Japanese is a language rich in amusing proverbs and sayings about everyday life. Some of the most famous ones are those that you can find in the popular "Iroha Karuta" card-grabbing game.
In the game, picture cards are laid face up on the playing surface. Each card also shows the character syllable (or "kana") that the first word begins with. There are 48 proverbs in all, one for each kana of the Japanese hiragana syllabary.
One player is the "reader" and reads the proverbs at random and the other players try to grab the cards. As soon as you hear the opening syllable you can try and grab the appropriate card. The winner is the player who grabbed the most cards.
As you can see from the photos, the card decks come in different styles. The green deck is the sort you can find in a bookshop or stationary store, carefully designed and tastefully illustrated, with the readings all in the syllabic "hiragana" script. The white deck is a cheap set you can get for just a dollar in any "100 yen shop" and is great value for money. I like the cheerful cartoon images and the use of Chinese "kanji" characters with hiragana pronunciation guides written alongside.
It's great fun to play and also helps you to improve your reading and listening skills as well.
The proverb in today's #index4index post is probably the most famous of the whole set because it is the first card in the series.
犬も歩けば棒に当たる — Inu mo arukeba bō ni ataru.
[Dog also if-were-to-walk stick by find.]
"Even a strolling dog will get a stick."
I decided to use the phrase "get a stick" in my translation because it hints at a double meaning: the dog "hits upon" or "finds" a stick (a modern interpretation), or (the original meaning, it seems) is "hit by a stick."
The original interpretation was something like this: even a stray dog wandering around can meet with disaster so don't you go aimlessly wandering about otherwise you might get clobbered by misfortune too.
The modern interpretation turns it around to suggest that if even a walking dog can find a stick you might find something too if you go about. You never know what good thing might come your way if you go exploring.
However, my personal interpretation is perhaps a little more cynical or contemptuous, since I always think of it like this:
Well, congratulations for hitting upon something, BUT EVEN A DOG will find a useless stick if it wanders about enough.
Which interpretation do you prefer, or do you have one of your own?
Cheers!
David Hurley
#InspiredFocus
#Index4Index
