Onomatopoetic Words

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Onomatopoetic Words


quote:

There are a lot of Japanese haiku using onomatopoeic words or mimetic words. I think it's hard to translate these haiku.

For example

mizu-makura gabari to samui umi ga aru

Saito Sanki

gabari to: mimetic word, "gabari to" is an unusual word.

Maybe Sanki made a new word. But I can feel suddenness from the sound of "gabari to".

The situation of this haiku is ( in my imagination) :
Sanki had a high fever, so he slept using a water pillow. There were several pieces of ice in it. Sanki was half conscious. When pieces of ice made a low sound, he felt as if he were in a cold sea ( with icebergs ).

The mimetic/onomatopoeic word "gabari to" has the power to make me imagine the above situation.
Perhaps there is no word in English like "gabari to".
Of course, there must be a lot of English mimetic/onomatopoeic words not to be translated into Japanese words.

©　Hiromi / Shiki Archives 1998



Adjectives are frequently used in Japansese haiku, as they fit each situation.
See KERORI below for translation problems.


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In English as in Japanese, onomatopoetic words are those that imitate natural sounds. In Japanese, however, there are literally hundreds of such words, and they are used much more frequently than in English. Words that represent actual sounds (e.g., animal noises) are called giseigo, while words that refer specifically to actions (e.g., to drink with a gulp or to drink sip by sip) are called gitaigo.

Read more HERE !

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Onomatopoeia (occasionally spelled onomateopoeia or onomatopœia) is a word or a grouping of words that imitates the sound it is describing, suggesting its source object, such as "click," "buzz," or animal noises such as "oink", "quack", "slurp", or "meow". The word is a synthesis of the Greek words όνομα (onoma, = "name") and ποιέω (poieō, = "I make" or "I do") thus it essentially means "name creation".

doki doki (ドキドキ): the (speeding up of the) beating of a heart (and thus excitement).
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !



bara bara / giri giri
WKD: Some Japanese Onomatopoetic Words


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ONOMATOPOETIC ENGLISH-JAPANESE DICTIONARY


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Hototogisu, little cuckoo
This is an onomatopoetic word for the bird's call.

Little Cuckoo, C. poliocephalis, hototogisu ホトトギス, 時鳥
kigo for all summer

In 1898 Takahama Kyoshi became the editor of Hototogisu, a magazine of haiku that was started by Shiki.
“Hototogisu” (Japanese literary magazine)

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a house centipede; a galley worm
gejigeji 蚰蜒 (げじげじ)

kigo for all summer

geji, げじ、
big geji, oogeji 大蚰蜒（おおげじ）

Millipede, centipede, mukade,


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Compiled by Larry Bole
(Translating Haiku Forum)

Here is the url for a list of "Japanese Sound effects and what they mean," which is useful in attempting to understand manga:
http://www.oop-ack.com/manga/soundfx.html


Blyth discusses onomatopoeia in "Haiku," Vol. 1, "Eastern Culture," "Section V The Technique of Haiku, 4. Onomatopoeia."

To summarize:

According to Blyth, "of all languages, Japanese is by far the richest in onomatopoeic elements..."

Blyth identifies three types of onomatopoeia:
"(a) The direct representation of the sounds of the outside world by the sound of the voice. ...
(b) The representation of movement, or physical sensation other than that of sound. ...
(c) The representation of soul states. ..."

Blyth quotes the following examples:

(a)

Ochikochi ochikochi to utsu kinuta kana.

Here and there,
There and here,
Beating fulling-blocks.

Buson


Ichi boku to poku poku aruku hanami kana

He ambles along
With his man-servant:
Cherry-blossom viewing.

Kigin


Butsudan ni honzon kaketa ka hototogisu

"Is the main image
Set on the altar?"
Cries the hototogisu.

Soukan



(b)

Ishikawa wa kawarari inazuma sarari kana.

The Stony River rippling,
The lightning
Flickering--

Issa


Yusa-yusa to haru ga yuku zo yo nobe no kusa.

Spring departs,
Trembling, in the grasses
of the fields.

Issa


(c)

Hito chirari konoba mo chirari horari kana.

People are few,
Leaves also fall
Now and then.

Issa


Utagauna ushio no hana mo ura no haru.
(Blyth says in a footnote, "notice the u's, and a's.")

