Ringai

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Ringai 林外

(17th Century?)


?Hayashige
林外記（はやしげき：）
〈〉江戸前期の熊本藩家臣


Hirose Ringai
廣瀬林外（1835-1874）


Maeda Ringai
Poet
前田　林外 1864(元治元. 3. 3) 1946. 7.13(昭和21)
◇詩人。本名は儀作。播磨(ﾊﾘﾏ)国(現:兵庫県)青山村生れ。 　大阪泰西学館英学科に学び、貿易会社勤務を経て、1887. 9. (明治20)東京専門学校(現:早稲田大学)英語普通科に入学、 1890(明治23)同校を卒業。同年、同校に創設された文学科に再 入学するが中退。さらに仏蘭西語専修学校や東京外国語学校露 語科に学ぶ。


I am not sure about the identity of RINGAI.
Any help is welcome.

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汲上る 水に春たつ 光りかな
kumiageru mizu ni haru tatsu hikari kana

In these dark waters
Drawn up from my frozen well...
Glittering of spring

Tr. Peter Bielenson


In the water I draw up
Glitters the beginning
Of spring.

Tr. Blyth


glimmers
in the well drawn water --
spring begins!

(translation by chibi)

Comment by chibi

The word "glimmers" from my muse gave a notion of the deeper meaning thought present in Ringai sama's poem. I visualized looking into the well bucket and seeing the "glimmers" of spring's arrival in the well water. Because of the lexiconal differences between Japanese and English, the "kana" or a rough equivalent using the exclamation mark "!" was placed in such a way to reverberate the first line in the English version.

This basic structural differences between the two languages does and can cause a trade off between word position in the orginal and closer emotional content of the translated poem with the orginal.

Blyth's translations (being enfluenced by his belief at the time that the translation should be "informative" is somewhat off-center to the emotional mark of the poem. Blyth is a master of this technique during his time, but, I think now, because of the chance for understanding a deeper cultural basis through analysis and study made ultra-accessable through tools like the internet, we have an opportunity to translate the emotional impact more inline with the
times in which the poem was written.


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