Emperor's New Clothes Comparison - 1888 - Part III

Note: I have omitted Watanabe's translation due to the difficulty in translating/transcribing it, and the fact that it ditches in most cases the nuances of line individualism in favour of a more direct if flattening out style of translation. I may revisit this article and add it in the future, or in another article.

We reach the final part of this first segment of the comparison, wherewith His Majesty and his fictitious clothes are exposed through the undeceived eyes of a child.

Giving here Takahashi's final paragraph in full (albeit without Romaji due to ease of viewing):

「イヤー王様は眞裸でゐるよ、眞裸でゐるよ、着物を着らちゃゐないよ」と一人の子供が言はやした、すると親父が側にゐる人々に言た、

"Naah, look! The King is stark-naked! Look, utterly undoffed!  He isn't wearing any clothes at all" quoth a child, thereupon did the father nearby say to the people adjacent.

「には皆様この罪の無い者が言ふのを聞てください、王様は眞裸だと言ますよ」、

"Please, if ye would hear the guiltless utterance of such a person! To say that the King is undoffed!"

「なに、王様は眞裸だと」と一人いひ、二人いひして、忽まち此言（このことば）が惣體（そうたい）にいろがりました、そこで終には一同が

"What? The King is undoffed?"  said a person, then two people, and it passed from person  in an instant,. At least everyone said it,

「王様は裸體（はかだ）だ裸體（はかだ）だ」と呼×りだした、王様も如何にも道理（もっとも）と思ったから、非常（ひどく）こまってきたが、又おもひなほして、

"The King is nude! He is nude!", they all yelled* - truly the King thought to himself that this was most worrisome, and he thought to himself again,

「イヤ、イヤ、裸でも何でも今さら仕方がない、兎角も終極（しまひ）まで行（やっ）てとほにやならぬ」と決心して、今一層ほこらしげに、優然と四面（あたり）をはらって進まれた、因て侍従衆も依然（やはり）ありもせぬ長裾を恭しげに持あげて、後にしたかって行ました、

"Nay, nay, be that as it may that We are naked, foremost We shall continue this to its conclusion!" had he decided. Right at that moment, at all sides, the troubled chamberlains continued, most reverently they kept going on with grabbing the long hem, right until the end.

*There is a kana-character that I could not clearly make out, hence the "x."

As we can see - apart from the diction once more being quite archaic, the King (or Emperor) is hellbent on continue to the "ultimate" (as he says) end of things with this procession - using the shikatanai - that literally is "nothing can be done about it", but contextually corresponds to a wide variety of English sayings hence my faux-Elizabethan choice to convey the nuance of the elderly and scathingly sky-clothed monarch's disgruntlement over this turn of events.

Note that three entire words for naked are used in these paragraphs, namely:
眞裸 (mappadaka) - "Truly naked" - Thus butt-naked or "undoffed" in my translation due to the linguistic tone being markedly old fashioned.
裸體 (ratai) - "Bared body" - Highlighting that the Royal Presence is quite au-natural. It is within the story read as karada, "body," via gikun, where the furigana - explanatory ruby - gives it an alternate pronunciation other than usual one. Thereby stressing the point of the Majesty's Majesty being exposed.
裸 (hadaka) - The generic term for "naked;" as used by the King at the very end of the story.

On the topic of His Majesty's body, when the Swindler's proclaim the wish to garb His Majesty in made-up rugs, they use highly decorous language with a few unique traits:

「是が御袴（おはかま）で、是が御服（おめし）で是が羽織でござりますが、凡て蛛（くも）のソよりも軽うござれば、御聖體（おからだ）に重い様な御繋念（おけねん）はさらさらでござりませぬ、實に此布帛の徳は其処に在る者でござる」

"Kore wa ohakama de, kore ga omeshi de kore ga hataori de gozarimasuga, subete kumo non yori mo karuu gozareba, okarada ni omoi you na okenen wa sarasara de gozarimasenu, jitsu ni kinu no toku wa soko ni aru mono de gozaru"

"This is the honourable Hakama, these are the honourable Clothes and this is the haori, sire, if all of it is as light as unto that of a spider's, Your Majesty needn't be so gravely worried in regards to the Royal Body being flowing so freely; verily, the very virtue of this fabric is that very thing (= cobweb light clothes)."

First and foremost, I apologise if the wording gets clustered or verbose, these Swindlers indulge themselves in prolix politeness. Secondly, 御聖體 is usually read as and rendered in modern Japanese as 聖体 (seitai, "the holy body"), here an Imperial honorific for "the body of the Emperor" where it is here given an honorific and read differently as karada ("body"), thus pronounced okarada ("the honourable body"), but written oseitai ("the honourable holy imperial body"); thus, the Swindlers use the utmost decorous term to refer to the King's body, but garb it in a much less respectful - nevertheless polite - pronunciation for less nobility than that of the Monarch of the nation that they are currently working for.

Lastly, the terms they use for the royal garbs: hakama, meshi and haori are - apart from meshi, which can also just refer to western clothes - terms used for traditional Japanese articles of clothing. The hakama are the long and baggy trousers of ancient court-wear and the haori is the formal jacket worn over the kimono. Thus he is understood by the native audience of the story to be wearing traditional robes and the finest of them as evident by the prefixation of the honorific o- on the words themselves. Meshi is also a courteous word for the food, garbs and articles that nobility own derived ultimately from the reverent multi-versatile verb mesu (召す, "the gentleman/madam wears/eats/drinks/sends for"), also appearing in most translations of the title of the story as omeshimono (御召物, "(the nobleman's) robes", lit. "honourable things to be worn"), though Takahashi opts for Ousama no shinishou (王様の新衣裳, "The King's New Clothes"), using the generic ishou (衣裳, "clothes"), rather than the honorific term.