Elan Vital's Blog

One of my Twitter mutuals, @4T1Lo3Seagle, found this “audio” clip on Youtube.

Officially in NHK’s video archive,  there is only one episode left for this Taiga Drama–episode 50, the final chapter on the battle of Kawanakajima. But it seems somehow this uploader has the video or at least audio recordings of other episodes and made this audio clip to extract the highlights.

It may not be easy to follow what they say if you are not a native speaker of Japanese, but just listening to the music pieces written by Mr. TOMITA Isao for this drama, I’m sure you will find it amazing. Not only the opening theme but also other pieces are so beautiful, classy, elegant but yet with good flow and interesting change of tempos.

As @4T1Lo3Seagle mentioned, if there had been a soundtrack available for the “Ten to Chi to” Taiga Drama series, editing the music clips might have been easier for Yuzu.

At around 46:40, Lord Kenshin’s speech to his men before the battle of Kawanakajima starts.

Listen! The fate of Masatora^*1 solely lies in this battle. Strike at the heart of the enemy as one. Our only target is the enemy’s general, TAKEDA Shingen! Avoid useless battles as much as possible. If anybody stands in your way, slash him with the sword, or pierce him with the spear! When your sword has broken, or you have consumed all the arrows, bite off the throat of your enemy!  That’s the war. Think that this battle is the very first step to establish order in the Capital of Kyoto! This is the time to demonstrate the spirit and ability of Samurai in Echigo.  Go, proceed towards the target!

<Original Japanese>

聞け！この政虎が一世の運否、ひとえに今日の戦にあり。討って一丸となって敵の中枢を突け。目指すは敵将武田信玄ただ一人！無駄な戦闘は極力避けよ。行く手を阻むものあらば斬り捨てよ。突き捨てよ！刀折れ矢が突きた時は喉笛を食いちぎれ。これが戦だ。京都の都に秩序を打ち立てる第一歩の戦と思え。越後武士の本領これに在り。いざ目して^*2行け！」

Translator’s note:

1. Masatora is the name of Kenshin at the time of 4th battle of Kawanakajima. Several months before the battle, he became the head of Uesugi family and inherited the position of Kanto Kanrei (関東管領, or a shogunal deputy of the Kanto region). On this opportunity he changed his name from NAGAO Kagetora to UESUGI Masatora.
2.  I (@evergreenjade) transcribed “Iza-Mokushite-Ike” as “いざ目して行け” and translated it into “Go, proceed towards the target!”. However there could be another intepretation. @4T1Lo3Seagle transcribed it as “いざ黙して行け” and in this case, the translation will be “Go, go in silence”.  Both could be possible — since there are so many honomyms in the Japanese language, this kind of situation sometimes happens. If “Iza-Mokushite-Ike” is supposed to resonate with “Our only target is the enemy’s general, TAKEDA Shingen!”, the former interpretation works fine. If “Iza-Mokushite-Ike” is associated with “Samurai in Echigo”, the latter interpretaiton is possible. Or could be both. The Japanese people love this kind of dual meaning, pun or play on words. Since this is not taken from the novel, but scinerio writer’s original text, there is no means to confirm what was the intention of the writer.

And then the opening theme comes in. What an impressive drama making!

First published:

2021-01-13

Edited: 2021-01-14

(minor correction and addition of translator’s notes)

Shortly after the Japanese Nationals 2020, there was a discussion on how we should call his free program name (or music name) in English, partly because his music was not updated in the ISU bio.

We naturally started to call it “Heaven and Earth” but is it really good enough?

As the translator in this tweet precisely noticed, the literal translation is “Heaven and Earth, and“.

Part 4 pic.twitter.com/EcJjblilHC

— axelwithwings (@axelwithwings) December 30, 2020

So something is missing after the final “and”. Actually, this is one of the techniques commonly used in the Japanese culture to intentionally leave a vacant/ white space, or something untold, to induce the imagination of the readers or those who appreciate the artifacts.

What is missing, then? If you are familiar with Chinese classics, you will almost instantly tell that’s a “Jin（人）”  factor.

It is from “天時不如地利, 地利不如人和” (Japanese: 天の時は地の利に如かず、地の利は人の和に如かず) from Mencius (孟子）.  There is an English translation on this page.

Opportunities of time vouchsafed by Heaven are not equal to advantages of situation afforded by the Earth, and advantages of situation afforded by the Earth are not equal to the union arising from the accord of Men.

公孙丑下 – Gong Sun Chou II

Here Mencius talks about his theory when you try to achieve something. When it was introduced later in Japan, warlords and Samurai got familiar with this concept, since they learned Chinese classics since they were pupils.

Later this set of three words are used aside from the context of the strategy of war or battle. For instance, in Ikebana (生け花）, they also say “It (Ikebana) creates harmony and expresses the three elements of heaven, earth, and human.”

source: https://www.85begin.com/columns/ikebana-english

Then if the “Jin(人)” factor is missing, who is implied here?  I dare not tell you, because it is needless to say.

Considering all of this, I feel “Between Heaven and Earth” is a more relevant translation, as some Twitter mutual of mine, who is an English native speaker suggested.

I also found some good material to support this argument, which is the closing narration of episode 50 of NHK’s Taiga Drama “Ten to Chi to”, the only recording we can see now.

https://www.nhk-ondemand.jp/program/P200900027500000/

(Unfortunately, it is geo-controlled –only residents in Japan can watch.)

The closing narration says,

Between the endless heavens and endless earth, there was Masatora*. The sky was blue with freely flowing clouds.

<Original Japanese>

果てしなく続く天と地の間に政虎がいた。悠々と雲の流れる青い空。

＊Translator’s note: The Japanese people in the pre-modern era often have multiple names and change names as they grow, or on the occasion of important events. The name of UESUGI Kenshin at the time of the 4th battle of Kawanakajima is Masatora.

Notes:

• Since videotapes were very expensive at that time (NHK’s Taiga Drama”Ten to Chi to” was aired in 1969), tapes were used again and again overwriting the older recording.
• The film produced by Kadokawa based on the same novel, released in 1990 adopted the translation “Heaven and Earth”.