永遠に私の心に eien ni watashi no kokoro ni Forever in My Heart
永遠に私の心に (eien ni watashi no kokoro ni), forever in my heart, is the sentence grief and gratitude write with the verb left off, here keeping my, the closer copy of the English. Its three pages before 1946 are three different hearts: a storm on the Yangtze in 1926, a disciple's master in 1935, and Clara Schumann's words for Robert's songs in 1941.
Abstract
永遠に私の心に, forever in my heart, uses 永遠, the Japanese word for eternity, as the adverb forever, before in my heart. It is an adverbial fragment in both languages, the way such things are said on stone, and it has no author. Before 1946 the exact string stands on three pages, each a different heart: a student's storm on the Yangtze in 1926, a disciple of Shibusawa Eiichi in 1935, and, in a life of 1941, Clara Schumann writing of Robert's songs.
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. 永遠に私の心に is forever, in my heart, the same sentence as 永遠に心の中に with my kept. Japanese drops the possessor when it is obvious, so this is the closer copy of the English and the shorter the more natural Japanese.
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]. 私 watashi, I, whose oldest citation is a 古今集 poem of Mibu no Tadamine [2]; 心 kokoro, the heart as the seat of feeling and mind, cited from the 古事記 of 712 [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 永遠に私の心に 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
1926 to 1941. Forever in my heart. The version with my is the older in print, and its three prewar pages are three different hearts. A student of the East Asia Common Culture Academy, coming down the Yangtze in 1926, writes of a storm: 豫言的な空恐ろしい天の默示は永遠に私の心におのゝいてゐる, that prophetic, terrifying revelation of the sky trembles forever in my heart [5]. A disciple of Shibusawa Eiichi, in a memorial volume of 1935, hopes that 先生の心の光が永遠に私の心に灑ぎ込み光被せんことを, the light of the master's heart may pour forever into my heart [6]. And Harada Mitsuko's life of Clara Schumann, of 1941, has Clara write, of Robert's songs, these exact words: 「これ等の歌謠は永遠に私の心に鳴り響いてゐる。今後他の何人に歌はれるのも、最早興味を持てないと云ひたい程である。」, these songs ring forever in my heart; I could almost say I have no interest in hearing anyone else sing them from now on [7]. The version without my, 永遠に心の中に, has one prewar page, a teachers' conference of 1927 [8].
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 three pages show it doing so; Clara's line is a biographer's Japanese of 1941, writing the same sentence independently.
A reading
The same sentence as 永遠に心の中に, with my kept, and the choice between them is a choice between natural Japanese and a closer copy of the English. This one is what an English speaker will recognize. 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
- 「私」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/私
- 「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
- JMdict (EDRDG), 「永遠」, at jisho. https://jisho.org/word/永遠
- 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
- 渋沢青淵述, 『処世訓言集』, 東洋生命保険, 1935, scan 48. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1110717/1/48
- 原田光子, 『真実なる女性クララ・シュウマン』, 第一書房, 1941, scan 119. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1238845/1/119
- 『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