The grammar of ~かれ~かれ

Question

Consider these:

• 遅かれ早かれ

• 良【よ】かれ悪【あ】しかれ

What is the underlying grammatical make up of this ~かれ~かれ pattern (if any)? Is this pattern productive(i.e. can be extended to arbitrary words)?

Answer 1

The 〜かれ appearing here is the imperative form. I suspect this exact construction is no longer productive in modern Japanese as adjectives are no longer thought of as having imperative forms; however, the dictionary offers this modern rephrasing of 善【よ】かれ悪【あ】しかれ:

よいにしろ、悪いにしろ

So in some sense the abstract construction of "imperative + imperative" to mean "be it ... or ..." still survives. (The "be" appearing in the English version might also be construed as an imperative, but it's probably a subjunctive.) The thesaurus (for want of a better word) lists some alternatives:

• ～にしろ…にしろ
• 〜にせよ…にせよ
• 〜にしても…にしても

Answer 2

For perspective: There are also the expressions

～ろうと～ろうと

～ろうが～ろうが

e.g.

よかろうと悪かろうと　be it good or bad

早かろうが遅かろうが　be it early or late

I think these expressions are more productive than ～かれ～かれ, although they do have an archaic feel to them.

Also, it might be interesting to know that よかれ is commonly used in the sense "good intentions" or something like that:

よかれと(思って)したことが裏目に出た I did it with good intentions but it backfired on me

～かろう, although slightly archaic, is still sometimes used instead of ～いだろう

それはおかしかろう！ (You have to admit) that's strange!