心の儘 kokoro no mama Follow Your Heart
心の儘 (kokoro no mama), as the heart wills, is a Heian phrase a thousand years old, in the 竹取物語 of about 900 and the 源氏物語. It says freedom, and from the 太平記 on it can also say license, doing as one pleases, which is the edge worth knowing.
Abstract
心の儘, kokoro no mama, as the heart wills, is a classical Japanese phrase and a headword of the 日本国語大辞典. It is Heian, in the 竹取物語 of about 900 and in the 源氏物語, and from the 太平記 on it can also carry license, doing as one pleases. It runs through a tea manual of 1686 and 本居宣長, and the National Diet Library's full-text index has it in 5,670 books.
Overview
The sense. As the heart wills: freedom to act on what one feels, and, in the older texts, sometimes the license to do as one pleases.
The words. 心の儘 kokoro no mama is as the heart wills: まま, from まにま, the state as it is, and the 日本国語大辞典 heads the whole phrase, 心に思う通り。心まかせ。思う存分 [1].
The text in English. Follow your heart rises tenfold after 1980; the subtitle corpus gives 自分の心に従え, 思うようにしなさい, and 心のまま is a description, as the heart wills, where the English is an instruction.
The historical record
About 900. 心の儘, in the classics. It is Heian. The 竹取物語: 心の儘にもえせめず, he could not press her as he wished [2]; the 源氏物語, 篝火, 御心のままに押したちて, and 常夏, 心のままにも折り取らぬを [3]; the 今鏡, 御心のままに [4]; and in the 太平記 it takes on license, 御心の侭に極侈, indulged himself at will, and 趙高が心の侭にぞ行ひける, Zhao Gao ran the state as he pleased [5]. It is in a tea manual of 1686 (下火を心の侭に直し) [6] and in 宣長 [7], and the index has it in 5,670 books.
What is not a source. The Chinese 心之所向 is a different phrase.
A reading
The classical phrase, a thousand years old: it says as the heart wills, freedom, and in the old texts sometimes license, which is the edge worth knowing. The English follow your heart turns the description into advice; the Japanese only says how a thing was done.
Notes
儘 is the full glyph, which Edo print often writes 侭 and the dictionaries write in kana; all three are one word.
References
- 「心のまま」, 精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/心のまま
- 竹取物語, at Wikisource (群書類從 text). https://ja.wikisource.org/wiki/竹とりの翁物語_(群書類從)
- 源氏物語, 篝火 and 常夏, at Wikisource. https://ja.wikisource.org/wiki/源氏物語/篝火 · https://ja.wikisource.org/wiki/源氏物語/常夏
- 続世継 (今鏡), c. 1170, National Diet Library Digital Collections. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2546534
- 太平記, 巻第十二 and 巻第二十六, at Wikisource. https://ja.wikisource.org/wiki/太平記/巻第十二 · https://ja.wikisource.org/wiki/太平記/巻第二十六
- 山田宗徧, 茶道便蒙抄, 1686, National Diet Library Digital Collections. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2575277
- 本居宣長, 古事記傳, 巻2, 1785, National Diet Library Digital Collections. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2545185