永遠に心の中に eien ni kokoro no naka ni Forever in My Heart
永遠に心の中に (eien ni kokoro no naka ni), forever in the heart, is the sentence grief and gratitude write with the verb left off, here without my, which Japanese drops when it is plain. Its one page before 1946 is a teachers' conference of 1927, hoping a school motto will lodge forever in a child's heart.
Abstract
永遠に心の中に, forever in my heart, uses 永遠, the Japanese word for eternity, as the adverb forever, before in the heart, with no possessor, which Japanese leaves out when it is obvious. It is an adverbial fragment in both languages, the way such things are said on stone, and it has no author. Before 1946 the string stands on one page, of 1927, where a teachers' conference hopes a school motto will lodge forever in a child's heart; the version with my, 永遠に私の心に, is the older in print.
Overview
The sense. Standard written Japanese; 永遠 is a literary and philosophical noun, at home on a gravestone, in a hymn and in a pop lyric. 永遠 eien is the Japanese noun for eternity and the adverb for forever: the dictionaries' first citation is Nakamura Masanao's 1871 rendering of Samuel Smiles, and its second sense, eternity as what stands outside time, enters with the Tokyo philosophers' vocabulary of 1881. 永遠に心の中に is forever, in the heart, the same sentence as 永遠に私の心に without my. Japanese drops the possessor when it is obvious, so this is the more natural Japanese of the two and the other the closer copy of the English.
The words. 永遠 eien. デジタル大辞泉: いつまでも果てしなく続くこと。時間を超えて存在すること, continuing without end; existing beyond time, with the examples 永遠に残る名曲, a song that will last forever, and 永遠のスター. 精選版日本国語大辞典 gives the same first sense with its synonyms 永久, とこしえ, 永劫, and dates it: 永遠無疆の福を望むことなり, to hope for a blessedness without end, in 西国立志編 (1870–71), Nakamura Masanao's translation of Self-Help; the second sense, existence outside time, is cited from the 哲学字彙 of 1881 as the entry Eternity 永遠; the dictionary adds that the compound is older in Chinese, in the 書経 [1]. 心 kokoro, the heart as the seat of feeling and mind, cited from the 古事記 of 712 [2]; 中 naka, inside [3].
The text in English. Forever is an adverb and 永遠に does the same work; 永遠 alone is also the noun eternity, which English keeps separate. Where the two languages differ is in warmth: forever in English is worn smooth by songs and cards, while 永遠 keeps a slight formality, the word of philosophy and of the Christian hymnal, so that 永遠に心の中に reads a little higher than forever in my heart. The bilingual dictionary gives 永遠 as eternity; perpetuity; permanence; immortality and no more [4]. Forever in my heart is an English formula of memorial cards and headstones with no author. The adverb is what a rendering keeps: 永遠に is forever, not eternal, and the phrase is an adverbial fragment in both languages, a sentence with the verb left off.
The historical record
1927. Forever in the heart, at a teachers' conference. The version without my has one page before 1946, a teachers' conference of 1927 on what a school motto should do for a child: 永遠に心の中に信念化して宿り彼等に正しき方向を示すやう。そして卒業後の七轉八苦の中に常に甦へる愛の鞭であり力の泉でありたい, may it lodge forever in the heart as a conviction and show them the right direction; may it be a whip of love and a spring of strength that revives in the struggles after graduation [5]. The version with my, 永遠に私の心に, is the older in print: a student coming down the Yangtze in 1926 already writes of a storm that 永遠に私の心におのゝいてゐる, trembles forever in my heart [6].
What is not a source. The phrase has no author. It is what the language produces whenever grief or gratitude needs a sentence, and the pages show it doing so.
A reading
The same sentence as 永遠に私の心に, less my, and the choice between them is a choice between natural Japanese and a closer copy of the English. This one is what a Japanese hand would write. 永遠 was made for eternity and it has not lost that size, so the heart it is set beside is held a little higher than the English holds it.
References
- 「永遠」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/永遠
- 「心」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/心
- 「中」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/中
- JMdict (EDRDG), 「永遠」, at jisho. https://jisho.org/word/永遠
- 『高等小学教育の研究：第二十九回全国訓導協議会記録』, 大日本図書, 1927, scan 285. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1460507/1/285
- 東亜同文書院第二十二期生編, 『乗雲騎月』, 1926, scan 362. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1915533/1/362