89146
> 我が道に **足りぬを探し** たたかへど 散る間際こそ ビューティフルと知る

This is coming from a character parodying a samurai. The English voice-over
for the first half says "Battle after battle I sought to attain the glorious
path..." I'm really not sure how 足りぬを探し pans out here. I assume the verb is 足る
(and not 足りる) but other than that, I don't even know whether 足りぬ here is
positive or negative. Also, how do I parse the sentence? [我が道に足りぬ]を探し or
我が道に[足りぬを探し]? Maybe somebody could clear up the ぬを part, as in how to
interpret that verb-on-verb structure without a noun to refer to.

I found several instances of ぬ on
[kobun.weblio.jp](https://kobun.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%AC) and assumed that
maybe the second meaning could fit here in the sense of "I'm looking for
something that will certainly fulfill me in my way by fighting" or something
(if that even makes sense lol) but I don't really know. Maybe it's just a
plain old negative?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-31T12:27:50.963
89144
2021-09-01T13:23:53.573
2021-08-31T17:38:37.730
30454
35224
question
grammar old-japanese
我が道に 足りぬを探し たたかへど
Not a native speaker, so take this with a grain of salt. :)

First, let's look at your bolded piece.

## Understanding 足りぬを探し

I came across two possible interpretations of this phrase. The first is where
I first landed, until I found an unexpected wrinkle that led to the second.

### Possibility 1

If memory serves, in Old and Classical Japanese, the 連体形【れんたいけい】 or
"attributive form" can be used as a substantive (basically, a noun) in certain
constructions. In your sample sentence, we see 足りぬ immediately followed by
を探し, suggesting this kind of grammatical construction.

  * If we parse 足りぬ as the 連用形【れんようけい】 _tari-_ of verb _taru_ , then the ぬ must be the spontaneous / unintentional perfective auxiliary. That doesn't quite make sense in this context. The 連体形 for perfective ぬ is ぬる (see [entry at Kotobank](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%81%AC-593884)), but we don't have that here. Considering the grammatical structure, perfective ぬ doesn't fit.
  * If we parse 足りぬ instead as the 未然形【みぜんけい】 _tari-_ of verb _tariru_ , and consider the grammar, then the ぬ must be the 連体形 of the negative auxiliary ず (see [entry at Kotobank](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%81%9A-539402)).
  * We also find that the verb form 足【た】りる arose in the Edo period (see [entry at Kotobank](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%B6%B3-25145#E7.B2.BE.E9.81.B8.E7.89.88.20.E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E5.9B.BD.E8.AA.9E.E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E5.85.B8), scroll down to the section for the たりる reading), which would work for a period drama.

**⇒** The phrase 足りぬを探し then works out to something like "looking for gaps /
lacks / places where something isn't enough", alluding to a search for self-
improvement or possibly for justice. Depending on the show's context and the
character that speaks this line, this might be the intended sense.

### Possibility 2

**However** , apparently there was also a lexicalization (case where a
particular form of a word becomes an independent word in its own right) of 足りぬ
based on _taru_ → _tari-_ + perfective ぬ, which became a noun meaning
something like "satisfaction". The [dictionary entry at
Kotobank](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%B6%B3%E3%81%AC-2060780#E7.B2.BE.E9.81.B8.E7.89.88.20.E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E5.9B.BD.E8.AA.9E.E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E5.85.B8)
is for the slightly contracted form たんぬ, which apparently arose by at least
1241 (when it is first cited). It's not clear to me if the uncontracted form
たりぬ was also in use as a noun with the same meaning.

**⇒** If _tarinu_ was also used as a noun with the "satisfaction" sense, then
the phrase 足りぬを探し would be hedonistic rather than righteous. Again, depends on
the show's context as to whether this is a sensible interpretation.

## Parsing

Let's look at those first three pieces as a clause.

  * 我が道に 足りぬを探し たたかへど

The 足りぬ is treated as a noun regardless of which of the two interpretations we
use (righteous or hedonistic). Starting from there, there isn't much reason to
tie the 我が道 to the 足りぬ as a single piece. The 我が道に is essentially setting the
stage for the rest of this clause: "on my path", "along my way", something to
that effect. So it would have to be the second parsing option that you post:
我が道に[足りぬを探し].

## Poetry

I notice that this piece of text is in classical 短歌【たんか】 format, if we make
one small allowance:

  * 我が道に
  * 足りぬを探し
  * たたかへど
  * 散る間際こそ
  * ビューティフルと知る

The mora count is the classic 5-7-5-7-7, _if_ we ignore the 長音符【ちょうおんぷ】 in
ビューティフル and only count this as 4 instead of 5.

Noticing that this is poetry, and looking at this as a standalone text in its
own right, the moral ambiguity about the potential intended meaning of 足りぬ
might be intentional. Is the speaker seeking justice, or seeking pleasure?
Either way, they recognize that life is beautiful right at the moment of
dying.

Personally, I think Possibility 1 above seems more likely, as this makes the
poem more poignant -- in this case, the speaker has been seeking out
insufficiencies and fighting against them. If we use Possibility 2, it doesn't
make as much sense -- hedonists aren't big on self-reflection, and if someone
is so wrapped up in the pleasure of the moment anyway, there's no reason for a
last-moment realization of beauty.

### Update: Identifying the Nu

_" Nu! Nu!"_

_" No no no no, no, Sir Bedevere, it's not that, it's Ni!"_

More seriously, you can tell which ぬ -- the spontaneous perfective auxiliary,
or the negative auxiliary -- based on the form of the underlying verb, in most
(but not all!) cases, and sometimes also based on the grammatical context of
where it appears.

  * Perfective ぬ attaches to the 連用形【れんようけい】 of the main verb.
  * Negative ぬ attaches to the 未然形【みぜんけい】 of the main verb.

The challenge comes with verbs that have different overlapping forms, such as
たり -- this is both the 連用形 for たる, which is a 四段【よだん】動詞【どうし】 ("four-step
verb", since the verb stem ends in four different vowels in Classical and
older → this became the modern 五段【ごだん】動詞【どうし】 or "five-step verb"), and it is
also the stem for all of the 形 for たりる, an 一段【いちだん】動詞【どうし】 ("one-step verb",
since these verbs only have one vowel for all verb stems).

In these cases, you'll have to look more at the surrounding grammar and the
form of the auxiliary itself. These auxiliaries also have conjugational forms
of their own, which can help you identify what you've got:

Conjugation | Perfective ぬ | Negative ぬ  
---|---|---  
**未然形【みぜんけい】  
Irrealis (hasn't happened yet)** | な | ず  
**連用形【れんようけい】  
Continuative ( _-masu_ stem)** | に | ず  
**終止形【しゅうしけい】  
Terminal (standalone)** | ぬ | ず  
**連体形【れんたいけい】  
Attributive (adjectival)** | ぬる | ぬ  
**已然形【いぜんけい】  
Realis (as if it's happened)** | ぬれ | ね  
**命令形【めいれいけい】  
Imperative (command)** | ね | -  
  
Between these two -- the conjugational form of the main verb, and the
conjugational form of the auxiliary -- it is often possible to narrow down
which ぬ you're looking at.

That said, as we see above with たんぬ, that is an example of a perfective ぬ in
the 終止形【しゅうしけい】 conjugation, but this lexicalized into an independent noun --
where usually only the 連体形【れんたいけい】 could be used that way. Language is nothing
if not irregular.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-31T17:04:20.260
89146
2021-09-01T13:23:53.573
2021-09-01T13:23:53.573
9831
5229
89144
answer