Eejanaika / translation

[Raji Steineck]

Dear colleagues,

Richard Bowring will know where this is coming from, but I am wondering whether there is an established English translation of eejanaika,  the formula that also gave the name to the choreomaniac and sometimes rebellious religious movement. Google scholar tells me it mostly goes untranslated. Tessa Morris-Suzuki has offered "isn't it great?" in a 2017 article on "Disaster and Utopia". Do you think that works, or would you suggest other options?

Thank you,

and best regards,

Raji

Raji C. Steineck

Universität Zürich

Zürichbergstrasse 4

8032 Zürich

Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera

[Richard Bowring]

Ryoukai.

I think I would go for “what the hell!” But it will be interesting to see what others come up with. I wonder how you would render it in German?

Richard Bowring 

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On 15 Feb 2023, at 10:51, Raji Steineck <raji.s...@aoi.uzh.ch> wrote:



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[Michael Jamentz]

How about

"We're having a damn good time, aren't we?!  [And don't dare get in our way]." ?

m. jamentz

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[Kauê Metzger Otávio]

How curious it was to find this topic having read about this subject earlier today. I study Kamakura and Muromachi Japan, but I'm preparing a paper for a course in which I discuss military reforms in nineteenth-century Japan. In "The Making of Modern Japan" (Marius B. Jansen, 2000), it is translated as "Isn't it grand!" and "Isn't it O.K.?" (p. 324). Pretty much the same as the translation you've come across, unfortunately.

Anyway, wish you all the luck finding more translations for the expression.

All the best,

Kauê

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[Mary Louise P. Nagata]

I think of eejanaika as ‘Why not?’, “Whatever!’

Mary Louise Nagata

 

 

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Ryoukai.

I think I would go for “what the hell!” But it will be interesting to see what others come up with. I wonder how you would render it in German?

Richard Bowring 

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[Howell, David L]

Dear Raji,

There isn't a consensus translation into English for the Restoration-period eejanaika phenomenon. Richard Bowling’s “what the hell” is what I generally use myself, but George M. Wilson, both in his book, Patriots and Redeemers in Japan (University of Chicago Press, 1992), and in an article, “Ee ja nai ka on the Eve of the Meiji Restoration,” Semiotica 70:3-4 (1988): 301–20, resists imposing a single translation—he uses the Japanese consistently, while offering a hodgepodge of possible translations, such as “why not?,” “isn’t is good?” and “ain’t it grand?” (In the book he may suggest “what the hell” as well, but I don’t have it to hand at the moment). He does consistently break it up as ee ja nai ka, though many others close it as eejanaika. 

Best,

David Howell

David L. Howell
Robert K. and Dale J. Weary Professor of Japanese History
Chair, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations
Professor of History

Editor, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies
Harvard University

Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations
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dho...@fas.harvard.edu

[Constantine Vaporis]

Greetings,

The term (eejanaika) is often translated differently, as I recall, in the same stanza of the songs that were sung in various places across Japan--sometimes as "isn't it great" and sometimes as "what the hell?!". (There is of course the question of literal meaning vs. figurative usage, no?) Richard Wilson (Patriots and Redeemers) has a chapter on the subject you might consult. E. Herbert Norman wrote on it as well. And most recently, Takashi Miura's "The Ee ja naika and the Meiji Restoration" in the Journal of Religion in Japan. You might consult these to compare translations.

Best,

Constantine

Dr. Constantine N. Vaporis

Founding Director, UMBC Asian Studies Program, 2011-17

Lipitz Professor of the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, 2022-23

Presidential Research Professor (UMBC), 2013-16

Professor of History, Affiliate Professor, Asian Studies and Gender & Women's Studies

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Published in October 2022 by Tuttle Publishing: 
The Samurai Encyclopedia. A Comprehensive Guide to Japan's Elite Warrior Class

[Nosco, Peter]

For a Canadian touch, I recommend “Nice, eh?”

Peter

 

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Subject: Re: [PMJS] Eejanaika / translation

 

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[Pinnington, Noel J - (noelp)]

The question I have always have in this regard is: are we to think of eejanaika as having more or less the same nuances as MJ iijanaika?

Noel Pinnington 

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[Michael Pye]

Dear colleagues,
I don't think that "Isn't it great?" really gets it, because that
doesn't have the hint of behavioural permissiveness found in
eejanaika. "What the hell?" is neatly colloquial, but it could also
mean something different, namely surprise, as in "What on earth?" So
if the purpose of the translation is to convey the strength of this
slogan to an English reader it has to be something more like:
"anything goes" or "let your hair down".
As to German, in my recent *Religionsgeschichte Japans* I
tentatively glossed it as "das geht doch, oder", taking it as an
expression symbolic of the "Lockerung der Moral" typical of pilgrims
letting off steam. But "das geht doch, oder" is an explanatory
rendition rather than a compact slogan.
best wishes,
Michael Pye


A translation can vary according to the contextual sentene,ce, paragraph etc,

Zitat von Raji Steineck <raji.s...@aoi.uzh.ch>:

