!) starts firing arrows at Sara. Sara hurries back, and after an arrow narrowly misses the Emperor, a search party goes looking for the would-be assassin. But Togu sees that Sara was injured by an arrow, and Umetsubo of all people steps in to give him first aid. This is obviously a ploy to publicly expose Sara literally and figuratively. Just in the nick of time, Tsuwabuki returns and Sara makes an excuse to leave with his help.

The whole incident raises Sara’s profile even more, so Umetsubo changes her strategy. She tells her father Kakumitsu to do something she was previously so keen to avoid – arrange for Sara to marry Kakumitsu’s youngest daughter...

One aspect that’s been a bit challenging in the past few chapters has been characters’ names. In earlier posts, I talked about court ranks and briefly introduced some of the major characters. Something I mentioned previously is that they’re not always referred to in the same way (and in the original Torikaebaya monogatari, they don’t even get personal names) and this has already presented some difficulties.

For example, when somebody is addressed by their position, what should it be in my translation? So far I have gondainagon – Marumitsu’s title – as “Provisional Upper Councillor of State” (“provisional” and “of state” sometimes omitted), but I’m not sure this always works so well when he’s addressed directly. Similarly, I mostly keep the Crown Prince as Togu (東宮), mainly because this title will soon be inherited by the current Emperor’s daughter. However, I do find it necessary sometimes to say “Crown Prince” – like when he’s specifically listed alongside the Emperor, or even just for the sake of reminding the reader what a togu is. Maybe there’s an argument for referring to the Emperor as “Mikado” instead for consistency?

The other area where this has proven tricky is with characters whose names are said slightly differently in different contexts. Sarasoju no Kimi (沙羅双樹の君) is often just Sarasoju, but sometimes Sarasoju no Jiju (沙羅双樹の侍従). It gets shortened to Sara, or Soju if Tsuwabuki is speaking. These are generally fine, because we hear about Sara so often that if I just keep it as-is (or translate Sarasoju no Jiju to “Chamberlain Sarasoju”) it won’t actually be hard to follow.

But what about characters who rarely appear? Marumitsu’s wives are first introduced as Nishi no Ue (西の上) and Higashi no Ue (東の上). These “names” are literally just “west” and “east” plus an honorific. I was happy enough to transliterate them to begin with, but now that Umetsubo and her nosy attendant are talking about them, they say “kata” (方) instead of “ue”. This is still an honorific, but it isn’t the same one, so that complicates my earlier decision to call them Nishi no Ue and Higashi no Ue in the translation. In all likelihood, I’ll just go back and change them to Nishi and Higashi, but I’ll have to think about it a bit longer!

And with that, we’ve reached the end of the first volume! In some ways it’s been quite representative of the series as a whole – hitting the main story beats of Torikaebaya monogatari but with some added drama, angst and action – but in one big way, it isn’t. And that’s because volume 2 starts off with a big reshuffle where various characters get the job titles that they’ll hold for most of the story beyond that point. So basically, forget everything I just said about what everyone is called! T_T

There’s going to be a bit of a break before my next blog post on here. I’m going away for most of April, and unless there’s some big development during that time that I want to report on immediately, I doubt I’ll have a chance to write a post until I get back. So that’s probably it from me until next month! 👋

Thoughts from Episode 1: Introduction to the story, and court ranks

Here’s the first blog post proper! I’ll be going through my thoughts from translating Saito Chiho’s Torikae baya, starting at the beginning. If you happen to have access to the manga in Japanese, you can even follow along!

First, I’ll quickly introduce the story. The manga is based on Torikaebaya monogatari, a tale written by an unknown author or authors (there was originally more than one version) in probably the late Heian period – at the very least, it’s set in the Heian period. In both the original story and the manga, a court official has two wives, each of whom gives birth on the same day to almost identical babies, one a girl and one a boy. This is all very auspicious for the father, who would hope that they can grow up to fill important roles, but there’s a catch: his new “daughter” behaves like a boy and his new “son” behaves like a girl.