Do not doubt it,
The bay has its spring too,--
The flowers of the tide.

Basho


Osoki hi no tsumorite touki mukashi kana.

Slow days passing, accumulating,--
How distant they are,
The things of the past!

Buson


Osoki hi ya kodama kikoyuru kyou no sumi.

The slow day;
Echoes heard
In a corner of Kyoto.

Buson


After giving these examples, Blyth goes on to say:

"We should remind ourselves once more of Basho's advice to his disciples:

'Repeat (your verses) a thousand times on your lips.'

Haiku, no less than waka, are songs; they are meant to be read aloud, and repeated aloud. Onomatopoeia is not a matter of the eye, though it may help; the full and perfect meaning of a haiku is not realized until it is heard by the physical ear."


Here is another (well-known) haiku taken from another part of Blyth's discussion of onomatopoeia:

Haru no umi hinemosu notari notari kana

The spring sea,
Gently rising and falling,
The whole day long.

Buson


I would say this is an example of (b).


In "The Haiku Handbook," Higginson reiterates Blyth, adding his own thoughts, and also discusses the visual aspect of onomatopoeia (see the book's index).


Joan Giroux, in her book, "The Haiku Form," also discusses onomatopoeia. She gives some of what she describes as "innumerable repetitious and onomatopoeic words" in the Japanese language, such as "'perapera' (fluently), 'pikapika' (shiny), 'pachipachi' (crackling), 'pakapaka' (galloping), 'parapara' (patter), 'wakuwaku' (nervously), [and] 'tsurutsuru' (slippery)--all of which are used to great advantage in haiku."

Ms. Giroux gives one Japanese example of onomatopoeia in haiku:

Uma hokuhoku Ware wo e ni miru Natsu-no kana

I find myself in a picture
The cob ambles slowly
Across the summer moor.

Basho




More LINKS and thoughts on the subject
Larry Bole, Translating Haiku


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Roly poly Daruma of papermachee





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HAIKU

Yosa Buson (1716-1783)

をちこちに滝の音聞く若ばかな
ochikochi ni taki no oto kiku wakaba kana

Everywhere
the sound of waterfalls--
tree leaves still young
Tr. Keiji Minato



遠近をちこちとうつきぬた哉
ochikochi ochikochi to utsu kinuta kana

near and far
here and there the beating sound
of fulling blocks
Tr. Gabi Greve


Fulling blocks are mallets used to beat the washing to get it dry during the Edo period.
Buson uses the Chinese characters and hiragana type of spelling words in a masterly way. this is one of the language forms of haiku that just can not be captured in a translation.


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猫洗ふざぶざぶ川や春の雨
neko arau zabu-zabu kawa ya haru no ame

splish-splash
the cat washes in the river...
spring rain



づぶ濡の仏立けりかんこ鳥
zubunure no hotoke tachi keri kankodori

Buddha stands
drenched to the bone...
mountain cuckoo



いういうと茨のおくの野梅哉
iu-iu to ibara no oku no no ume kana

cool and calm
deep in the thorn thicket...
blooming plum

Issa's iu-iu signifies yuu-yuutaru　悠々たる: quiet and calm.

Kobayashi Issa
Tr. David Lanoue


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はたはたは母が砧としられけり
hata-hata wa haha ga kinuta to shirare keri

clink-clonk
the one pounding cloth
is Mother



子宝の寝顔見へ見へ砧哉
ko-dakara no ne-gao mie mie kinuta kana

watching her treasured
child's sleeping face...
pounding cloth



Kobayashi Issa
Tr. David Lanoue

WKD : kinuta, the fulling block, pounding cloth


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kerori けろり, kerotto けろっと, kerorinkan 　けろりんかん
completely unconcerned, unfazed, as if nothing had happened, just ...


名月にけろりと立しかがし哉
meigetsu ni kerori to tatashi kagashi kana

under the harvest moon
there it stands, unconcerned -
the scarecrow

Kobayashi Issa
Tr. Gabi Greve


Here is another translation by David Lanoue

in the harvest moonlight
unruffled, unaffected
scarecrow

A friend quoted this as an example for Issa, using two adjectives. But the original does not have two adjectives, but one onomatopoetic word.



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Related words

***** WKD : Basic Haiku Theories


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