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おお・・・我らが慈母アマテラス大神
御許がこの世を去られて幾星霜時世経て久しくなりにけるも
この蘇神ひと時も欠くことなく今日の日を待ち申しけり
御許の御隠れの際に転び出でし十三の筆神はこの広い人界に惑い散り散りになりにけり
我は天の星座となりて生き長らえたるをいま一度御許に仕わせ失せ物の蘇るを見継がせ給え！
この力あらば涸れた天の川など忽ち星くずで溢れさせ給いぬ

Note: アマテラス大神, 蘇神, 筆神, and 天の川 are proper names, you may just disregard those.

As always this is a quote from a game and the context is that the main character is the reincarnation of a god on a quest to regain her former powers she has lost. This quote is from one of the gods giving you back on of these powers, i.e. rejuvenation. Giving the translation a quick (and rough) whirl, this is what I came up with:

Oh, our great Mother Amaterasu
Just how much time has passed since you've left this world.
And despite that I have been waiting for this very day without fail.
The thirteen gods of the brush have gotten lost all over this mortal world the moment you disappeared.
I have turned into a constellation in order to survive but shall once more serve you and give you the power of rejuvenation.
With this power you shall be able to fill the river of the heavens in an instant.

I'm not that well-versed in old Japanese so please excuse the shoddy translation leaving out any possible nuances. What I'm actually interested here is the usage of ～させ給う as I've come across that more than in just one instance.

Going by my first intuition, I would have said that 仕わせ (I assume the 給え here is dropped as it appears after the second verb in the sentence anyway) and 見継がせ給え mean something akin to 'allow me to serve you' and 'allow me to help you' respectively (with the させ給え meaning …をおさせになさって; or maybe just simply ～させてください?) while 溢れさせ給いぬ means 'surely you shall be able to fill...' (in this case 給う meaning お…なさる) or something similar.

I got the info on ～させ給う from this site by the way; maybe I have misinterpreted the definitions, so if I have gotten anything wrong, please let me know!

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As long as real classic Japanese is concerned, せたまふ is not causative but just a double honorific (supreme sonkeigo). In other word, つかわせたまへ and 見継がせたまへ are “please use them (make them serve you)” and “please keep watching”. However, since it’s just an archaism, it technically can be causative too. That said, if “please keep watching” makes sense in that context, that’s probably it.

Edit: if it was 失せ物の蘇りたるを, it’s more likely “allow those dead yet revived help you”. With 蘇る, I’m not sure. If that interpretation goes well along with the story, that could still it.

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  • The linked 古語辞典 says せたまう can be causative in real classical Japanese. いま一度御許に仕わせ給え is clearly causative ("Please make me serve you again"), so I feel 見継がせ給え could be causative, too ("Please make me keep watching" or "Please allow me to keep watching").
    – naruto
    Commented Mar 7, 2021 at 6:03
  • @user4092: You're saying that it's double honorific, but then say "please use them (make them serve you)" - wouldn't 'make them serve you' be essentially causative then? Given the context 御許に仕わせ給え, I fail to see what else it could be if not causative (あなたに仕えさせてください). As for 見継がせ給え I could go along with 'please keep watching'; however, would the interpretation of 'allow me to help' work too? Goo dictionary defines it as 'help' under definition 3, so I'm curious.
    – Boolicious
    Commented Mar 7, 2021 at 13:00
  • naruto; I was taught it’s almost always, so it falls into the other side? Boolicious; your interpretation seems fine.
    – user4092
    Commented Mar 8, 2021 at 1:04

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