Lyr Req: Deep River in Japanese

Subject: Lyr Req: Deep River in Japanese
From: Haruo
Date: 27 Nov 02 - 01:47 AM

I've been reading the novel Dīpu Ribā (i.e. Deep River) by Shūsaku Endō, and it got me to wondering whether the epigraph, a quotation from the spiritual, is part of a singable translation of the song, and so on: if so, who translated it, and how the rest of it goes, etc. It's not the version I'm familiar with from the hymnal. I've put up a page on my website detailing my query and showing Endō's epigraph and the text that's in the hymnal (translated by Megumi Hara). Masato? Anybody?

Haruo

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Deep River in Japanese
From: masato sakurai
Date: 27 Nov 02 - 03:48 AM

I think a history of singing spirituals isn't long enough (since the 1950s) to have estalished Japanese versions. A lot of choirs and singers alike haven't sung them in Japanese; I can't sing any spiritual in Japanese. Hara's translation appeared first in that hymnal in 1967, and is not widely known (the spiritual itsef is well known, though). Furthermore, "Deep River" isn't contained in Sanbika 21 (The Hymnal 21), published in 1997 (Hara is a member of the editorial committee). From where Endo's epigraph comes, I don't know. It doesn't seem to be a singable version.
~Masato