Since January 2006. Last update January 17, 2016
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So what's "Maro" to begin with? According to a Japanese dictionary, it was originally a suffix to a male name. For example, if your name is "Jack" then you may be addressed "Jack-Maro." Also intended to express one's affinity, which reminds us of "-o" of "Jack-o." Then, later, the term began to denote the first person "I" and exclusively used by noblemen (sorry, not for commoners like us). By the way, there was a tanka poet in Asuka Japan named "Hito-Maro Kaki-no-Moto", whose famous poem is:
近江の海 夕波千鳥 汝が鳴けば
心もしのにいにしへ思ほゆ Ohmi no mi (= Lake Biwa) yuunami (= Evening waves) Chidori (= plover) naga nakeba (if you quaver)
Kokoro mo shinoni (= Heart is shrunk) Inishie (bygones) Omohoyu (= contemplate)
Meaning?
Plovers on evening waves at Lake Biwa
Your quavering makes me melancholy
Contemplating bygones.
So what's "
