T-shirt translation

[TalnSG]

Originally Posted by Nagoyankee

I swear this will be my last time doing a T-shirt or tattoo on JF or anywhere else. I studied my butt off (literally!) to learn a few foreign languages including English. You guys can do the same to learn Japanese.

And SHADOW, this time it ain't gibberish, which is so rare. I even kinda like it.

"Over the Black River
They bloom out of season
In the silence indifferent to worldly affairs
They linger"

Note: What the "they" means isn't mentioned in the poem.

I understand and sympathize with your frustration. You are right! They need to make some effort. My own study of Nihongo has diminished horribly, but that doesn't stop me from picking up the dictionary and working it out.

However, who else could translate that haiku so well, my friend? I think I know the "THEY" being referred to, but I need a bit more study to confirm it before I post my interpretation from you very well worded English.

Arigato, Nagoyankee

[KyleGoetz]

The last character looks like it has as its radical 冫 or 氵.

Also, yeah, I guess that ゑ is actually a 黒. I was thinking the first character was maybe an old character for 黒, with the ゑ being an archaic pronunciation of い as an adjectival affix.

But then, where would the "above" be?

Thus, I agree it's a 黒, not a ゑ.

That darn first character, though...

[Nagoyankee]

My last post in this thread.

The first two kanji are 漆黒, meaning "pitch-black". I didn't use the "pitch" part in my translation just because I wasn't sure if one could call a river "pitch-black".

The rest of the writing, MaybeTomorrow has it correct.

[KyleGoetz]

Thanks, Nagoyankee.

And for any other non-native English speakers who come to this thread and read through to this post, yes, you can describe a river as "pitch black" in English.