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Thread: A quote from Hagakure...

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    Question A quote from Hagakure...

    Can anyone help with the quotation from the second chapter of Yamamoto Tsunetomo's Hagakure that goes something that is not done at that time and at that place will remain unfinished for a lifetime?
    I need to know what it looks like in original Japanese...
    S. Voronin

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    http://users.tkk.fi/~renko/hag2.html

    It is written that the priest Shungaku said, "In just refusing to retreat from something one gains the strength of two men." This is interesting. Something that is not done at that time and at that place will remain unfinished for a lifetime. At a time when it is difficult to complete matters with the strength of a single man, one will bring it to a conclusion with the strength of two. If one thinks about it later, he will be negligent all his life.
    "Stamp quickly and pass through a wall of iron" is another interesting phrase. To quickly break in and stamp through directly is the first step of celerity. In connection with this, Hideyoshi can be thought of as the only man who has grasped solidly the chance of a lifetime since the creation of Japan.
    Saburo Kitazono

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    Thanx, but I was talking bout that phrase, I mean how it's originally written in Japanese hieroglyphs...
    S. Voronin

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    "Something that is not done at that time and at that place will remain unfinished for a lifetime."

    端的にすまぬ事一年埓明かず。 

    Is what my book says.

    Are you making a cartouche?
    Saburo Kitazono

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    Thanks a lot.
    Yes, it's one of the best quotes I ever heard, and I am indeed thinking of having it before my eyes daily...
    So I'd like a little more help, I'd appreciate if you could tell me - seems you know Japanese
    Will it be correct to arrange the hieroglyphs upright so they look like this:












    ず。

    PS
    And one more thing - the above must be contemporary Japanese language; I suppose Hagakure was written in some old language, which is now obsolete. I think this phrase would look a little different if written exactly how Yamamoto put it - am I right? Or maybe the Japanese today can't understand the old language? Anyways, if you can't say, just nevermind - I think I'll be satisfied with what you gave me.


     
    S. Voronin

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    Quote Originally Posted by Vendigo
    Will it be correct to arrange the hieroglyphs upright so they look like this:












    ず。
    Should be fine.


    Quote Originally Posted by Vendigo
    PS
    And one more thing - the above must be contemporary Japanese language; I suppose Hagakure was written in some old language, which is now obsolete. I think this phrase would look a little different if written exactly how Yamamoto put it - am I right?
    The translator William Scott Wilson translated Miyamoto Musashi's "The Book Of Five Rings" for the publisher Kodansha (ISBN 4-7700-2844-x). It has the Japanese on one side and English on the other. On the Japanese side he put the old and new Japanese. I think he may have also done this for the Hagakure. If so it might have the same format of old and new Japanese. I only have his older book of the Hagakure which does not have all the sayings of Yamamoto Tsunetomo and is only in English but maybe his new one is more complete?

    http://www.amazon.com/Hagakure-Book-...107169?ie=UTF8
    Last edited by Saburo; 30th August 2006 at 23:57. Reason: isbn #
    Saburo Kitazono

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    The 'modern Japanese' version given by Mr Scott Wilson (p. 137) reads:

    その場ですぐ解決できないことはー生かかっても埒があかないものである。

    As you see, it is quite a bit longer.
    Peter Goldsbury,
    Forum Administrator,
    Hiroshima, Japan

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    Default Nabeshima Bunko

    You can read an original text at Nabeshima Bunko (the collection of books of the Nabeshima family) at the Saga University library.

    Please watch 2nd paragraph on a right page.
    http://www.dl.saga-u.ac.jp/OgiNabesi.../haga2-032.jpg
    Mai Shikata

    If you want to strike your opponent, you should let him strike at you.
    If your opponent strikes at you, he himself will already have been struck.
    -- Yagyu Munenori

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    Thumbs up

    Thank you everybody!
    S. Voronin

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    Could someone kindly let me know the kanji from the Hagakure that corresponds to the following quote from Hagakure?

    'In a life or death crisis, simply settle it by choosing immediate death. There is nothing complicated about it. Just brace yourself and proceed.'

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