Nihon-no-kotowaza#17
Nihongo Discussion Group
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Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 12:52:54 +0000 (GMT)
From: Tim Duncan <ti...@aisb.edinburgh.ac.uk>
Subject: Nihon-no-kotowaza#17
Nihon-no-kotowaza#17
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(Toranu tanuki no kawa zan'you)
Literally: count the skins of badgers which haven't been caught
Notes: (1) -nu is a negative ending, and `toranu' modifies `tanuki';
(2) `tanuki' is a Japanese animal somewhat like a badger or a racoon;
(3) zan'you (usually san'you) means to calculate, or estimate.
Meaning: ``don't count your chickens before they've hatched''
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Tim Duncan, AI Applications Institute, University of Edinburgh, |
| 80 South Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1HN, Scotland, United Kingdom. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Tel: +44 31 650 2747 Email: ti...@ed.ac.uk FAX: +44 31 650 6513 |
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Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 11:46:23 +0000 (GMT)
From: Tim Duncan <ti...@aiai.edinburgh.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: Nihon-no-kotowaza#15
Message-id: <894.940...@subnode.aiai.ed.ac.uk>
In an earlier article Fuminori Itoh <fumi...@virus.kyoto-u.ac.jp> writes:
|> > (Baka mo ichi-gei)
|> >
|> > Literally: even a fool has one talent
|> > (this is the `gei' of geisha)
|> >
|> > Meaning: even a fool may be good at something (I can't think of
|> > another way of putting this!)
|>
|> mmm, I've never heard of it...
|>
|> What is the resource?
I have used several sources for these kotowaza: the three books below;
my wife Hitomi; and Mariko and several other freinds who are good enough
to put up with my questions. Of course I still manage to make mistakes
sometimes, but that's my fault! I don't remember where I first heard
`baka mo ichigei' but Galef has it in his book.
"Even Monkeys Fall from Trees" and other Japanese Proverbs
by David Galef. Published: Charles E. Tuttle, 1987
ISBN: 0-8048-1625-5
101 Japanese Idioms
by Michael and Senko Maynard.
Published: Passport Books, 1993
ISBN: 0-8442-8496-3
A Dictionary of Japanese and English Idiomatic Equivalents
by Charles Corwin. Published: Kodansha International, 1968
ISBN: 0-87011-1116
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Tim Duncan, AI Applications Institute, University of Edinburgh, |
| 80 South Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1HN, Scotland, United Kingdom. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Tel: +44 31 650 2747 Email: ti...@ed.ac.uk FAX: +44 31 650 6513 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+