運が向く un ga muku Fortune Smiles
運が向く (un ga muku), luck comes one's way, is an Edo idiom. Santō Kyōden's novel of 1817 already has it, before the dictionary's first citation of 1823. This study follows it through Meiji fiction and rakugo, and beside the English fortune smiles from 1903.
Abstract
運が向く, un ga muku, luck comes one's way, is an Edo idiom and a headword of the 日本国語大辞典, whose first citation is Tsuruya Nanboku's kabuki of 1823; Santō Kyōden's illustrated novel 長髦姿蛇柳, published in 1817, already has it, and a picture book of 1793 has the image with 向かう for 向く. It runs through Meiji fiction, rakugo and Higuchi Ichiyō, and phrase books and dictionaries gave it English from 1882. Fortune smiles is Elizabethan English, and a dictionary for Japanese readers of English matched the two in 1903.
Overview
The sense. Luck comes one's way; things turn for the better.
The words. 運が向く un ga muku is a headword of the 日本国語大辞典, 好運がやってくる。状況が良い方に向く, luck comes one's way [1]. 運 is luck, fortune; が marks it as the subject; 向く, to turn toward.
The text in English. Fortune smiles is old English. Barnabe Googe's translation of Palingenius has he, whome destnies fauour well, and fortune smiles vpon in its 1576 printing [2], and Robert Southwell's Content and rich (1595) has When fortune smiles, I smile to thinke, / How quickly she will frowne [3]. Google's count of its books has the phrase commonest in the early nineteenth century and under a tenth of that by 1980 [4]. The two languages met in 1903, when 竜野元四 and 小日向定次郎's 英和読書辞典 glossed Good fortune had smiled on him as 彼に運が向いて來た and explained that fortune is made a person who smiles at him, which is to say his luck has turned: fortune を人に擬して fortune が彼に笑顔をなしたるにて、乃ち幸運の向いて來たるを言ふ [5]. 斎藤和英 renders Fortune smiles on Japan's arms as 日本は武運めでたし [6].
The historical record
1793 to 1823. 運が向く, in the speech of Edo. The image is older than the form. A kibyōshi of 1793, 道中助六, which the catalogues credit both to Santō Kyōden and to Jippensha Ikku, has, in a promise of riches, うんがむかつてきた, luck has come round toward you, 向かう where the idiom has 向く; the index's text reads むくつて, and the second kana, cut in woodblock cursive, reads to me as か [7][8]. The same page, from the same block, was printed again in 1796 [9]. The oldest witness of 運が向く itself is Santō Kyōden's gōkan 長髦姿蛇柳, published in 1817, the year after his death, where a samurai who means to sell a stolen sword says いや段々運が向いて來たわエ, well, my luck is turning, bit by bit. It is read in the typeset edition of 1902, which the national catalogue of premodern books records as the book's reprint [10][11]. The 日本国語大辞典's first citation comes six years later, from Tsuruya Nanboku's kabuki 𢅻雑石尊贐, first staged at the Ichimura-za in 1823 [12]: サア運が向いて来たわえ。彼さへやらかせば、直ぐに侍ひ, there, my luck has turned; once I pull this off, I am a samurai at once [1]. In the collected edition of Nanboku the speaker is Danshichi and the line reads 彼奴さへやらかせば [13].
1872 to 1918. Meiji print, and English. The National Diet Library's full-text index has 運の向く from 1872, in a woodblock comic book by 仮名垣魯文 [14], and 運が向いて from 1879, written 運ガムイテキタ in a colloquial crib to the Chinese history 十八史略 [15]; it runs through kōdan and rakugo transcripts, among them 春錦亭柳桜's 女煙草 of 1891 [16]. In Higuchi Ichiyō's わかれ道 (January 1896) the boy 吉三 reminds お京 of her promise, 運が向く時になると己れに糸織の着物をこしらへて呉れるつて, you said when your luck turned you would make me a silk kimono, and she answers that it was for when her luck turned, 運の向いた時 [17]. The English came with the phrase books and the dictionaries: an 1882 conversation book in English, French and Japanese sets 今度ハ運ガ向イテ來マシタ beside My luck is completely changed this time and La chance a bien tourné cette fois-ci [18]; 和英中辞林 (1904) gives My fortune has changed for the better [19]; 実用和英新辞典 (1906) Fortune has changed for the better, with Fortune has smiled upon him for 彼の運が好くなつた two lines above [20]; 井上十吉 in 1911, 運が向く, Luck is coming [21]; 武信 in 1918, one's fortune changes for the better [22]. 綺堂's Hanshichi says とんとん拍子に運が向いてきて [23]. The Diet Library's public-domain index has 運が向いて in 1,253 books.
