Indian Summer #2

Another sunny autumn day today and this word has been added to my vocabulary:

秋晴れ - akibare

I couldn't find it in my Japanese/English dictionary so I looked it up in the 広辞苑 (koujien) Japanese dictionary instead. It said:

秋の、すっかり晴れ渡った天気。
あきの、すっかりはれわたったてんき。

秋　- aki - autumn
すっかり　- sukkari - completely
晴れ渡る - harewataru - to clear up, to be cloudless
天気 - tenki - weather

秋晴れ　＝　clear autumnal weather

There are some examples of it's usage here on SPACEALC.

And here's another one from Jim Breen's dictionary:

このところの美しい秋晴れは、雨の多かった夏の埋め合わせをしてくれている。
This beautiful autumn weather we've been having makes up for the wet summer.

Indian Summer

After days and days of incessant inclemency today finally we had sunshine, warmth, a lovely day.

「小春日和やな」 said my girlfriend, a warm autumn day...

小　－　こ　－ small
春　－　はる　－ spring
日和　－　ひより　(special reading) － weather

koharubiyori = Indian summer

Autumn Skies

Here's a site that's worth a look, with some very nicely illustrated Japanese proverbs:

http://proverbswithillustrations.blogspot.com/

It's just a pity that they don't seem to be adding any more recently.

And here's today's proverb from me, an old favorite of mine actually:

秋の空と女心 - aki no sora to onna gokoro - Autumn skies and a woman's mind/heart.

The implication being that autumn skies are as changeable as women are fickle. Happily, my girl aint fickle. Mind, the skies aren't too changeable these days either; just rain, rain rain...

Those Gentle Autumn Blues...

There's a particular feeling of melancholy, a kind of romantic sadness, I associate with autumn that I think the Japanese also feel very strongly and express very well in poems like this:

奥山の
もみじ踏み分け
鳴く鹿の
声聞くときぞ
秋は悲しき
(猿丸太夫）

okuyama no
momiji fumiwake
naku shika no
koe kiku toki zo
aki ha kanashiki
(By Sarumaru Dayu)

Deep in the mountains,
wading through leaves,
when I hear the stag's voice calling,
Autumn is so sad.
(Very rough translation by Michael Lambe)

I've long wondered what word could express this feeling in Japanese. When I look up the word "melancholy" all I find are dark words describing gloom and depression. However, the particular autumn melancholy I am trying to express is a kind of pleasant, romantic feeling... At the weekend I met a gentleman who knew exactly what I meant and gave me this word, which is today's word, to describe it:

寂寥　-　せきりょう - loneliness, still, quiet, desolate...

Let's look at those kanji. Both seem to mean the same thing but the first kanji is the one most commonly used to write "sabishii" or lonely.

寂 - SEKI / JAKU - sabishii - lonely
寥 - RYO - sabishii - lonely

The second kanji seems describe less a personal feeling of missing someone than a place or landscape that is empty of people, such as in the word 寥々たる (ryouryoutaru) which can mean barren, or sparse, or rare...

Here's how today's word is used:

寂寥を感じる - sekiryou wo kanjiru - to feel lonely
寂寥感 - sekiryoukan - loneliness
寂寥たる眺め - sekiryoutaru nagame - a lonely scene