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This is a small part of Rin's summoning chant in Fate/stay night:

四方{しほう}の門{もん}は閉{と}じ、王冠{おうかん}より出{い}で、王国{おうこく}に至{いた}る三叉路{さんさろ}は循環{じゅんかん}せよ。

I have some questions about this...

The last part mean: rotate the three-forked road (order)...? I say it because I don't know what the function of は here... It used to add emphasis? It is replacing other particle?

With what naruto said, it could be translated as:

Close the four cardinal gates, leave the crown, and circulate through the three paths that reaches the kingdom.

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  • Could you added a full translations so other beginner like me can learn more from your questions? Thanks :)
    – Alice28
    May 30, 2016 at 3:48

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循環する is an intransitive verb which can take を (e.g., 血液が体を循環する "Blood circulates through the body"). I think this は is replacing を, topicalizing the 三叉路. It effectively means 三叉路を循環せよ.

It says something (one who is summoned?) must start from the crown, circulate through the 三叉路, and finally reach the kingdom.

Some people seem to believe this line refers to the Tree of Life, which describes the process of creation, starting from The Crown and ending with The Kingdom. 三叉路 seems to refer to the three "columns/pillars" in the Tree of Life, through which the creation circulates in this order.

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  • 2
    My 2 cents. Usually, 三叉路 means a three-way junction, not three roads. I agree that this probably refers to the Tree of life. But, anyway, maybe natives do not understand this clearly. It's just a chant.
    – Keita ODA
    May 30, 2016 at 4:35
  • maybe you might add this image to your answer because it strongly confirms the hypothesis about the tree of life (王冠、王国、三叉路) and make it self-evident: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/TreeOfLife_ja.svg
    – 永劫回帰
    May 30, 2016 at 14:04
  • @駑馬十駕 It looks like even the fans of this novel are not very aware of this (as Keita ODA points out), so I'd say things rather conservatively :-) As a matter of fact, I had to google seriously to answer this with confidence.
    – naruto
    May 30, 2016 at 14:50
  • Now the translation would be fine? :)
    – Veron
    May 30, 2016 at 22:31
  • or "Close the four cardinal gates, leave the crown, and circulate through one of the three paths that converge in the kingdom"?
    – Veron
    May 30, 2016 at 22:37

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