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[LeRon Harrison]

Much of the conversation has taken Eejanai ka as something in the past, but Eejanai ka is something that does occur in the present, particularly within the Bon Odori dances of the Buddhist Temples on the West Coast. The dance that bears the same name opens with movements depicting various forms of labor (shovellng, hammering, and hauling up fishing nets), then wiping the sweat away, followed by the processional waving of the movement and the closing movement of throwing away all the labor and the accompanying stress. With that in mind I would offer the translation of "Won't it be nice" as the translation. The dance and the movement I think are more aspirational invoking the notion that it would be great to leave all the troubles and demands of the world behind. Or I'd offer up "Must Be Nice" drawing on the song by Lyfe Jennings where he sings about the positivity of having a woman who supports you through all the problems going on in life. It's that aspirational nature that I haven't seen in the translations offered up thus far.

-LeRon Harrison

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[Michael Pye]

Dear Noel,
I have also had this question floating around in my mind, but
failing reasonings to the contrary I have been concluding that it does
have more or less the same nuance. This is effectively supported by
the detailed study by John Breen: "Pilgrims's Pleasures: Ise and its
pleasures in the Edo Period" being chapter 7 of the book written by
him and Mark Teeuwen: A Social History of the Ise Shrines: Divine
Capital (2017).
Basically, having performed o-mairi, there was not much else to
do at Ise except indulge in some transitory pleasure before returning
to the daily round. That was evidently big business. Corrections
welcome of course....
Michael Pye

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[Matthew Stavros]

There's a perfect Australian colloquialism for eejanaika, but I don't think I can write it here! 

Matthew Stavros, PhD 

www.mstavros.com | www.kyotohistory.com

A new translation of Hōjōki

餓鬼草紙 詞書　全文翻刻・現代語訳

 

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[Chris Kern]

YOLO

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[John Szostak]

I was going to suggest "Who gives a damn?" or even something stronger... Is that close to what you had in mind, Matthew?

- john

John Szostak, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Japanese Art History <szo...@hawaii.edu> Art History Graduate Director <grad...@hawaii.edu> University of Hawai'i at Manoa 2535 McCarthy Mall, Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822 Pronouns: he, him, his

 

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[Matthew Stavros]

Upvoting YOLO. 

Matthew Stavros

This message was composed on a small mobile device. Please excuse the brevity and any typos or infelicities.

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[Gian-Piero Persiani]

In the spirit of care-free translational pluralism that runs through the thread, let me propose "Nothing wrong with that!". It conveys the posture of defiance expressed by the Japanese phrase, and also has the same nice syncopated rhythm, something that all good street slogans must have. Should this catch on, you saw it here first. :)

Gian-Piero Persiani

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

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[Jordan Sand]

I rather like "why not?" as a translation of ee ja nai ka, for its provocative "who's going to stop us?" quality, but in translation, context is everything. As the examples in Wilson show, sometimes ee ja nai ka came as part of a sentence, such as "Nipponkoku no yonaori wa ee ja nai ka"-- "Isn't Japan's renewal good?" Wilson also records that British consul Ernest Satow landed in the midst of the "violent united dance" in Osaka and had another interpretation: "We found the whole population occupied with festivities in honour of the approaching opening of the city to foreign trade." In this case, perhaps "hurrah for laissez faire!"

Jordan

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Jordan Sand
Professor of Japanese History
Georgetown University

[Nick Kapur]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for a fascinating discussion! Insofar as "ee ja nai ka" is, even today, what somebody in Japan might say annoyedly when someone demands to know why they are doing something, or scolds them to stop doing something, as a way of saying they should mind their own business, my own favorite translation is the simple "Who cares?" It has the added benefit of capturing fairly well the millenarian attitude that nothing matters anymore.

Following a similar line of reasoning, you might arrive at a much more provocative translation of "F*** off" (which perhaps was alluded to above?) but introducing the swear word is probably too strong.

Nick Kapur

Rutgers University

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[Adam L. Kern]

As someone who considers himself to be an aspiring translator, I’m enjoying the hell out of this discussion, not only for the delicious irony of so many scholars giving a damn about how to express not giving a damn, but also because translation itself is regrettably undervalued in our field as “legitimate” scholarship. To wit: many journals in recent years have been shying away from reviewing dedicated books of translation, even though most students, not to mention scholars, make use of those books to one extant or another. Oh, well. Probably ain’t no matter! Which, come to think of it, would be my rendering of ee ja nai ka, given it’s colloquial feel. That said, I’d also second Professor Szostak’s “Who gives a damn?!” which is what first leapt to mind.

 

Best,

 

Adam Kern

University of Wisconsin-Madison / University of Tokyo

[Christopher Hepburn]

I was going to chime in with “quite frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” but I could hear the groans as I typed it. 

(Does this group have yearly proceedings? If so, this discussion should certainly make the list.)

