also: ざんわ
heartbreaking story; tragic tale
Rare literary term for a deeply sad or tragic story.
He passes down heartbreaking stories of the war.
Standard kanji spelling; the reading さんわ is more common than ざんわ.
Rare voiced reading; さんわ is the usual pronunciation.
Compound of 惨 (miserable, tragic) and 話 (story, tale). The reading さんわ is the standard on'yomi combination; ざんわ is a rare voiced variant.