運命の悪戯 unmei no itazura Whim of Fate
運命の悪戯 (unmei no itazura), a trick of fate, has its own headword in the Japanese dictionary, and its oldest page in the National Diet Library is a translation: Ueda Bin's of 1901, a castaway watching the rescue ship round the cape without seeing him.
Abstract
運命の悪戯, a trick of fate, has its own headword in the Japanese dictionary and no date there. Its oldest page in the National Diet Library is Ueda Bin's book of translations of 1901, in a castaway's monologue signed Alarcón, which is consistent with its being a rendering of a Western phrase, irony of fate, and does not prove it. From 1901 it is in 316 of the library's books to 1946.
Overview
The sense. A dictionary phrase, fate toying with what it should leave alone, whose Japanese life begins in a translation of 1901.
The words. 悪戯 itazura, mischief, is derived by the dictionary from 徒, idle, vain, and runs from a prank through a child's meddling to a euphemism for indecent assault; in 運命の悪戯 it is the first sense and a little of the third, fate toying with what it should leave alone, and the dictionary defines the phrase whole as 人知の及ばないものにもてあそばれているかのような、奇妙な巡り合わせ, a strange turn of circumstance, as though one were being toyed with by something beyond human knowing [1][2].
The text in English. A trick of fate is the nearest English, since 悪戯 is a prank.
The historical record
1901. 運命の悪戯, born in translation. The dictionary gives the phrase a headword and no date. Its oldest page in the library is Ueda Bin's 『みをつくし』 of 1901, a book of translations from Western literature, in a castaway's monologue signed Alarcón: 消えにけり、噫、消えにけり。甚しき運命の惡戯よ, gone, ah, gone; what a cruel trick of fate, as the rescue ship rounds the cape without seeing him [3]. The phrase enters the Japanese record inside a translation, which is consistent with its being a rendering of a Western phrase, irony of fate, ironie du sort, a trick of fate, and does not prove it. From 1901 it is in 316 of the library's books to 1946 [4], and it is everyday Japanese [1].
Today. What a rendering must keep is the mischief, benign as often as cruel.
A reading
運命の悪戯 wears no sign of translation: it has its own headword and it is everyday Japanese, yet its oldest page is a Spanish castaway in Ueda Bin's Japanese. If it is a calque, and it looks like one, it is a thoroughly naturalized one.
References
- 「運命の悪戯」, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/運命の悪戯-1824659
- 「悪戯」, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/悪戯
- 上田敏, みをつくし, 文友館, 1901, scan 90. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/876471/1/90
- National Diet Library Digital Collections, next-generation full-text search on 運命の悪戯, 316 books to 1946. https://lab.ndl.go.jp/dl/