Christopher

-

Christopher Hepburn, PhD

University of Southern California 

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[Jos Vos]

"Translation itself is regrettably undervalued in our field as “legitimate” scholarship. To wit: many journals in recent years have been shying away from reviewing dedicated books of translation, even though most students, not to mention scholars, make use of those books to one extant or another" (Adam L. Kern)

Hear, hear!

(And let's not forget the general reader either.)

Jos

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From: 'Adam L. Kern' via PMJS: Listserv <pm...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: 16 February 2023 02:59
To: pm...@googlegroups.com <pm...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [PMJS] Eejanaika / translation

 

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[Raji Steineck]

Dear all,

thanks to everyone who responded to my query! This was really helpful, and fun to read, too. The recent article by Miura, by the way, only mentions "“Isn’t It Good” as a literal translation. PMJS collective wisdom was so much more forthcoming!

With gratitude,

Raji

Prof. Dr. Raji C. Steineck

Japanologie, Asien-Orient-Institut

Universität Zürich

Zürichbergstrasse 4

8032 Zürich

Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera

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Gesendet: Donnerstag, 16. Februar 2023 03:59
An: pm...@googlegroups.com <pm...@googlegroups.com>
Betreff: [PMJS] Eejanaika / translation

 

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[Margaret Dorothea Mehl]

Reinhard Zöllner, who published a book on Eejanaika (Japans Karneval der Krise, iudicium, 2003), translated it as "wird schon recht sein" (p. 21). He explains the connotations in more detail on pp. 352-54.

Karneval - very seasonal! (Today is "Weiberfastnacht" in the Rheinland, where, unlike Denmark the season starts already in November...

Best wishes,

Margaret

Margaret Mehl, Dr. Phil. (Bonn), Dr. Phil. (Copenhagen) Associate Professor

Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies
UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN
Karen Blixens Plads 8, DK 2300 Copenhagen S

Out now:

History and the State in Nineteenth-Century Japan: The World, the Nation and the Search for a Modern Past. Second Edition with New Preface.

For details, please see www.margaretmehl.com

邦訳:  http://www.utp.or.jp/book/b313429.html

Margaret Mehl: Not by Love Alone: The Violin in Japan, 1850 – 2010. A history of the violin’s place in the musical culture of Japan from the opening of Japan to the West to the start of the third millennium. For details please see  www.notbylovealone.com ! Bookvideo at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fmX6XpUIKg

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Subject: Re: [PMJS] Eejanaika / translation

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[萬井 良大]

Dear colleagues,

If this thread is already closed, sorry for joining in late. How about simply "Congrats!." The word "eejanaika" is used for pre-celebration by seeing the omen of a happy occasion, such as social reform 世直し.

I disagree with "What the hell," because it takes the lyrics out of context. While I agree that there are such nuances, I still think it is better to follow the main context.

Yoshihiro Man'i

On 2023/02/17 1:03, Raji Steineck wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> thanks to everyone who responded to my query! This was really helpful, and fun to read, too. The recent article by Miura, by the way, only mentions "“Isn’t It Good” as a literal translation. PMJS collective wisdom was so much more forthcoming!
>
> With gratitude,
>
> Raji
>
>
> Prof. Dr. Raji C. Steineck
> Japanologie, Asien-Orient-Institut
> Universität Zürich
> Zürichbergstrasse 4
> 8032 Zürich
> Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera
>

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *Von:* 'Adam L. Kern' via PMJS: Listserv <pm...@googlegroups.com>
> *Gesendet:* Donnerstag, 16. Februar 2023 03:59
> *An:* pm...@googlegroups.com <pm...@googlegroups.com>
> *Betreff:* [PMJS] Eejanaika / translation
>
> As someone who considers himself to be an aspiring translator, I’m enjoying the hell out of this discussion, not only for the delicious irony of so many scholars giving a damn about how to express not giving a damn, but also because translation itself is regrettably undervalued in our field as “legitimate” scholarship. To wit: many journals in recent years have been shying away from reviewing dedicated books of translation, even though most students, not to mention scholars, make use of those books to one extant or another. Oh, well. Probably ain’t no matter! Which, come to think of it, would be my rendering of /ee ja nai ka/, given it’s colloquial feel. That said, I’d also second Professor Szostak’s “Who gives a damn?!” which is what first leapt to mind.

>
> Best,
>
> Adam Kern
>
> University of Wisconsin-Madison / University of Tokyo
>
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[Michael Dylan Welch]

I asked my Japanese wife what this term meant, and when I said it she immediately said "Isn't it great?" or "It's great!"

Michael Dylan Welch

Sammamish, Washington

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[DGP]

An interrogative construction like "Isn't it great" would be made rhetorical, in this case gleeful or celebratory (nod to Man'i-san), if punctuated with a simple "!".  Isn't it great!  Or double it, "!!," to suggest a wilder glee or euphoria.

Dale

[DGP]

| An interrogative construction like [...] Isn't it great!(!)  

Wouldn't (or couldn't) this even duplicate the ironic undertone of this particular ええじゃないか?

Dale