39「道のためまがれる敵をよびさまし言むけすすめ愛の剣に。」- 植芝盛平
Original Dōka
道のため
植芝盛平 (Ueshiba, 1977)
まがれる敵を
よびさまし
言むけすすめ
愛の剣に
Translation
“For the sake of the way: wayward enemies, call and awaken—words to turn, encouraging—love’s own sword, into and by.” – Morihei Ueshiba
Waka Translation
For the way’s regard:
the wayward adversary,
call and awaken—
words to turn, encouraging
love’s own sword, into and by.
Morihei Ueshiba
歴史的仮名遣い（語構成を明示）
道の爲（みちのため）
枉れる敵を（まがれるてきを）
呼び覺まし（よびさまし）
言向け勸め（ことむけすすめ）
愛の劍に（あいのつるぎに）
植芝盛平
Bungo Romanization
michi no tame
magareru teki o
yobi‑samashi
kotomuke susume
ai no tsurugi ni
Ueshiba Morihei
Translation, Notes, Commentary, and Research by Latex G. N. R. Space-Coyote
Ueshiba, M. (2025). 植芝盛平道歌–039: Awaken those astray (L. G. N. R. Space-Coyote, Trans.; OpenAI ChatGPT-5 Pro, Ed.). Shugyokai.org. (Original work published 1977) https://shugyokai.org/lggw
道（みち; michi）— path, way; Budō/Shintō-inflected thought, michi is the ethical–spiritual path (dō in Aikidō). Acting “for the way” frames conduct as service to cosmic order and moral cultivation.
道の爲（みちのため; michi no tame）— “for the sake of the way”, dō / michi invokes the ethical‑cultivational “way” of budō; official budō charters and handbooks gloss dō precisely in this sense.
まがれる（まがれる; magareru）— an older usage meaning “to be bent / crooked; to stray from the right path” (also written 枉れる/曲れる). Ueshiba often contrasts magaru (crooked) with nao (straight / upright), echoing Shintō notions of rectifying disorder.
敵（てき; teki）— enemy (<啇 – stem/root|<冂 – upside down box)|古 – old, ancient, things past, simple, unsophisticated, history>|攵 – strike, hit; kakekotoba on -te form + ki (Space-Coyote, 2026).
まがれる敵を / 枉れる敵を（まがれるてき; magareru teki o）— “enemies who have gone awry / astray”, “the enemy who has gone astray / deviated”; magareru resonates with 曲がる ‘to be bent’ and the classical noun 禍/曲（まが） ‘evil, calamity’, a deliberate ambiguity that works as a kakekotoba (pivot pun) between ‘crooked’ and ‘wicked’; magareru evokes “crooked, perverted from the norm” (norm here is wisdom, not convention) not merely physically bent.
よびさまし / 呼び覚まし（まがれるてきを; magareru teki o）— “call and awaken”: transitive samasu in ren’yō (continuative) form; the ren’yō‑chūshi (continuative suspension) after line 3 functions as a rhetorical cut between kami‑no‑ku and shimo‑no‑ku; “to call and wake (someone) up”; a compassionate, restorative move rather than punitive; implies returning opponents to right-mindedness; 連用形 (adverbial) of 覚ます, stressing awakening from ignorance / delusion [of truths in other dōka]; Ueshiba often frames budō as “awakening”, not annihilation.
言むけすすめ / 言向け勸め（ことむけすすめ; kotomuke susume）— from the classical 言向け (“to direct / pacify with words,” related to the Nihon Shokiphrase 言向け和す); “address (him) with words and urge (him on)”; the verb 言向く is the Kojiki / ancient formula “pacify / turn by words,” here coupled with 勧む “to encourage,” emphasizing persuasion over destruction; signals persuasion and moral suasion—winning hearts through speech rather than coercion—an ideal that aligns with Aikidō’s non-violence.
愛の剣（あいのつるぎ; ai no tsurugi）— “the Sword of Love”; signature Ueshiba. “Sword” symbolizes decisive clarity and protective power, while ai (“love”) reframes martial technique as benevolent harmonization; not destruction but cutting away of hostility to restore harmony.
–に（ni）— sentence‑final case particle leaves the object of direction / instrument hanging (“into / by the sword of love”), producing yoin (lingering resonance), a valued effect in waka poetics alongside the mid‑poem cut.
Form & lineation. Use of 連用形 compounds (呼び覺まし, 言向け勸め) linking actions is standard in bungo. 連体形 before a noun in 枉れる敵 matches classical attributive usage. Retention of particles の／を／に and the nominative‑like の after nouns are normal in literary Japanese. Authoritative pedagogical grammars (Shirane; Vovin) outline these bungo patterns and their continuity with modern Japanese.
Orthography. The kyūjitai/rekishiteki kana‑zukai spellings (爲, 覺, 勸, 劍) are conventional for bungo presentation. Cultural‑affairs guidance and historical overviews note the shift to modern orthography after 1946, but bungo editions routinely keep historical forms.
