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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.

Veron
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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 '16 at 03:48

1 Answers1

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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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naruto
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    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 '16 at 04:35
  • 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 '16 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 '16 at 14:50
  • Now the translation would be fine? :) – Veron May 30 '16 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 '16 at 22:37
  • @Veron I think this 循環 means traveling through *all* the three paths, not one of the three paths. See the image in [this page](http://www.cocorila.jp/special/angel/angel-2-1.html). – naruto May 31 '16 at 01:10
  • @naruto perhaps each level is related to three other in Tree of Life, directly... I think it doesn't refer to the passage on the roads, but where they meet... – Veron May 31 '16 at 02:17
  • I mean that each level is associated with three other that are before or at the same step (except the first and last), and that's where the three roads converge... – Veron May 31 '16 at 03:49
  • A 三叉路 *usually* refers to a junction, but this 三叉路 is not used in its usual sense, because you cannot circulate through a single point. From what I can see in the linked articles, the summoned one has to travel through all the three roads to materialize, tortuously, in the very specific order. That's where the word 循環 fits. So obviously this 三叉路 refers to the three roads themselves. I would translate this 三叉路 as "the three roads", not "one of the three roads." – naruto May 31 '16 at 03:54