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! 👋
