ながきよの とうのねむりの みなめざめ
なみのりふねの おとの よきかな。
Nagakiyono tōnonemurino minamezame
naminorifuneno otono yokikana.
This will take a lot of room, so let me present the sentence fragment by fragment. I’ll also add breakdowns. My guesses below are based on the correct version of the sentence, not the one with two typos that led me so far astray!
1. Fragment 1: ながきよの (nagakiyono)
名が (naga: name is)
流 (naga(su): to drain, pour)—some form of this verb???
長 (naga(i): long)—some form of this adjective???
長木 (nagaki: long tree!) long + tree
永木 (nagaki: eternal tree?!) eternal + tree
餓鬼 (gaki: (1) brats, kids; (2) hungry ghost; ghoul) hungry + ghost
I imagine there’s quite a story behind this compound! The kun-yomi of 鬼 is oni (horned, evil monsters). But in the context of 餓鬼, this character means “ghost,” according to Halpern.
額 (ga(ku): (1) (framed) picture; (2) amount or sum (of money))—some form of this noun???
学 (gaku: learning, scholarship, knowledge)—some form of this noun???
寄与 (kiyo: contribution; service) unusual + to give
毀誉 (kiyo: disapproval by some and approval by others)
to disapprove + to approve
The first kanji is non-Jōyō. And the kun-yomi of the second kanji is ho(meru), “to praise,” a verb you may know.
清 (kiyo(i): clear; pure; noble)—some form of this adjective???
Fragment 2: とうのねむりの (tōnonemurino)
当の (tōno: the … in question)
眠り (nemuri: sleep)
Fragment 3: みなめざめ (minamezame)
皆 (mina: all; everyone)
御名 (mina: name of God (esp. in Christian contexts); name of Jesus) honorable + name
The first kanji is the go of gozaimasu (御座います), as well as the honorific go of ご家族 (go-kazoku: your family, house + family). You can also read 御名 as gyomei, in which case it means “name of the Emperor.” It’s kind of trippy that a simple change of yomi means a large shift from God to the Emperor, but this also makes sense; until the end of World War II, Japanese subjects were supposed to regard (and often did regard) the Emperor as a god.
目覚め (mezame: waking) eyes + to wake up
Fragment 4: なみのりふねの (naminorifuneno)
波乗り (naminori: surfing) wave + to ride
I love the sound of this word. It somehow matches the undulation of waves. The breakdown of “surfing” as wave + to ride is also great!
船 (fune: boat)
Fragment 5: おとの (otono)
音 (oto: sound, noise)
Fragment 6: よきかな (yokikana)
良き (yoki: goodness; good)
予期 (yoki: expectation, anticipation, hope) in advance + to expect
I thought 期 here would mean something in relation to time, as it does in 期間, kikan: term, period, period + interval; 時期, jiki: time, season, time + period; and 期限 kigen: time limit, term + limit. But in 予期, says Halpern, 期 means “to expect,” just as it does in 期待 (kitai: expectation, to expect + to wait for).
かな (kana: maybe)
Wow, took a loooong time to reach the end of this list. I’m sure the effort prolonged my fever by several days!
