Below are translations of two excerpts from Jumon no Gengogaku (『呪文の言語学』）[The Linguistics of Incantations] written by Dr. Yusuke Sumi and published by Sakuhinsha. Permission to post the translation has been granted by Sakuhinsha. Click here to read my introductory comments on the book.
Sensei is a Witch?
Eliza was my sensei [teacher] so perhaps I should call her Eliza-Sensei, but she was also my friend, so I’ll drop the formality. Eliza is a Romanian woman with a friendly Japanese husband. She currently resides in Japan and is an important person in maintaining friendly relations between Japan and Romania. She does promotional activities with the Romanian embassy, mainly around Musashino City in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. She is also a member of the Musashino City International Association.
Today she is a well-known person in Japanese-Romanian relations and speaks perfectly fluent Japanese. But when I was in high school she hadn’t been in Japan long and still had trouble communicating. But that didn’t bother me. Eliza taught me countless Romanian phrases and expressions, and I wrote down everything. My notepad at the time looked something like this: “My name is…”, “I am … years old”, “I am a student”, “I want to go to…”, “May you be protected from the evil eye”, “I love you”, “How much does this cost?”, and various other phrases written in both languages. They were the kind of “everyday expressions” that you would see in travel handbooks. But hold on. There was something odd mixed in there.
Să nu-i fie de deochi! (May you be protected from the evil eye.)
What is that? I think Eliza’s explanation at the time was “When you look at a baby, you say this and go ‘ptu, ptu, ptu’ to make sure they don’t get sick. People with green eyes are powerful.”
The “evil eye” is a folk belief of Romania. It is said that “Regardless of your intention, you can make someone sick by staring at them.” It is thought that this power is especially strong for people with green eyes and that newborns are particularly vulnerable. If you are struck by the evil eye, you will experience a range of symptoms such as hiccups, ear ringing, insomnia, headache, stomachache, and fever. In some cases it can even lead to death.
Suppose, for example, you are holding a cute, smiling newborn baby. Be careful not to shower the baby in praises like “You’re such a cute baby!!!” because it could strike the baby with the evil eye and make them sick. At these times, someone nearby, or the person doing the praising, should turn toward the baby and say “Să nu-i fie de deochi!” (may you be protected from the evil eye) and then make a spitting noise three times in order to seal away the effects of the evil eye…
… After that, Eliza went on to teach me more incantations as part of my Romanian lessons, as if it were the obvious thing to do. Another one she used “to protect a child” was “Angel, my little angel” (1-1). She would take both my hands, place her thumbs on my wrists, close her eyes, and softly recite the words. I later learned that this was a common prayer to call a guardian angel down from Heaven.
| Incantation 1-1 “Angel, my little Angel” variation 1 | |
| Incantation Conditions: In Eliza’s case, she takes both hands of the target and places her thumb on their wrists as she begins to chant. As you can see from the translation, it was originally used for children to recite to themselves, but Eliza rephrased it as an incantation to attach a guardian angel to me. | |
| Înger, îngerasul meu, Ce mi te-a dat Dumnezeu, Totdeauna fii cu mine Și mă-nvață să fac bine! Eu sunt mic – tu fă-mă mare; Eu sunt slab – tu fă-mă tare; In tot locul mă-nsoteste Și de rele mă ferește! Doamne, îngerasul Tău Fie Păzitorul meu Să mă apere mereu De ispita celui rău! Doamne, îngerul ce-mi dai M-ajute s-ajung în rai: Măntuirea s-o primsec Lăngă Tine, Domn Ceresc! Amin! | Angel, my little angel You who god gave to me Always by my side Please teach me what is right! I am small, you make me big I am weak, you make me strong You are always with me And you protect me from evil! Lord, your little angel Become my guardian To always protect me From the temptation of the evil one! Lord, please give me an angel To help me arrive in Heaven So that I may be saved In front of you, Heavenly Lord! Amen! |
Eliza taught me these incantations nonchalantly. It seemed that in Romania, knowing how to incant was like knowing how to place a phone call: it was nothing more than a necessary tool for living one’s daily life.
I started to wonder. Why was Eliza teaching me so many spells? Not just that, but she knows a lot about medicinal herbs. And then there was the talk about her great grandmother conducting ceremonies in the middle of the night. It was not the kind of thing you expected to hear about in the present day. Mystical topics came up all the time, but to Eliza, this was all completely normal. These topics were on the level of dinnertime conversation.
Eliza was a European woman who was knowledgeable about herbs and spells. Almost as if she was…that. She didn’t cackle eerily. She didn’t have a curved nose, claw-like fingernails, or a shriveled face. Nevertheless, she was extremely close to that thing from fairy tales. But in the modern age, in a developed and scientifically advanced society, I thought I would look stupid if I looked her in the eyes and asked “are you…that?” After all, I was a high school student trying my best to act like an adult. I was afraid to ask a foolish question and embarass myself.
Translated by Mark Simoncic from 角悠介 (Yusuke Sumi) Jumon no Gengogaku (『呪文の言語学』) Kindle Ed., 作品社、2025年, pp. 21-25
[About 30 pages later]
In Romania, magic is not the special thing we imagine it to be. It is a traditional part of culture that is transferred and passed down between individuals, like folklore, dance, religion, festivities, language, traditional clothing, and craftsmanship.
Romania has been called the holy land of research for ethnology and cultural anthropology. There, the old western European way of life, which seems lost elsewhere, lives on. The magic of the Romanian people, and that of the Roma, are both part of that. In regions where these aspects of traditional culture are deeply rooted, they are not emphasized as special. Magic is a kind of wisdom used to improve lives in agricultural communities. Although there is a level of secrecy, from the viewpoint of the women who inherent magic from their ancestors, it feels more like chores than anything else. Personally, I think of magic as part of a grandmother’s vast bag of wisdom.
Recall Eliza, from the beginning of the chapter. In my mind, she and her grandmother fit the image of witches. But Eliza herself almost never used the word “witch.” She just said “I know this” or “I also do that” in a matter-of-fact way. This is just one example of how what we call “magic” is, in Romania, a commonplace practice passed down through generations.
It might be an overstatement, but it’s possible that from our point of view, every woman from the past could be called a witch. To a greater or lesser degree, everyone who lived a traditional lifestyle performed some magic. Some were more or less skilled, but there was no clear distinction between witch and non-witch. In a society permeated with traditional culture, the existence of witches does not stand out. It is only us outsiders who have lost this culture who make a big deal about it. The witches in this book are women who employ magic as part of everyday wisdom. I ask the reader to distinguish them from the image of a witch that has been born from fantasy and imprinted upon us.
Translated by Mark Simoncic from 角悠介 (Yusuke Sumi) Jumon no Gengogaku (『呪文の言語学』) Kindle Ed., 作品社、2025年, pp. 57-58
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