Iroha Karuta 10.2: A Thief’s Siesta

October 12, 2024 David Hurley 0

In my previous post about the Japanese “Iroha Karuta” playing card game I looked at a common proverb used to illustrate the tenth card in the sequence. The tenth card illustrates the tenth syllable in the old Japanese syllabary, the syllable “nu”. That proverb was about a lotus growing in [Read more…]

Iroha Karuta 10:1: Even in a Mucky Pond…

September 13, 2024 David Hurley 0

A lot of the local trains that head out of Hiroshima Station on the JR Sanyo line that takes you past Miyajima terminate at Iwakuni. Iwakuni is famous for its picturesque Kintaikyo Bridge (I should really take some pics of it to post on Liketu), the US Marine base, and… [Read more…]

Translating the Iroha Karuta 8: Gathering Dust

June 14, 2023 David Hurley 0

The 8th syllable in the old Japanese “iroha syllabry” is pronounced “chi,” and written: “ち”. Chi is therefore the initial sound of the eighth proverb in the “Iroha Karuta” card deck. Here’s the proverb in Japanese: Chiri tsumotte yama to naru Chiri is “dust” and “yama” is “mountain.” “Tsumotte” is [Read more…]

Translating the Iroha Karuta 7: Nailing Down Tofu

December 28, 2022 David Hurley 0

The seventh Japanese proverb in some versions of the Iroha Karuta puts together two familiar but incompatible items from Japanese life: tofu and a carpenter’s nail… The closest “dynamic equivalent” in English is, “like nailing jelly to the wall.” It can be applied to a few of familiar situations. One [Read more…]