Assuming you are a go player, try to imagine what is going on after reading these translations of the scene by various distinguished scholars.
First, from The Tale of Genji, translated by Arthur Waley (George Allen & Unwin, London, 1933). This was the version that made the book a classic in the west.
The game was nearly over, she was clearing away the unwanted pieces.
She seemed to be very excitable and was making quite unnecessary commotion
about the business. 'Wait a little,' said her companion, very quietly. "Here is
a stalemate. My only move is to counter-attack over there..."
"It is all over," said the other impatiently. "I am beaten, let us count the score," and she began
counting, "ten, twenty, thirty, forty" on her fingers.
Genji could not help
remembering the old song about the washhouse at Iyo (eight tubs to the left,
nine tubs to the right) and as this lady of Iyo determined that nothing should
be left unsettled, went on stolidly counting the losses and gains. He thought
her for the moment slightly common.
>> Commentary
The Tale of Genji, translated by Edward G. Seidensticker (Penguin Books, 1976). Seidensticker had already tackled go in translation, of course, with his 1972 version of The Master of Go by Kawabata Yasunari.
Yet she did not seem to be merely silly. She brimmed with good spirits as she
placed a stone upon a dead spot to signal the end of the game.
"Just a minute, if you please," said the other very calmly. "It is not quite over.
You will see that we have a ko to get out of the way first."
"I've lost, I've lost! Let's just see what I have in the corners." She counted up
on her fingers, "Ten, twenty, thirty, forty."
She would have had no trouble, he
thought, taking the full count of the baths of Iyo"-- though her manner might
have been just a touch inelegant.
>> Commentary
The Tale of Genji, translated by Royall Tyler (Penguin Books, 2001)
She did not seem to be dull either, because near the end of the game, when the
contest was on for the last unclaimed territory, she seemed quite clever and
keen.
"Just a moment," her opponent said calmly, "that spot is out of play. Let us
finish by doing the exchange."
"Oh dear, I have lost, haven't I! Now, how many do we have here in the corners?
Dear me! Twenty, thirty, forty," she counted, crooking her fingers as though
taking a census of all the hot spring tubs in Iyo. She did lack a certain grace.
>> Commentary
Le Dit du Genji, translated by René Sieffert (Publications Orientalistes de France, 1978)
La partie de go se terminait, et comme elle avait d'un coup d'oeil repéré
les cases bloquées, elle était tout excitée et s'agitait vivement,
cependant que la dame de céans lui disait avec le plus grand calme:
- Attendez-donc! Par ici la partie est indécise! Et vous pouvez attaquer par là!
Mais elle:
- Allons, cette fois je suis battue! Voyons, de votre côté et du mien...!
Et repliant les doigts:
- Dix, vingt, trente, quarante!
Sa façon de compter paraissait aussi décidée que si ç'avait
été "d'Iyo les bassins d'eau chaude". Il
y avait dans tout cela une touche de vulgarité! >> English translation
>> Commentary
Die Geschichte vom Prinzen Genji, translated by Oscar Benl (Manesse Bibliothek der Weltliteratur, Corona-Reihe, 1966)
Er hätte nur noch gewünscht, sie möchte ein wenig gelassener geben. Beim
Go-Spiel war sie gewitzt und schnell.
Als sie mit lebhaften Gesten die herrenlosen Steine beiseite schob, mahnte ihre im Innern des
Raumes sitzende Partnerin mit ruhiger Stimme:
"Geduld, Geduld! Das Spiel is doch wohl unentschieden. Hier könnt Ihr mich noch
angreifen!"
"Nein", erwiderte sie, "diesmal habe ich verloren. Ich will an den Ecken schon einmal
zählen."
Wie sie dann die Steine mit gekrümmten Fingern geschickt "zehn, zwanzig, dreißig,
vierzig" zählte, mußte Genji an das Lied von den Wasserbalken in Iyo denken, wo
diese flink und ohne Fehler zusammengerechnet wurden. In ihrer Hast erschien ihm die junge
Dame fast ein wenig unvorgenehm. >> English translation
>> Commentary
There has also been a Russian version, not available to us, and Czech and Italian versions have been promised but seem not yet to have appeared.
In the versions quoted, the first thing to note is that they all refer to go, and not chess (it is also go in the original). In Waley's time that would have been rather unusual, but he may just have heard about the fledgling British Go Association. It met not far from his Bloomsbury home near the British Museum in London, where he worked. The big stores, a short walk from the museum, had started selling sets commercially around 1930, though under the name of Wei-chi, and the Linton House Wei-chi club was founded on 1 March 1930 (not the first club in Britain; that honour seems to belong to Hastings).
