Abstract
Of 114 paragraphs of the Middle Persian epic literature, Ayadgar i Zarerdn, 1-50 have here been translated into Japanese. In spite of the penetrating treatment by H. S. Nyberg: A Manual of Pahlavi II, Wiesbaden 1974, not a few words remain still in doubt.
The existence of an older text prior to the text now extant can be inferred from various points of view. Among others, I should like to stress here syntactic inconsistencies shown in §§1-3 and §19. §§1-3: ‘When King Wishtasp with his own sons and brothers, royal families and attendants, accepted from Ohrmazd this Pure Religion of the Mazdayasnians and afterwards came to the Khiyon lord Arjasp the news that King Wishtasp with his own sons, brothers and royal families and attendants had accepted from Ohrmazd this Pure Religion of the Mazdayasnians, then to them (the Khiyons) came heavy displeasure.’ The consistency in this sentence has been interrupted by the preceding passage ‘This Memoirs which they call Zareran was written at that time’, because 'pad 'an gah ‘at that time’ would be out of place without the following phrase ‘when King Wishtasp with his own sons…’. See note (6). §19: ‘There in the Forest of Hutos and Zoroastrian Murw (Merw) which are neither high mountain nor deep lake, at that flat desert…’—In an older text the passage must have been ‘There in the Forest of Hutos and Z. Murw which are neither high nor deep but flat ('be hamon)…’where the correlative !ne …'be ‘not…but’ is still retained. Later, were inserted kofi, war and 'pad 'an dast i, the correlativity of 'ne…'be having been lost sight of. See note (16). My thanks are due to Prof. Gikyo Ito who has kindly placed his latest decipherments at my disposal, for example, §14: wištasp-šah wiheg 'bud ‘In King Wishtasp agitation took place or King Wishtasp became agitated.’ In view of wordformation, wihez-‘move’: wiheg ‘movement, agitation; moved, agitated’ may be treated in parallel with wirez-(wirextan) ‘flee, escape’: wireg ‘flight, escape’. See note (14).
