Living on Mist

Here's another one I found in Kyoto Journal. Genevieve Wood, writing of her meeting in the Philippines with paper making master and innovator Shimura Asao, describes how he has given up the ordinary but secure path of the salaryman to research his craft and to help people. "His means are meager..." she writes, "...in Japanese it's described as 霞を食べて ("kasumi wo tabete"), living on mist". That's a beautiful phrase. I had to look it up.

My 広辞苑 dictionary has this:

（仙人が霞を食べて生きるといわれることから）俗世間に煩わされず生きる。
（Because mountain hermits were said to live on mist) to live free from the trouble of the workaday world.

I really like this expression, it describes perfectly and with a gentle humour the kind of simple wonder one might express at the idealist who has deliberately stepped outside of conventional society. How does that person survive? What does he eat? Mist?

Here's some vocabulary notes for you:

仙人 - sennin = hermit; either one of those crazy old mystics living in the mountains of chinese legend or someone who has distanced themselves from worldy concerns.
霞 - kasumi = mist (there's a lot of it in the mountains)
食べて生きる = to eat + to live = to live on _____
俗世間 - zokuseken - the workaday or secular world
煩わされず - wazurawasarezu = to not be troubled by something (the negative form of 煩わせる - remember that kanji from yesterday?)
生きる - ikiru - to live

URUSAI!

Aurelio Asiain writes in the latest issue of Kyoto Journal:

Given the importance of silence in Japanese culture and the attention paid to the voices of insects, I am hardly surprised that in modern Japanese the word urusai - "noisy, annoying, bothersome" - still can be found written with three characters whose literal meaning is "mayfly."

I never knew that. So I looked it up and it's true, although I think most people would probably write a simple hiragana うるさい, and there is another reading 煩い (with a kanji meaning trouble or worry and components suggesting suitably a fire in the head) it can also be written as he said.
五 read "go" means 5
月 read "gatsu" means month
蠅 read "hae" means fly
But put them together and 五月蠅い is read "urusai". Noisy in the sense that someone bugs you by pestering you till you simply cannot stand it. Or noisy in the sense of someone deliberately trying to wind you up. On such occasions a Japanese might let rip with an ill-tempered "URUSAI!" just as they might also swat at an annoying fly.

"Embrace" by Bump of Chicken

So in the last two posts I put up some vocabulary lists that were intended to be preparation for learning a song in Japanese. I was going to go to karaoke shortly afterwards and wow my girlfriend with a surprise rendition of her favorite Bump of Chicken number. But then the karaoke evening got cancelled and two months went by... However, I finally got a chance to serenade her the other night and ...it was a triumphant success! Back in the day when I first came to Japan I used to study J-pop quite a bit. It's a good way to impress your Japanese friends/colleagues and an excellent way to build up your vocabulary, and improve your grammar, pronunciation and reading skills too! Here, finally, for your benefit are the lyrics in both kana and romaji and then of course the song itself. Bit of a tearjerker this one:

隠れてないで　出てこいよ　この部屋は大丈夫
Kakuretenaide detekoiyo kono heya ha daijoubu
鼓動の音は　ふたつ　ふたつ以上も以下もない
Kodou no oto wa futatsu futatsu ijou mo ika mo nai

逃げ道の途中　飛び込んだ　この部屋の中で
Nigemichi no tochuu tobikonda kono heya no naka de
君は僕に見つかった　首輪の無い姿で
Kimi wa boku ni mitsu katta kubi wa no nai sugata de

震えてるのはきっと　寒さのせいだけじゃないな
Furueteru no wa kitto samusa no sei dake ja nai na
どんな台詞もきっと　役に立たないな
Donna serifu mo kitto yaku ni tata nai na

腕の中へおいで　抱えた孤独の
Ude no naka he oide kakaeta kodoku no
その輪郭を　撫でてやるよ
Sono rinkaku wo nadete yaru yo
明かりの無い部屋で　言葉もくたびれて
Akari no nai heya de kotoba mokutabirete
確かなものは　温もりだけ
Tashika na mono wa nukumori dake

君が　そこに居ないと気付いたら　とにかく探すだろう
Kimi ga soko ni inai to kiduitara tonikaku sagasu darou
「そこに居る」のに「居ない」と　気付く時もあるだろう
“Soko ni iru” no ni “inai” to kiduku toki mo aru darou

この眼が視力を失くしても　僕は君を見るだろう
Kono me ga shiryoku wo naku shitemo boku wa kimi wo miru darou
体中の細胞　フル動員で　君を見るだろう
Karadajuu no saibou furu douin de kimi wo miru darou

呼吸の音がする　柔かい匂いもある
Kokyuu no oto ga suru yawarakakai nioi mo aru
全てこの手のひらに　集めて閉じ込めるよ
Subete kono te no hira ni atsumete tojikomeru yo

腕の中へおいで　隠した痛みの
Ude no naka he oide kakushita itami no
その傷口に　触れてみるよ
Sono kizuguchi ni furete miru yo
時間の無い部屋で　理由も忘れて
Jikan no nai heya de riyuu mo wasurete
確かなものを　探しただけ　見つけただけ
Tashika na mono wo sagashita dake mitsuketa dake

腕の中へおいで　醜い本音を
Ude no naka he oide minikui honne wo
紡いだ場所に　キスをするよ
Tsumuida basho ni kisu wo suru yo
命の無い世界で　僕と同じ様に
Inochi no nai sekai de boku to onaji you ni
生きてるものを　探しただけ
Ikiteru mono wo sagashita dake

腕の中へおいで　怖がらないでおいで
Ude no naka he oide kowagara nai de oide
生きてるものを　見つけただけ
Ikiteru mono wo mitsuketa dake
確かなものは　温もりだけ
Tashika na mono wa nukumori dake

Secret Project Part 2

Did you learn the words and kanji, in the last post? Here are twelve more...

触れる fureru = to touch, to feel
本音 honne = real intention, motive　
抱える kakaeru = to hold or carry in the arms, to have (a problem)
傷口 kizuguchi = wound　
孤独 kodoku = loneliness, solitude
草臥れる kutabireru = to get tired, to be fatigued
温もり nukumori = warmth
醜い minikui = ugly, unsightly　
撫でる naderu = to stroke, to caress
輪郭 rinkaku = outlines, features
紡ぐ tsumugu = to spin (yarn)
腕 ude = arm

Learn these and in the next post I'll tell you how you can use them.

Secret Project Part 1

Familiarize yourself with these words and their kanji now:

動員 douin = mobilization
震える furueru = to shiver, to tremble
隠れる kakureru = to hide (oneself)　　
鼓動 kodou = beat, pulse, throb
呼吸 kokyuu = breath, (respiration)
首輪 kubiwa = necklace
眼 me = eye
失くす nakusu = to lose something
匂い nioi = odour, scent, smell
細胞 saibou = (biological) cell
台詞 serifu = words, lines
視力 shiryoku = eyesight
柔らかい yawarakai = soft, tender

Trust me. They'll come in handy later...