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…]

Translating the Iroha Karuta 4: The Hated Child…

October 30, 2022 David Hurley 0

This is the fourth in the series of Japanese proverbs that make up the “Iroha Karuta” card deck. The original Japanese goes like this: “Nikumarekko yo ni habakaru.” This proberb can be directly translated like this: Hated [Nikumare] child [ko] world [yo] in [ni] spread / gain influence [habakaru]. One [Read more…]

Translating the Iroha Karuta 3: Dumplings over Flowers

October 17, 2022 David Hurley 0

April in Japan. The cherry trees are in full blossom and everywhere where there are cherry trees there are people enjoying “ohanami” (blossom viewing) parties. Every space around the cherry trees is carpeted with bright blue plastic sheets and groups of office workers, students, and all sorts of people are [Read more…]

Translating the Iroha Karuta 2: Show, Don’t Tell

October 12, 2022 David Hurley 0

This is the second Japanese proverb in the “Iroha” Karuta series. It consists of three words in Japanese: 論 より 証拠 Ron yori shouko. [Discourse/Debate / rather than / proof/evidence] We need to switch the word order to get to the intended meaning in English: “Proof rather than debate,” Like [Read more…]

Resources For The Tailor Of Gloucester

July 31, 2022 David Hurley 0

The Tailor Of Gloucester is an English children’s story by Beatrix Potter, of “Peter Rabbit” fame. She wrote and published it in 1901.

It tells the tale of a poor tailor who has to make a coat and waistcoat for the Mayor of Gloucester’s Christmas Day wedding. He works late into the evening cutting and preparing the fabric. He lays everything out so that he can start sewing it the next morning.

The Adventures of FLAT Stanley

June 9, 2022 David Hurley 0

One of the pleasures of fatherhood was being able to re-read some of the books I had enjoyed as a child. Another was to discover a whole new generation of delightful children’s books.

One such book, or set of books that I came across when my daughter was about five years old was the “Flat Stanley” series written by Jeff Brown.