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Japanese Sayings
02 May 2013
12:46

Japanese Sayings and Wisdom Words

Literally: A bad wife spells a hundred years of bad harvest.
Meaning: A bad wife is a ruin of her husband.
Literally: Luck exists in the leftovers.
Meaning: There is luck in the last helping.
Literally: If you do not enter the tiger's cave, you will not catch its cub.
Meaning: Nothing ventured, nothing gained. / You can't do anything without risking
something.
Literally: Summer heater winter fan
Meaning: Something which is out of season and therefore rendered useless.
Literally: Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon
Meaning: Experience the beauties of nature, and in doing so learn about yourself.
Literally: Wake from death and return to life
Meaning: To come out of a desperate situation and make a complete return in one
sudden burst.
Literally: One's Act, One's profit/Advantage.
Meaning: That's what you get, Just desserts, You reap what you sow.
Literally: Melon field, under a plum tree
Meaning: Stepping into a melon field, standing under a plum tree (, such behavior
causes misunderstanding that you want to steal those fruits); implying that you must
avoid actions which could be taken on a bad faith.
Literally: Thunderclap from a clear sky.
Meaning: A bolt from the blue. / A complete surprise.
Literally: Even monkeys fall from trees.
Meaning: Everyone makes mistakes. / Nobody's perfect.
Literally: There are even bugs that eat knotweed.
Meaning: There's no accounting for taste. / To each his own.
Literally: A frog in a well does not know the great sea.
Meaning: People are satisfied to judge things by their own narrow experience, never
knowing of the wide world outside.
Literally: Child of a frog is a frog.
Meaning: Like father, like son.

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Literally: A kite breeding a hawk.

Meaning: A splendid child born from common parents.
Literally: Spilt water will not return to the tray.
Meaning: It's no use crying over spilt milk. / A separated couple can never go back
to as it was.
Literally: One who chases after two hares won't catch even one.
Meaning: Trying to do two things at once will make you fail in both.
Literally: Continuance (also) is power/strength.
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.
Literally: An apprentice near a temple will recite the scriptures untaught.
Meaning: The environment makes our characters.
Literally: Not knowing is Buddha.
Meaning: Ignorance is bliss. / It's better to not know the truth.
Literally: Not seeing is a flower.
Meaning: Things will never be as you imagine, so you're better off not seeing them. /
Reality can't compete with imagination.
Literally: gold coins to a cat.
Meaning: Giving a gift to someone who can't appreciate it; A useless gesture; "Pearls
before swine."
Literally: fish to a cat.
Meaning: A situation where one can not let their guard down (because the cat can't
resist stealing your fish).
Literally: stumbling seven times but recovering eight.
Meaning: perseverance is better than defeat.
Literally: a monk for (just) three days.
Meaning: Giving up at the first sign of difficulty.
Literally: Giving birth to a baby is easier than worrying about it.
Meaning: Fear is greater than the danger. / An attempt is sometimes easier than
expected.
Literally: Unless an idiot dies, he won't be cured.
Meaning: Only death will cure a fool. / You can't fix stupid.
Literally: The stake that sticks out gets hammered down.
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.
Literally: A greeting is the local deity who turns up providentially.

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Meaning: Arbitration in a quarrel is a godsend.

Literally: Don't let your daughter-in-law eat your autumn eggplants.
Meaning: Don't let yourself be taken advantage of.
Literally: dumplings over flowers
Meaning: The person to whom it is directed prefers practical gain to aesthetics.
Literally: let flow in the water
Meaning: Forgive and forget; water under the bridge
Literally: after the rain, earth hardens
Meaning: Adversity builds character./After a storm, things will stand on more solid
ground than they did before.
Literally: to sell oil
Meaning: to spend time chitchatting or to waste time in the middle of a task.
Literally: dragon, head, snake, tail
Meaning: Anticlimax, the beginning is like a dragons head, great and majestic and
the ending is like a snakes tail, tiny and pathetic.
Literally: clear sky, cultivate, rainy, reading
Meaning: Farm when it's sunny, read when it rains.
Literally: Chu songs on all sides
Meaning: Defeat is clear; Situation is desperate beyond hope.
Literally: ten men, ten colours
Meaning: To each his/her own. / Different strokes for different folks.
Literally: 3 day monk.
Meaning: Someone who gives up easily or is adverse to work.
Literally: big similarity, small difference
Meaning: Similarities outweigh the differences.
Literally: one stone, two birds
Meaning: Killing two birds with one stone; Doing 2 things with one action.
Literally: scattered clouds, disappearing mist
Meaning: Disappear without a trace.
Literally: pulling water to my own rice paddy
Meaning: Doing/speaking about things in a way to benefit yourself.
Other Japanese Proverbs
If you make a mistake, don't hesitate to correct it.

