(no subject)

[flemmings]

My dentist is a nisei or sansei, and has various Japanese objects in her office including a wind chime from some temple with the usual tanka on it. Was examining it the other day, dental ass't asked could I read it, I said yes, pretty much-- all about seeing the willow quietly growing green on the north bank just like-- 'but I don't know this character.' Looked it up when I got home. Kanji dictionaries and Wordtank were adamant it didn't exist. Yes, well, dictionaries and Wordtank were stumped by Angel Sanctuary vocabulary as well. Looked it up in the online hanzi pages, though mandarintools also denied its existence when I searched by radical and bound. nciku of course provided it when I drew it: 泫, weep; cry; shine, glisten; drip. Then looked it up in online Japanese dictionaries, and got-- a bunch of references from Chinese-Japanese dictionaries. Obscure, whoever you are, Mr. Medieval Poet.

Comments

[petronia.livejournal.com]

That one really does not look familiar, though I don't have the vocab in Chinese I do in English.

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

My kanwa jiten has it, surprisingly enough. (I probably shouldn't be surprised - it's not a huge dictionary but it includes "all kanji necessary for the study of kobun and kanbun," and I don't think I've ever stumped it.) No kun readings, On readings ゲン and ケン, definition （１）しずくが流れおちるさま　（２）涙が流れおちるさま　（３）「泫然」（げんぜん）は、悲しみで涙が落ちるさま.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Marvellous! Which dictionary is it?

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

新修's 漢和広辞典, but that was simply the kanwa dictionary that happened to be on sale when I dropped by Book-Off in need of a kanwa dictionary many years ago, and Amazon says it hasn't seen an update since 1987. I should think most kanwa jiten would have about the same coverage.

[paleaswater.livejournal.com]

This is obscure. Straight from the Chinese, looks like.