I have seen the poem title 君死にたまふことなかれ spelled 君死にたもうこと勿れ. I'm assuming given
the poet's reputation, that まふ is some antiquated word analogous to the modern
もう. What is it's use and meaning?
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2017-08-09T22:36:15.507
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poetry old-japanese
The difference between もう and まふ
You are encountering here the difference between modern spelling and the
spelling used prior to WWII.

まふ is the old spelling for もう

You can find other examples
[here.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_kana_orthography)

I cannot explain the meaning of the old Japanese. I am unable to decipher its
grammar. But in this situation, this is a case of differing orthography from
an earlier period.
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I would say this is a problem of both "the old grammar/words" and "the old
orthography". A spelling reform (such as [the German orthography reform of
1996](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_orthography_reform_of_1996)) and
archaic word usage are two different things, although they are closely
related. Technically speaking, you can rewrite today's news articles using the
old orthography.

たまふ in 君死にたまふことなかれ is an honorific auxiliary verb in archaic Japanese. Modern
Japanese speakers don't usually use this word anymore regardless of its
spelling. An equivalent in modern Japanese is ～なさる or お～になる. It's 給ふ in kanji
using the old orthography, たまふ in hiragana using the old orthography, and たもう
in hiragana using the current orthography. Modern monolingual dictionaries
list this word as [たまう](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/138664/meaning/m0u/)
and
[たもう](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/139075/meaning/m0u/%E3%81%9F%E3%82%82%E3%81%86/)
even though old people did not actually spell it like this. To be clear, the
adverb もう meaning "already" is not relevant at all.

It's pronounced like タモー ("ta-moh") regardless of the spelling.

Similarly, [_mono no aware_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_no_aware) is
written as もののあはれ in the old kana orthography and もののあわれ in the modern kana
orthography.
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