Jumping for Joy
Friday, January 30th, 2009| Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary |
In an email I recently received from Japan, the first sentence contained an intriguing compound:
お元気に活躍されている様子嬉しく存じます。
O-genki ni katsuyaku sarete iru yōsu ureshiku zonjimasu.
I’m happy to know you appear to be healthy and doing well.
Actually, before 活躍する intrigued me, it stumped me, because I didn’t know 躍. Then I looked it up and discovered this great breakdown:
活躍する (katsuyaku suru: to flourish, do well, be actively engaged) lively + to leap!
The first character, 活, means “active, lively, energetic, moving” here. All that makes sense in the context of the sentence.
But 躍 involves leaping?! I didn’t expect that. In truth, I don’t do a great deal of leaping, so I’m glad to find that I have somehow accomplished that in the parallel universe of kanji.
(Speaking of parallel universes, a friend just emailed to say that he saw me on TV a few days ago! Strange how I could have made my way inside his TV and had a presence there for a split second without having any idea! He had seen me at the Lunar New Year celebration, where I had my “Fun with Kanji” table. More on that experience at the link.)
Posted by Eve Kushner in Kanji Curiosity, Kanji | 2 Comments »