Lexicon with archaic coloring. 言向く is a hallmark archaism from the Kojiki meaning “to pacify / turn by words,” exactly the conciliatory rhetoric this dōka employs. Scholarly discussions of Kojiki diction—and Heldt’s translation apparatus—highlight this formula.
Moralized “crooked / bent”. まが‑ (枉/曲) frames error as “deviation from the Way,” a deeply classical trope (cf. 枉).
Editorial realism. Because modern printed Ueshiba texts may vary, keeping close to attested wording while restoring tanka lineation (rather than rewriting) respects the way his poems circulate and avoids postwar “sanitized” paraphrase—an issue Pranin flagged.
Budō’s “Way” (道). Budō institutions themselves describe dō as a path of moral cultivation, not mere technique, aligning with “for the Way” as the poem’s ethical horizon.
Kotodama & 言向け. The poem’s center of gravity is persuasion (“address/urge”) rather than destruction; this resonates with kotodama beliefs about the efficacious “spirit of words” in Shintō and modern religious discourse. Academic discussions (communication studies; religious studies) trace kotodama’s conceptual history and its ritual/language theology.
Ōmoto (Oomoto) influence. Ueshiba’s aikidō was shaped by Deguchi Onisaburō and the Ōmoto movement; scholarship repeatedly notes how love, harmony, and pacification language enter his budō through this channel. This helps explain “愛の劍”—the “sword of love”—as a teleology of reconciliation rather than annihilation.
Philological note. I regularized 言むけ → 言向け to align with the classical set phrase 言向け（和す）. Ueshiba’s diction is famously archaising and religio‑mystical; aligning to the Kojiki‑derived verb sharpens the bungo register without altering sense. (On editorial variance in transmitted texts, see Pranin.)
Shugyokai note. Be sure to valence -te form not only in word, but kokoro, makoto, shin, mitama… *growlies*
解説; Commentary
第39首は原文「道のため／まがれる敵を／よびさまし／言むけすすめ／愛の剣に」を掲げ、批判的口語訳にすれば――「道（みち）のために、道から外れた敵を呼び覚まし、言葉で向け直して励まし、“愛の剣”へ（によって）導け」――という勧告だよ。ページの語注は、まがれるを「曲がった／道を外れた」の古用、よびさましを「呼び起こす」の連用形、言むけすすめ（＝言向け勧め）を『古事記』以来の言向け和す＝言葉による転回・和らぎと説明し、結語の愛の剣を「破壊ではなく調和へ向ける剣」、さらに句末「〜に」の余韻（方向／手段の開放）まで押さえている。ポイントは、滅ぼすのでなく“呼び覚ます→言で向ける→励ます”という段取りで、剣＝決断を愛＝至善の働きへと束ね直す設計にある、ということだ。
六つのプライマーに糸戻しすると位置づけが鮮明になる。プライマーの第一原理〈武＝宇宙原理〉は冒頭の「道のため」という倫理座標そのもの、プライマーの第二原理〈人との合気〉は「よびさまし／言向け」の対人運用を裏打ちする。プライマーの第三原理〈心魂一如〉があるから語（ことば）と所作がずれず、プライマーの第四原理〈和合美化〉は言で転回させる＝壊さず整えるというテロスを定める。プライマーの第五原理〈体＝道場、心＝修業者／修行者心／学び手〉は“呼び覚ましと言向け”を日々の最小単位で鍛える秤となり、プライマーの第六原理〈「至愛」の源に順う〉は「愛の剣」の中核（裁断の力を“愛”へ服属させる）を与える。したがって本ページは、原理→関係→一如→美→日常→至愛の六段を、呼び覚ます／言で向ける／励ます／愛の剣という実践動詞に圧縮して示している。
さらに直前三首にも自然に接続する。第36首は行き詰まりのたび「いづ×みづ（厳×瑞）の道」へ還れと教え、ここでは厳＝剣の決断／瑞＝言で和らげ導くとして二相を合一させる。第37首は「心の駒の手綱をゆるすな」と戒め、言向けを粗忽な激情に沈ませない自己統御を前提化する。第38首は「右＝陽に示し／左＝陰に返して導け」で見せる・受けるの配電を定め、本首の「呼び覚ます→言で向ける→励ます」を見せ（陽）／受け（陰）の手順に落としてくれる。つまり第39首は、その場の敵意を“言葉と愛の剣”で正道へ返すという合気の核心を、直前三首とプライマー群の秤で検証可能な実地の指針として結晶させた一首なんだ。
口語要約のひとこと
「道のため、道を外れた敵を呼び覚まし、言葉で向け直して勧め、愛の剣へ。」
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Appendix I: Change Modification Log
21 DEC 25 - Phase V styling applied to waka.07 NOV 25 - Phase IV completion; commentary added.14 OCT 25 - Phase III completion.14 APR 20 - Initial notes transferred.