Pre-WW2 Kanji issssues

[scurvydom]

Heya, I'm translating some Japanese poetry from the 1930s and I've come up across this name: I think I've parsed the first bit correctly as 万頼 = Mayori, a girl's name, but I can't find the 3rd character anywhere! Does anyone know if this is an irregular version of another kanji?

To put it in context, the surrounding sentences are:
壁に「協力一致によって独乙の自由へ」と文字が照明さ れた。観衆声をのみ、万頼Xとして大文字のみいみじく� �強く臥薪嘗胆の銘を与えた。

Which I've got down as:
Illuminated on the wall were the words "Though unity and solidarity towards German freedom". The audience was speechless, the marvelously aptness of the characters 'Mayori X' alone bestowed a reassuring maxim of sheer perseverance.

Which is quite messy I know, and I'm not sure I've got it all fitting together, but considering that this name is meant to be 'apt', I probably need to get that third and final character down :S

Thanks for reading this far!

[siokan]

It is not possible to read
万賴 is not understood.
It is terrible and unusual name though one man has come out when retrieving it.
I want not to think understanding even if it sees, and to see the character in the back and forth.

[ryuurui]

Similarly to Soikan, I cannot find anything. I have searched few dictionaries, including 書道大辞典, and nada. I am guessing, that without a 大漢和辞典　(15 volums of a dictionary, that list around 50000 kanji)、or at least 広漢和辞典, it may be tricky. You know, there are characters that were created only for the purpose to serve as a name of a certain person, and were never used again. Their reading, naturally, is also unique.

edit: OK, I did some internet search and I reckon it might be 䦫, however, this character is not used in Japanese. Then again, the inside of 門　really looks like 大+日+草冠. It is also possible that either 䦫 has more forms, or the handwriting is incorrect. 万賴 in Chinese reads Wan Lai. 䦫 is listed as no. 41409 kanji in 大漢和辞典, so tht is pretty rare... Chinese reading is zhing and it means "inside the door". Cant find a name equivalent for it. There is no Japanese reading for it either, simply because this kanji does not exist in Japanese.

[masaegu]

Originally Posted by scurvydom

I think I've parsed the first bit correctly as 万頼 = Mayori, a girl's name

Really? You sound so sure you might not be willing to listen but I don't buy this for a second. Do you speak Japanese? I do not see any reason that a person's name can be placed in that spot in the sentence. If it's a woman's name, she should appear at other places in the story as well, dontcha think? Or does she?

In my opinion, the word should be 万籟 , meaning "the sounds things make with the wind" or simply "all the sounds one can hear in a given situation".

Regarding the third kanji, I'm still working on it. So far, I cannot find it anywhere probably because I only have small dictionaries.

It would help greatly if you could answer the question: Where is this story taking place? More specifically, in what language is the phrase 「協力一致によって独乙の自由へ」 in the story? This would explain the 大文字 part.

[ryuurui]

万籟

I am so writing this text. Thousands songs of the wind. Love it.

[masaegu]

I think I've got it. At least it appears to make sense in the sentence.

万籟闃(ばんらいげき)として = "in complete silence"

And to answer my own question, I think the phrase 「協力一致によって独乙の自由へ」 was in a European language, mostly likely none other than German, which would require one to translate the 大文字 as "capital letters".

[ryuurui]

I am not so sure about it. There is clearly a 草冠 there. And according to 書道大辞典 "闃" has only one form:

Also the seal script form does not suggest any 草冠 within the character.

[ryuurui]

i really like that phrase, 万籟, so i could not help myself writing it.

[scurvydom]

Thanks everyone for the help!
To answer some of your questions: It's a Surrealist prose poem set in Germany.
The stuff about 'German Freedom' are some words projected on to the backdrop of the stage as a play ends.

Masaegu: Thank you for your help, especially re: the capital letters thing, I've studied in Kyoto so when I see 大文字on a page I can forget that it might mean 'capital' and not just 'large'~ That said I don't know how I've said anything that implied either that I'm "so sure" of my translation - I said "I think I've parsed the first bit correctly" and I think it's pretty presumptuous of you to think I don't know Japanese just because I have a question about an obscure kanji phrase within an old poem which even (presumed) Japanese people like siokan and ryuurui have difficulties with. Like, I don't need to justify my Japanese qualifications, but I think it's pretty clear from my translation etc that I'm not some random weeaboo using Google translation...

That said, I think your interpretation is correct. As I say, I parsed the second character as 頼, seeing as they are variant characters of each other. But seeing as the poet (竹中久七) does often use extremely variant forms of kanji, often to the extent of using wholly different kanji which simply look alike, and see that 万籟 is a word, I think this is one of those instances.

Thank you very much for all of your help, you'll get a credit in my acknowledgment section~ But please, don't make snap judgments about somebody's Japanese ability because they have made a mistake the parsing of some irregular and obscure vocabulary

[ryuurui]

Originally Posted by scurvydom

Japanese people like siokan and ryuurui

ehhm...i am not Japanese.