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…]

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…]

Well, the title of this post says it all so I’d better not go on for too long about this, the sixth proverb in the Japanese Iroha Karuta series… The Japanese proverb goes like this: Heta no naga dangi ( 下手の長談義 ) To make grammatical sense of it in English [Read more…]

Look at that bloke trying to catch a scroll in the wind! He’s busting a gut trying to catch it, but all he gets for his efforts is exhaustion: Take another look at that bloke. With his eyes fixed on the scroll he’s totally unaware that he’s about to break [Read more…]

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…]

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…]