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I saw it in this tanka that I'm trying to translate:

偽のある世にだにもふるさとの契りわすれず雁のゆくらん

broccoli facemask
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Paloma
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  • https://kobun.weblio.jp/content/%E3%82%89%E3%82%80 – naruto Aug 20 '20 at 10:01
  • I found that page but my japanese is not that good and i don't understand what that means... – Paloma Aug 20 '20 at 13:43
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    FYI my translation attempt is "Even in this world with falsehoods, gooses don't forget the promises (they made) in their homelands, which **must be why** they go (back to their homelands)." – naruto Aug 20 '20 at 18:55
  • @naruto I don’t think this poet is making a comment about the behavior of geese in general, as in your translation, but responding poetically, in the moment, to the sight of some *actual* geese flying through the sky. (Or at a minimum, the poem is meant to be read *as if* it were a spontaneous response to such a sight.) The use of らん helps to create this sense of immediacy. So the gist is more like “Those geese [that I see in the sky] must be going home because, even in this world of falsehoods, they haven’t forgotten their vows to those they’ve left behind.” – Nanigashi Aug 21 '20 at 20:08
  • @Nanigashi Thank you, "must be going" should be better. – naruto Aug 21 '20 at 21:15

1 Answers1

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In this sentence, ゆくらん = ゆく "go" + らん. らん is a later spelling for the auxiliary らむ. It falls under the following definition.

② 〔現在の原因の推量〕…（のため）だろう。どうして…だろう。▽目の前の事態からその原因・理由となる事柄を推量する。
must be —ing because of; why should ... be —ing? (speculating the cause/reason out of the present state of affairs)

Addendum: the translation of so-called 原因推量 usage of らむ could be tricky, because it is used in such a construction:

V1(-continuation)、V2らむ

to mean "V1, [which must be] why V2 now". Thus if V1 is not provided, it becomes "why [have to (end up)] V2 now". For the latter case, a word means "why" can be explicitly added, too.

broccoli facemask
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  • 「嘘ばかりのこの世の中にあっても、雁は故郷との約束を忘れず(故郷に帰って)行っているのだろう」と、①のように解釈して回答書きかけていたのですが、②なんですか…「どうして雁は故郷との約束を忘れず戻っていくのだろう」という感じですか？ – naruto Aug 20 '20 at 16:16
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    @naruto そうですね…。読みとしては「故郷での約束を忘れないでいるので雁は（帰って）行くのだろう」と解釈して、これは記憶が正しければ②の区分だったと思います。「どうして」というわけではないです。 – broccoli facemask Aug 20 '20 at 16:21
  • あ、それで "it must be the reason why ～" になるんですね、納得しました、ありがとうございました。 – naruto Aug 20 '20 at 16:22
  • @naruto ちょっと英訳に難儀してるんですけどまあｗ　旺文社古語辞典では「…というので…しているのだろう」ともうちょっとこなれてましたね – broccoli facemask Aug 20 '20 at 16:28