とりかへばや！ the man says to himself – approximately “I wish I could switch them.” They’d be perfect if they were the other way around, but they just won’t change. Time goes by, and people start to assume that the “daughter” is really the man’s son. Rumour spreads about this charming, talented boy, and the father is asked to have him come of age and take up a job at the court. He can’t convince his children to change, and he can’t refuse the request, so it is decided that the child will live as a young man. Soon, the other child has the coming-of-age ceremony for a young woman, and becomes a naishi no kami, an important attendant to the new crown princess.

The two siblings earn constant praise, but it isn’t long before romantic issues start to derail their success. The young man is caught up in a love triangle with his new wife and an amorous colleague who is simultaneously obsessed with him, his wife AND his rumoured identical sister. Meanwhile, the naishi no kami falls in love with the crown princess. After all sorts of drama, the siblings leave the capital, believing there is no way they can return – until they decide to trade places.

Now taking on each other’s former roles, they return and sort out all their romantic entanglements, with most people none the wiser. In the original story, they mostly just resolve their earlier problems at this point, before living happily ever after in influential positions with desirable spouses. The Torikae baya manga takes a longer route to the ending, featuring high-stakes political intrigue after the siblings’ return to the capital, but the story is the same by and large.

Unlike the original tale, Torikae baya is split up into chapters (named “episodes”) which were published monthly in Gekkan Flowers. Making each chapter compelling seems to me to have been a key motivation for making changes to the story. Episode 1: Sara and Suiren covers a lot of ground, starting with the siblings’ birth and ending just before they come of age – and finding time for a major incident in between that doesn’t happen in the older tale.

What I want to talk about today is names and titles. Titles for ranks and job positions are of huge importance in Torikaebaya monogatari, because in the original tale, that is how characters are always referred to. Rather than personal names, they get called things like “Gondainagon” and “Saisho no chujo”, and these change as they receive promotions during the story. This feature is not necessarily preserved in modern Japanese translations and adaptations, including Torikae baya. Saito names the court official with the two wives Fujiwara no Marumitsu, while his boyish daughter is Sarasoju (most often abbreviated to “Sara”) and his girlish son is Suiren. As the manga continues, more named characters also appear.

Still, this isn’t to say that titles are totally done away with. Some characters are still always referred to by their official position. Meanwhile, other people tend to refer to Marumitsu, Sarasoju, Suiren and others with titles. And that means I need to translate them!

Just a few pages into Episode 1, we get a salvo of official titles to let readers know what big shots Marumitsu and his family are:

男の名は藤原丸光

父親は元・関白

兄は右大臣

本人は権大納言にして近衛大将という超上流貴族

(Torikae baya, volume 1, page 7)

There are a few options for how to tackle these:

1. Transliterate. This little bit of narration feels like it’s supposed to be at least a little bit bewildering, even for Japanese readers. It reminds us that we’re dealing with a society most readers aren’t all that familiar with, so maybe in English, they should stay as they are.

2. Use an existing translation. Other classical Japanese works have been translated into English, including Torikaebaya monogatari. In Rosette F Willig’s translation from the late 1970s (it’s a bit complicated in the version later published as The Changelings in 1983), these job titles are all translated, and keeping the same translations could clarify the connections between the two texts.

3. Come up with my own. Relying on Willig’s terms and her source for these terms is all well and good, but what if I disagree on some of them? What if I encounter one that doesn’t appear in the original tale?

Ultimately, I still don’t know what I’ll settle on. Transliterating is the easiest way, and in some cases it might be no harder to understand than an English term, but on the other hand, they do have practical functions which could be lost that way.

For now, I’ve been making my own, mapping them onto similar positions in other government systems or militaries. Helpfully, in one “Atogaki baya” section (brief afterwords in manga form that appear at the end of each collected volume), Saito has a little chart of relative positions, so I can hopefully avoid translating a term one way only to realise later that it suits another position better. I’ll work on devising a system I’m happy with. These might even work out to be much the same as Willig’s translations!

And so, to finish off, here’s what my translation of the quoted section above looks like right now:

His name was Fujiwara no Marumitsu, and he belonged to the upper echelons of society.

His father was the former Chief Advisor to the Emperor.

His older brother was the Vice Chancellor.

And Marumitsu himself was a Provisional Upper Councillor of State and General of the Imperial Guards.

Thanks for reading!