I took up a personal translation project--lyrics to a song from a game I played--recently, and one of the words is giving me trouble. The line out of the song is 我れ幾里の路を共に往かむ, and I can understand everything except for 幾里. I did have to try to make out the lyrics from the video before it dawned on me to check for a transcript online, and here's the other confusing thing; this word pops up in other transcripts and the video itself. (See: http://010701070107.blog5.fc2.com/blog-entry-3543.html) I seriously cannot find a definition for this word with any dictionary I've been able to get my hands on, part of which I credit to this entire song being written in Classical Japanese, but still. I've tried both English and Japanese dictionaries on the subject, so finally I decided to turn here. Any ideas?
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1Possible duplicate of What's the difference between 何【なん】 and 幾【いく】 when referring to amounts?– broccoli forestCommented Feb 29, 2016 at 14:18
2 Answers
幾里 means “how many lis.” “Li” is a unit of distance, and 1里 is equal to 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) . 幾 means “how many, how much” as you ask an antique shop owner “これ幾らですか？－How much price is this?” It has nothing to do with the name of town and village.
Thus 我れ幾里の路を共に往かむ means “How many miles should I tread (go) with you ahead the road?” Apparently this is an expression in literary style (文語調) to be found in the writing of authors in Meiji-and-Taisho era, but surely sounds lyrical and solemn.
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1Couldn't this 幾(里) mean indefinite, large number of (leagues/miles)? And, is the む in 行かむ not a particle of volition (like the english shall)? Could the line be translated to something like: "I shall tread Lord knows how many leagues/miles of road with you." ? Commented Sep 13, 2016 at 4:18
As broccoli forest notes in the comments, this might be a reference to a distance: "any number of leagues".
As an alternative hypothesis, any chance it's a placename? Apparently there's an Ikusato in 鹿児島県{かごしまけん}龍郷{たつごう}町{ちょう}. More here at Weblio and here on the Japanese Wikipedia.