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It is foolish to deal with a fool.

One cannot quarrel without an opponent.
Rained on ground hardens (Adversity builds character).
Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice inside the ceiling laugh (Nobody knows
what tomorrow might bring).
Due to the presence of fools wise people stand out.
The more stupid the child the dearer it is.
A samurai, even when he has not eaten, uses his toothpick.
A wise man does not lose his way, a brave man does not fear.
To gamble as the dice fall.
If eating poison finish up the plate (or, If eating poison don't forget to lick the
plate)..
To draw water into one's own rice field
Feed a dog for three days and it is gratefull for three years. Feed a cat for three years
and it forgets after three days.
With the first glass a man drinks wine, with the second glass the wine drinks the
wine, with the third glass the wine drinks the man.
Good things, many devils.
Time flies like an arrow.
The country is in ruins, and there are still mountains and rivers.
Repentance never comes first.
The eyes speak as much as the mouth.(love needs no words)
The eyes are the mirror of the soul.
Heart rather than appearance.
Cover the ears and steal the bell.
To go in the right ear and out the left.
The soul of a three year old until a hundred.
To dig one's grave
If unreason comes, reason goes.
a useless long object
It is the same life whether we spend it crying or laughing.

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to fall seven times, to rise eight times

People want to avoid the dew before they become wet.
Half an hour in a spring evening is worth a thousand gold pieces.
Even when our sleeves brush together it is our karma.
Let what is past flow away downstream.
Few against many.
The hawk with talent hides its talons (The person who knows most often says least).
Even the Buddha's face, only until the third [slap], meaning even the most mildmannered person will lose his/her temper eventually.
Even monkeys fall from trees (Even an expert can make mistakes).
The neighbour's lawn is green (The grass is always greener on the other side of the
fence).
Entering the village, obey the village (When in Rome, do as the Romans do)
Not-speaking is the flower (Silence is golden)
Overturned water doesn't return to the tray (There's no use crying over spilt milk).
Cover your head, and not cover your bottom (Don't cover your head but expose your
bottom, ie: you have to be careful not to expose your weak point while attempting to
protect yourself).
A sutra (Buddhist prayer) in a horse's ear (A wasted effort).
Even a fool has one talent (Even a fool may be good at something).
A coin to a cat (Don't offer things to people who are incapable of appreciating them).
Poke a bush, a snake comes out (Let sleeping dogs lie).
Tell somebody how to do something and they might get it.
Show them how to do it and they will master it in no time.
This can also be translated as "Behavior teaches more than words".
This is referred to as passage or chapter 33 of the Dao De Jing (often Romanized as
"Tao Te Ching"). These are the words of the philosopher Laozi (Lao Tzu).
The following is one translation of this passage:
To know others is wisdom;
To know oneself is acuity/intelligence.
To conquer others is power,
To conquer oneself is strength.
To know contentment is to have wealth.

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To act resolutely is to have purpose.

To stay one's ground is to be enduring.
To die and yet not be forgotten is to be long-lived.
Another translation:
To understand others is to be knowledgeable;
To understand yourself is to be wise.
To conquer others is to have strength;
To conquer yourself is to be strong.
To know when you have enough is to be rich.
To go forward with strength is to have ambition.
To not lose your place is to be long lasting.
To die but not be forgotten -- that's true long life.
A third translation of the second half:
He who is content is rich;
He who acts with persistence has will;
He who does not lose his roots will endure;
He who dies physically, but preserves the Dao will enjoy a long after-life.
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