# わがあしかよわく / けわしき山路 / のぼりがたくとも



## msna

Hello everyone,

I have a question and I'm hoping someone here will be able to shed some light in my confusion. 

I've been struggling to read the novel Pandora no Hako (パンドラの匣) by Osamu Dazai, for quite some time. Everytime I've started to read it, I've kinda given up because it depresses me to see that I have to make it almost a study session, instead of just sitting there and reading relaxedly, like I would with any other book in English or Spanish. It depresses me to see my Japanese is so poor and I end up giving up. 

Lately, I've decided to start again (in an attempt to improve my Japanese) and I'm trying to understand the first page, that I had simply ignored at first.

The part I'm trying to understand is a quote from "さんびか第百五十九". It goes like this:


 わがあしかよわく　　けわしき山路（やまじ）
のぼりがたくとも　　ふもとにありて
たのしきしらべに　　たえずうたわば
ききていさみたつ　　ひとこそあらめ


It's the starting quote before the first part of the book, called 正義と微笑.

And, as much as I've tried, I don't understand it at all. ~_~ I've searched for さんびか第百五十九 in Google and I've only found references to this book and this same part I'm trying to understand... 

So, if anyone could help me either get what these phrases mean, what any of the words mean or what is this さんびか第百五十九... I'd be more than thankful. 

You can find the book I'm trying to read here.

Thank you very much for your input, beforehand.


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## kaito

I'll try to make it into semi-modern Japanese, at least as far as I believe to understand.
Take this with (more than) a grain of salt 

私の足は弱弱しくて　険しい山路が
登りがたくとも　麓に居て
楽しい調べに　絶えずに歌えば
聞いて勇み立つ　人こそあらめ

Is あらめ the 已然形 of あらむ as in ある＋む? Why is it in the 已然形 ?

Looking forward to a native speakers reply


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## msna

Wow, thanks for your reply, Kaito-san. It's still a complicated Japanese sentence, but at least words show up in the dictionary now. 

Thanks for your help. Let's hope some more people help us understand this! ^^

By the way, I'm truly impressed that you can understand that kind of Japanese. *-*  I wish I was you! 

Thanks again.


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## Flaminius

kaito said:


> 人こそあらめ
> 
> Is あらめ the 已然形 of あらむ as in ある＋む? Why is it in the 已然形?


あらめ is the irrealis form of _ari_ (_ara_) combined with the realis form of _mu_ (_me_).  The realis form is required at the end of a sentence that contains _koso_.  This is one of the _kakarimusubi_ binding rules.

This is all mechanical once _koso_ is introduced in the sentence.  That is, there is no change in meaning.


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## kaito

So it's 居よう then ?

Thanks for the explanation, I hadn't heard of those rules before but then again there's much I haven't heard yet on that topic anyways.


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## msna

Wow, I had never heard of kakarimusubi or koso or anything like that... :O  At least, not by those names. I'll have to look them up and study them... :O

Thank you for your explanation, Flaminius.


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## Flaminius

kaito said:


> So it's 居よう then?


[No punctuation marks in English should be separated from what precedes.]
Yes, you can modernise it as いよう but _-yō_, like _-mu_, can be either volitional or inferential.  I'd change it to いるだろう to make the text unambiguous.


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## kaito

Flaminius said:


> [No punctuation marks in English should be separated from what precedes.]
> Yes, you can modernise it as いよう but _-yō_, like _-mu_, can be either volitional or inferential.  I'd change it to いるだろう to make the text unambiguous.


Thanks for the reply and the correction.
I was never sure if I should put a space there or not.


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## minus273

Flaminius said:


> あらめ is the irrealis form of _ari_ (_ara_) combined with the realis form of _mu_ (_me_).  The realis form is required at the end of a sentence that contains _koso_.  This is one of the _kakarimusubi_ binding rules.
> 
> This is all mechanical once _koso_ is introduced in the sentence.  That is, there is no change in meaning.


And poets introduce a lot of ぞ's and こそ's, wishing to show off their knowledge of the grammar.
Like Byzantines forcing on themselves the optative.


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