[KineJapan] Naruse's "Aki tachinu"

[Michael Kerpan]

Susan --

The film is one of Naruse's rare child-oriented films, with a low-status school boy and a more well-to-do school girl becoming friends and then parting (presumably forever).

Definitely a harder title to construe than Naruse's earlier "Haru no mezame". ;~}

Thanks


Michael



________________________________
 From: Susan Klein <sbklein at uci.edu>
To: kinejapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu 
Sent: Sunday, October 6, 2013 8:51 AM
Subject: Re: [KineJapan] Naruse's "Aki tachinu"
 


Dick is correct that there are two "nu" in Classical Japanese, one indicating negation (following the mizenkei, tatanu) and one indicating completion (following the renyokei, tachinu). So this has to be completion. 

The confusion in the translation may come from the fact that the
      completion nu is not necessarily past tense -- it could be
      "began," "begins," or "will begin" -- it simply indicates
      completion of the act. So without context, the translation could
      be "Autumn has begun/arrived" (Autumn has Already Started) or
      "Autumn begins/arrives" (The Approach/Arrival of Autumn). The
      latter translated title nominalizes the verb, but that is just the
      translator taking license.

Note also that the underlying sense of tachinu used with seasonal phrases is often that you have just realized that the seasons have changed. If used with autumn, metaphorically this will often be linked to a realization that old age is creeping up, etc. etc. 

This does not answer the question of which translated title better
      fits the film, only that it is possible to see how the translators
      would have arrived at their translations using nu as completion,
      not negation.

~~Susan



Susan Blakeley Klein
Associate Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture
HIB 479
Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures
University of California
Irvine, CA 92697-6000
email: sbklein at uci.edu
On 10/6/13 3:07 AM, Dick Stegewerns wrote:

Dear Michael,

My classical Japanese classes are quite some time ago, but since
        this is the verb 'tatsu' you would need 'tata-' (izenkei or mizenkei, forgot which one) to make a negation (modern tatanai, or slightly older tatanu), while this more archaic form where -nu is added to 'tachi-' (probably renyokei) is affirmative and thus should mean that something has come about. Although 'tatsu' can also mean 'to leave'...

Best, 

Dick



Op 6-10-2013 6:46, Michael Kerpan schreef:

I think this may have come up before...
>
>The former standard translation of this film's tile seems to
          have been something like "The Approach of Autumn" (and
          something similar in French).  IMDB now lists the English
          title as "Autumn Has Already Started".  Apparently the -nu in
          tachinu can indicate either negation or that something is
          starting...  How on earth does one figure out which is the
          correct meaning?
>
>
>
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