Spring Words in Japanese
Thursday, May 11, 2017
春の表現
Halfway through May, with the plum and cherry blossoms having finished, we are well and truly into spring.
Japanese culture and, by association, the Japanese language, is very season-focused, and there are numerous phrases and vocubulary items special to spring.
rishhun 立春 is the beginning of spring. In the West, this is determined according to the spring equinox, but in Japan, it is calculated according to the pre-modern calendar, so always falls on about February 3 (February 4, this year, not March 20, which was the spring equinox.)
shungyo 春暁 means a spring dawn. And dawn in springtime is characterized by harugasumi 春霞, which is the mistiness that comes with the season.
Such mistiness at nighttime makes for an oborozuki 朧月, or "hazy moon," with all the wistfulness and romance the image invokes.
This "haziness" extends to one's state of mind, and shunmin-akatsuki-o-oboezu 春眠暁を覚えず refers to something that happened to me this week: sleeping so well thanks to the nice not-too-cool but not-too-hot weather that you don't wake up in time. Literally translated: "spring sleep dawn unremembered." I didn't make it to the office until midday!
However, those pleasant temperatures can readily give way to a brief reversion to winter, with the sudden cold spring day being called shunkan or harusamu 春寒.
But we seem to be past that stage now, and things are haruranman 春爛漫, i.e., spring is well and truly here and filling everything with the pulse and glow of new life.
© JapanVisitor.com
Goods From Japan delivered to your home or business
 |
| Blossom - on our balcony |
Japanese culture and, by association, the Japanese language, is very season-focused, and there are numerous phrases and vocubulary items special to spring.
rishhun 立春 is the beginning of spring. In the West, this is determined according to the spring equinox, but in Japan, it is calculated according to the pre-modern calendar, so always falls on about February 3 (February 4, this year, not March 20, which was the spring equinox.)
shungyo 春暁 means a spring dawn. And dawn in springtime is characterized by harugasumi 春霞, which is the mistiness that comes with the season.
 |
| The Tokyo Skytree with harugasumi on a shungyo |
Such mistiness at nighttime makes for an oborozuki 朧月, or "hazy moon," with all the wistfulness and romance the image invokes.
This "haziness" extends to one's state of mind, and shunmin-akatsuki-o-oboezu 春眠暁を覚えず refers to something that happened to me this week: sleeping so well thanks to the nice not-too-cool but not-too-hot weather that you don't wake up in time. Literally translated: "spring sleep dawn unremembered." I didn't make it to the office until midday!
However, those pleasant temperatures can readily give way to a brief reversion to winter, with the sudden cold spring day being called shunkan or harusamu 春寒.
But we seem to be past that stage now, and things are haruranman 春爛漫, i.e., spring is well and truly here and filling everything with the pulse and glow of new life.
© JapanVisitor.com
Goods From Japan delivered to your home or business