“The Prayer of the Master”: An English version of the Japanese “Lord’s Prayer” suitable for private recitation
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| Japanese Cross found in Utaizaka (謡坂), located in Mitake Town, Gifu Prefecture |
A few months ago, I wrote about what the traditional Japanese version of the Lord’s Prayer — or the Prayer of the Master (主の祈り, Shu no Inori) — can teach us about the way the meaning of iconic, apparently stable prayers such as this one is never fixed or final. You can find that piece here:
Since then, I have been slowly working on an English version suitable for private recitation — one that might help free the prayer from conventional English Christian terminology and allow just an echo of the Buddhist and Shintō resonances of the Japanese text to come through. I did this simply for my own use, but I publish it here in case anyone else might find it helpful. Enjoy . . .
—o0o—
The Prayer of the Master
O our Father in the heavens,
please cause your august name to be revered.
Please cause your august realm to come.
As your august will is done in heaven,
please cause it also to be done on earth.
Please give us today our daily bread.
As we release those who have wronged us,
so please cleanse us of our impurities.
Do not bring us to the trial,
but deliver us from what is harmful.
For the realm, the power, and the splendour
are yours without limit, for it is so.
Amen.
主の祈り
天にまします我らの父よ。
願わくはみ名をあがめさせたまえ。
み国を来らせたまえ。
みこころの天になるごとく、
地にもなさせたまえ。
我らの日用の糧を今日も与えたまえ。
我らに罪をおかす者を、
我らがゆるすごとく、
我らの罪をもゆるしたまえ。
我らをこころみにあわせず、
悪より救い出したまえ。
国と力と栄えとは、
限りなくなんじのものなればなり。
アーメン。
Comments
We are all children of the Divine
Hallowed be thy name, but if the Father has to go, where is the holiness?
Let us see the holiness in one another
Thy kingdom come, its not just in us, but in the world too
May the whole world shine for us
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Voyager is out there, far out there, doing our earthly will in the heavens. They aren't separate places any more.
And the heavens rejoice with us
Give us this day our daily bread. This sounds like the Roman grain ration, the original dole. Give us this day our Unemployment Benefit! Except "daily" is a very dodgy translation, almost certainly wrong. I'd go with the cakeism of Kenneth Baker and "give us today the bread that doesn't run out".
The sustenance of heaven can be tasted already
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us. I think this still pretty much works. Its got to be mutual, the change in where the mutuality has to be is already established by the previous revisions.
If we would forgive, so could we accept forgiveness
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. We've had the dole, here is a plea that one Job was plenty! Who is tempting whom and who can deliver whom?
Let us be honest with one another and abstain from recriminations
Thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory, for ever and ever ... Or is it? This is an early christian supplement to the original prayer of Jesus and I'm going to follow Catholic rather than Protestant tradition and omit it.
...
We are all children of the Divine
Let us see the holiness in one another
May the whole world shine for us
And the heavens rejoice with us
The sustenance of heaven can be tasted already
If we would forgive, so could we accept forgiveness
Let us be honest with one another and abstain from recriminations
...
Its not exactly poetic, but then again, I'm not exactly the messiah either.
I think what particularly fascinates me about this prayer is how it continues to operate/function beyond the surface meaning of the words, and that's why I am always interested to find other ways to tap into this something that lies beyond the individual words used in English Christian contexts.
A good example of what I mean occurred last week. I was with a very ill person in hospital and — aside from the dictionary meaning of the words — when we recited the prayer together (in it’s “traditional” English form) it was clearly the rhythm and the cadences of the prayer that brought a great deal of the comfort, and it was clear that this helped the person to relax, and that relaxation could help in their healing. In this case, the person concerned was a native English speaker, but a few years ago I was with a Romanian speaker who had no English at all. However, because the rhythm and the cadences of the prayer were almost exactly the same as in English, this was something we could genuinely do and share together. This is, quite naturally, not as clear in Japanese as it is in European languages, but nevertheless, if you listen to a Japanese version on Youtube, you can sense the connection . . .
The Lord's Prayer in Japanese
Anyway, for me, pastoral value of the rhythm and cadences remains profound and, speaking as a pastor who remains (willingly) connected with the Christian tradition — at least in its genuinely liberal, free and liberative forms — I continue to find it a powerful and inspirational prayer. Its power to continue to inspire can be seen, I think, in your final rewriting of it, which I like very much. Thank you for sharing it.
All the best, as always,
Andrew