A reading
A true match, idiom for idiom, and old on both sides: in Japanese the luck turns to face you, in English Fortune smiles at you. The English carries Fortune's frown with it, as Southwell knew; the Japanese says only that the turn has come, and its first speakers are men about to do something they should not.
Notes
が marks the subject.
References
- 「運が向く」, 精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/運が向く
- Marcellus Palingenius, The Zodiake of Life, translated by Barnabe Googe, 1576 printing, at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_the-zodiake-of-life_palingenius-marcellus_1576
- Robert Southwell, Saint Peters Complaint, with Other Poems, 1595, "Content and rich", at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_saint-peters-complaint-_southwell-robert_1595
- Google Books Ngram Viewer, fortune smiles, English, 1500–2022. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=fortune+smiles&year_start=1500&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3
- 竜野元四, 小日向定次郎, 英和読書辞典, 1903, National Diet Library Digital Collections, scan 136. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/993694/1/136
- 斎藤秀三郎, 斎藤和英大辞典, at Weblio 英和・和英辞典. https://ejje.weblio.jp/sentence/content/"fortune smiles"
- 道中助六 3巻, 1793, National Diet Library Digital Collections, scan 5. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/8929682/1/5
- 「新板替道中助六」 (山東京伝 作, 寛政五刊) and 「道中助六」 (十返舎一九 作・画, 寛政五刊), 国書データベース, National Institute of Japanese Literature. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/work/246457
- 替銭通用寿護録 3巻, 1796, National Diet Library Digital Collections, scan 4. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/8929450/1/4
- 山東京伝, 長髦姿蛇柳 (1817), in 続京伝三馬傑作集, 博文館, 1902, National Diet Library Digital Collections, scan 102. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1882622/1/102
- 「長髦姿蛇柳」, 国書データベース, National Institute of Japanese Literature (文化14刊; the 1902 typeset as its reprint). https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/work/1043250
- 「𢅻雑石尊贐」, 歌舞伎・浄瑠璃外題よみかた辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/𢅻雑石尊贐-2119193
- 鶴屋南北, 𢅻雑石尊贐, in 大南北全集 第13巻, 春陽堂, 1925, p. 639, National Diet Library Digital Collections, scan 361. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1884491/1/361
- 仮名垣魯文, 胡瓜遣, 1872, National Diet Library Digital Collections, scan 12 (the index reads 私の運の向く; on the scan 私の運の向 is clear and the kana after it is not). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/882378/1/12
- 長瀬寛二 編, 十八史略訓蒙, 1879, National Diet Library Digital Collections, scan 82. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/775455/1/82
- 春錦亭柳桜, 女煙草, 1891, National Diet Library Digital Collections. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/891178
- 樋口一葉, わかれ道, 国民之友 277, 1896, at Aozora Bunko. https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000064/files/56008_54974.html
- 英仏通弁自在 : 交際商用, 1882, National Diet Library Digital Collections, scan 23. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1939229/1/23
- 和英中辞林 : 会話作文, 1904, National Diet Library Digital Collections, scan 375. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/870208/1/375
- 実用和英新辞典, 1906, National Diet Library Digital Collections, scan 566. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/903029/1/566
- 井上十吉, 新訳和英辞典, 1911, National Diet Library Digital Collections. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/870153
- 武信由太郎, 武信和英大辞典, 1918, National Diet Library Digital Collections. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/925665
- 岡本綺堂, 半七捕物帳, 津の国屋, at Wikisource. https://ja.wikisource.org/wiki/半七捕物帳_第一巻/津の国屋