Cool Compounds: Part 5
Friday, January 16th, 2009
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If English speakers talk about seeing something quickly, they usually mean that they glimpsed something as it whizzed by but couldn’t study the image in detail. In Japanese, looking at something fast has an entirely different meaning:
早見 (hayami: chart, table) fast + to see
An alternate way of writing this compound features another “fast” kanji: 速見 (fast + to see). In both compounds, notice the kun-kun construction. This is old Japanese.
A chart organizes the bare bones of information, enabling you to find what you need quickly!
And what would it mean to look at something slowly in Japanese? Think of quintessential Japanese creations such as gravel gardens, suiseki (水石: comprehension of nature through the appreciation of stones, water + stone), and the tea ceremony. To understand and enjoy these seemingly cryptic cultural expressions, one has to cultivate a deep stillness of mind and spirit, delving far beneath surfaces and finding something important below. (Or so I’ve heard!) In this way, one can see the essence—which is to say the “inherent quality”—of a thing:
本質 (honshitsu: essence) inherent + quality
Isn’t that lovely? To grasp the essence of a person, you need to see and understand that person’s inherent qualities.
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Posted by Eve Kushner in Kanji Curiosity | 2 Comments »
