5

I was reading something and saw the following lines spoken by an old male artist:

船が、水の下の者どもに気を配っていて大海原を往けるだろうか？

芸術も、人生も、しょせん水もの…

水をこざいて浮き上がった者だけが勝つのだ！

Someone else then responds:

キレイな言葉でボヤかしてやがるが、『他人なんて踏み台だ』って意味じゃねーか。

This was all overlaid upon the following image: enter image description here

I have no idea what 水をこざく means. The only thing I can find is maybe it's dialectal, but that doesn't seem to make sense because if you're walking/treading (歩く) in water are you really 浮き上がる (floating) on top of water? What kind of image am I supposed to be seeing here?

|improve this question
7

According to this it's something like "to wade through." Without further context, it sounds like it's some kind of "sink or swim" implication.

|improve this answer
  • 1
    +1, I did not know this word, but こざく seems to be used from Hokkaido to Nigata to Shizuoka in the sense of かきわけて進む or "to plow through" (e.g., 笹原をこざいてタケノコを採る). – naruto Mar 4 '19 at 4:20
  • Right. I used "wade" since water is involved. But if you're wading, then you're walking, so there's no question of "floating." I think we'd need more context to find a better translation. – Marc Adler Mar 4 '19 at 21:22
  • @MarcAdler I added a bit more context – Ringil Mar 5 '19 at 2:22
  • So “sink or swim” was right. My guess is こざく might simply mean something like “paddle” (ie みずをかく) in whatever dialect the writer’s speaking in. – Marc Adler Mar 5 '19 at 16:26

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.