High Quality
Open the downloaded document, and select print from the file menu (PDF reader required).
JAPANESE PROVERBS
AND SAYING
•
案ずるより産むが易し。
o
Anzuru yori umu ga yasashi.
o
Literally: Giving birth to a baby is easier than worrying about it.
o
Meaning: Fear is greater than the danger. / An attempt is sometimes easier than expected.
•
馬鹿は死ななきゃ治らない。
o
Baka wa shinanakya naoranai.
o
Literally: Unless an idiot dies, he won't be cured.
o
Meaning: Only death will cure a fool. / You can't cure stupidity.
•
出る杭は打たれる。
o
Deru kui wa utareru.
o
Literally: The stake that sticks out gets hammered down.
o
Meaning: Don't make waves / Apply your effort where it will do the most good /
Excellence breeds envy and/or enmity / It's better to conform than to stick out.
o
Note:kui shouldn't be confused withkugi (nail).
•
挨拶は時の氏神。
o
Aisatsu wa toki no ujigami.
o
Literally: A greeting is the local deity who turns up providentially.
o
Meaning: Arbitration in a quarrel is a godsend.
Background: Here,挨拶aisatsu (greeting) means arbitration.
•
秋茄子は嫁に食わすな。
o
Akinasu wa yome ni kuwasuna.
o
Literally: Don't let your daughter-in-law eat autumn eggplants.
o
Meaning: Don't let yourself be taken advantage of.
Background: Eggplants are delicious in the fall season when they tend to be
seedless. A mean mother-in-law would rather not share such a delicacy with her
daughter-in-law.
o
Meaning: Take care the body of daughter-in-law.
Background: Oriental medicine thoughts, eating eggplants cools our body. So it also means we should not give daughter-in-law eggplants in autumn for save her from cold. Especially pregnant woman.
•
悪妻は百年の不作。
o
Akusai wa hyaku-nen no fusaku.
o
Literally: A bad wife spells a hundred years of bad harvest.
o
Meaning: A bad wife is a ruin of her husband.
•
残り物には福がある。
o
Nokorimono ni wa fuku ga aru.
o
Literally: Luck exists in the leftovers.
o
Meaning: There is luck in the last helping.
Background: A mother might say this to console a young child who is left with the
sweets that were not grabbed by faster, elder siblings.
•
虎穴に入らずんば虎子を得ず。
o
Koketsu ni irazunba koji o ezu.
o
Literally: If you do not enter the tiger's cave, you will not catch its cub.
o
Meaning: Nothing ventured, nothing gained. / You can't do anything without risking
something.
•
晴天の霹靂
o
Seiten no heki-reki.
o
Literally: Thunderclap from a clear sky.
o
Meaning: A bolt from the blue. / A complete surprise.
•
猿も木から落ちる。
o
Saru mo ki kara ochiru.
o
Literally: Even monkeys fall from trees.
o
Meaning: Everyone makes mistakes. / Nobody's perfect.
•
蓼食う虫も好き好き
o
Tade kuu mushi mo sukizuki
o
Literally: There are even bugs that eatknotweed.
o
Meaning: There's no accounting for taste. / To each his own.
•
井の中の蛙大海を知らず。
o
I no naka no kaeru taikai o shirazu.
o
Literally: A frog in a well does not know the great sea.
o
Meaning: People are satisfied to judge things by their own narrow experience, never
knowing of the wide world outside.
•
蛙の子は蛙。
o
Kaeru no ko wa kaeru.
o
Literally: Child of a frog is a frog.
o
Meaning: Like father, like son.
•
鳶が鷹を産む。
o
Tonbi(or Tobi) ga taka o umu.
o
Literally: A kite breeding a hawk.
o
Meaning: A splendid child born from common parents.
•
覆水盆に帰らず。
o
Fukusui bon ni kaerazu.
o
Literally: Spilt water will not return to the tray.
o
Meaning: It's no use crying over spilt milk. / A separated couple can never go back to as it
was.
o
Background: Original meaning comes from an old Chinese story of a couple, but the
proverb is often used in a more general sense today.
•
二兎を追う者は一兎をも得ず。
o
Nito o ou mono wa itto o mo ezu.
o
Literally: One who chases after two hares won't catch even one.
o
Meaning: Trying to do two things at once will make you fail in both.
•
継続は力なり。
o
Keizoku wa chikara nari.
o
Literally: Continuance (also) is power/strength.
o
Meaning: Don't give up. Just continuing to hold on will yield/reveal strength and power.
Continuing on after a setback is its own kind of strength. Perseverance is power.
•
門前の小僧習わぬ経を読む。
o
Mon zen no kozō narawanu kyō o yomu.
o
Literally: An apprentice near a temple will recite the scriptures untaught.
o
Meaning: The environment makes our characters.
Idiomatic phrases
•
猫に小判 neko ni koban
o
Literally: gold coins to a cat.
o
Meaning: Giving a gift to someone who can't appreciate it; A useless gesture; "Pearls
before swine."
o
Background: According to superstition, cats love round, shiny objects like coins even
though they're ignorant of their true use, so this proverb also carries the connotation of an
objective pursued without completely comprehending it.
•
猫に鰹節 neko ni katsuobushi
o
Literally: fish to a cat.
o
Meaning: A situation where one can not let their guard down (because the cat can't resist
stealing your fish).
•
七転び八起き nanakorobi yaoki
o
Literally: stumbling seven times but recovering eight.
o
Meaning: perseverance is better than defeat.
o
Equivalent: perseverance is the key.
•
三日坊主 mikka bōzu
o
Literally: a monk for (just) three days.
o
Meaning: Giving up at the first sign of difficulty.
•
花よりだんご hana yori dango
o
Literally: dumplings over flowers
o
Meaning: The person to whom it is directed prefers practical gain to aesthetics.
•
水に流す mizu ni nagasu
o
Literally: let flow in the water
o
Meaning: Forgive and forget; water under the bridge
•
雨降って地固まる ame futte chi katamaru
o
Literally: after the rain, earth hardens
o
Meaning: Adversity builds character./After a storm, things will stand on more solid
ground than they did before.
•
油を売る abura o uru
o
Literally: to sell oil
o
Meaning: to spend time chitchatting or to waste time in the middle of a task
o
Background: Comes from Edo period hair oil salesmen who took their time chitchatting
with the customers when selling.
Four-character idioms
Add a Comment
YounesSherlockleft a comment