Although a truly great scholar, Waley has sometimes been mocked for making up or omitting bits of text he did not understand. He omits here, for example, the small detail of the lady crooking her fingers as she counted. Not having visited the Far East, Waley had possibly never seen the way Japanese count by folding their fingers in to the palm rather than outwards as we tend to do. But he did pick up on the detail of a "stalemate", though it should be seki. However, he seems to have misunderstood the game even more comprehensively by falsely imagining that the game had wanted and unwanted pieces, or by failing to see the illogicallity of clearing the pieces away while going on to refer to a "stalemate" and "counter-attack" (ko).
Waley omits references in the original to corners and to losing "this time" and he has also supplied
a "began" and "stolidly" (unless it is meant to imply "corner after corner") that are not in the original.
<< Translation
Seidensticker did not get the go terminology in Master of Go right and here too he
has gone astray. He has invented a rule by referring to placing "a stone upon a dead spot
to signal the end of the game." The text in fact refers to entering the yose stage. He has
also omitted the reference to a seki (and to crooking fingers), but is the first to mention a ko.
He also omits the reference to losing "this time." Whether or not that's
important, the original does refer earlier to the ladies having started playing
around noon and they now need a lamp. They have presumably played a long time and
several games, showing they take their go seriously. Since Genji is comparing the merits of the
two ladies, it seems significant to show the lady who lost had been capable of
winning previously.
<< Translation
Tyler is the first to grasp that we are talking about the yose stage ("the contest was on for the last unclaimed territory") but Murasaki deliberately made a point of using the technical term (kechi) after already having said the game was ending. No doubt she wished to show how clever she was, and so it may be argued that a good translation would reflect that. The phrase "they were playing the yose" would not mean anything to the average western reader who does not know go, but do the words "contest for the last unclaimed territory" really mean anything to such a person?
A similar remark could be made about "that spot is out of play" for seki, and no go player
would accept "doing the exchange" for ko. It's a trivial point but Tyler also omits
the ten in the count up, and he too avoids mentioning "this time". But he includes the
reference to crooking fingers, and it seems important to do so if we assume it was
considered maybe childish or inelegant (she would be exposing her hands rather blatantly).
The crux of the whole episode is that Genji finds her fanciable but a bit "common."
<< Translation
It is not quite clear to a go player what Sieffert had in mind with his glance (not in the original) and there is a suspicion that he might have imagined the game played on squares (cases). He mishandles the reference to seki, but is the first to have "this time". It is also not quite clear what he meant to convey with so many exclamation marks - what we journalists call 'screamers'. They don't really seem to match the reference to the lady being calm and composed, though they may be meant to hint at Genji's excitement.
The reference to ko is there as to "attack". Although wrong, as is the counter-attack of
other authors, it is understandable in that the base meaning of the Chinese character for
ko does have that sense.
<< Translation
Benl, too, has missed the point of being unable to continue playing if you have pushed the stones away. Unless it has been collapsed into a reference to the yose, the reference to seki appears to have become "the game is still undecided," but of course a seki is a finished entity. Again ko becomes "attack."
This German translator has also made a radical change to the text by referring to counting stones. Apart from this overturning all we know about the history of go, Murasaki makes no reference to 'stones' (or pieces). Benl's other reference to 'ownerless stones' is likewise an invention.
As a final point, covering also the other translations, the reference to the
lady sitting at the back of the room (Utsusemi) is ponderous for what is simply the 'lady of
the house' (oku no hito; modern okusama), and she is not necessarily sitting 'within' or "at the back'.
The English versions omit this, which is a pity because
a major problem in reading Genji is knowing who is talking at any given
time. To dispense with such a major clue, even if encapsulated in modern
quotation marks, seems a little reckless, but it is an important point when
considering the physical layout. Apart from the debate about this already
mentioned, it will explain why the Japanese illustrators have (justifiably) been
able to show the women side by side in many versions.
<< Translation
My contention is obviously that none of these renderings is at all satisfactory. I will give my own version in a moment, but in attempting to contradict these scholars I do not wish to denigrate their work. Indeed, I would strongly recommend reading any of the books mentioned here, and their other works. This particular scene is a tiny part of a huge book, and I am approaching it from the standpoint of a go obsessive.
