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I've seen this particle used before multiple times but have chosen to ignore it each time. Though here's an example where I can find this particle being used.

冬来りなば春遠からじ - (from what I guess it might mean, "When winter comes, spring can't be that far behind")

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  • FWIW, the example sentence belongs to a poem, it is a translation from a the last line of Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the original line in the poem says "If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?", so we are possibly talking of literary-only, classic and/or obsolete material. See a reference in Japanese here.
    – jarmanso7
    Commented Sep 23, 2023 at 20:08

1 Answer 1

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It is an archaic auxiliary verb .

It means will not. Thus 春遠からじ means spring won't be far.


In modern usage, it appears mostly in fixed expressions like 負けじと.

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