Chit-chat from Imaginatorium Shop
What do the words mean?
Blog entry for April 2014
Someone asked if I could translate the words on the puzzle on the right, so here we are. This is this year's pun: it is the year of the horse (uma)... Since this is written vertically (as almost all traditional writing is), read the columns from right to left, numbered 1 to 8.
Well, no-one said translating poetry is easy! It is very hard to convey the warmth of words, as opposed to their superficial meaning. But anyway, see how lines 3 and 4 repeat the uma-ku-iku pun to make sure no-one misses it: "Horse-nine-go / well (umaku) - go." We are increasing the range of puzzles like this: collected together on this page: Art with words. I will always try to add some explanation, but I'm afraid it not always possible to provide a neat and complete translation. Remember that you can find out an amazing amount from Wiktionary — just paste Japanese words into the box, and with luck you will get an English explanation. |
"A kind of blog..." My sporadic comments, mostly topical, on shop matters. (Brian Chandler)
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