Consider these:
遅かれ早かれ
良【よ】かれ悪【あ】しかれ
What is the underlying grammatical make up of this ~かれ~かれ pattern (if any)? Is this pattern productive(i.e. can be extended to arbitrary words)?
Answer
The 〜かれ appearing here is the imperative form. I suspect this exact construction is no longer productive in modern Japanese as adjectives are no longer thought of as having imperative forms; however, the dictionary offers this modern rephrasing of 善【よ】かれ悪【あ】しかれ:
よいにしろ、悪いにしろ
So in some sense the abstract construction of "imperative + imperative" to mean "be it ... or ..." still survives. (The "be" appearing in the English version might also be construed as an imperative, but it's probably a subjunctive.) The thesaurus (for want of a better word) lists some alternatives:
- ～にしろ…にしろ
- 〜にせよ…にせよ
- 〜にしても…にしても
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