№ 07 Japan
Ichigo Ichie
一期一会
ichigo ichie
Why Japan tells you that every meeting happens only once — and how Horace, Heraclitus, and a Persian king circle the same vanishing moment and each reach for it differently.
Parallel & Proverbs
A weekly literary miscellany
Read by the tongue
Japanese
№ 06 Japan
Three Years on a Stone
石の上にも三年
ishi no ue ni mo sannen
A Japanese proverb says that even a cold stone warms if you sit on it for three years — and how Latin, Vietnamese, and Greek cousins each imagine patience differently.
№ 05 Japan
Even a Lie Is an Expedient
嘘も方便
uso mo hōben
Why the Japanese say even a lie can be an expedient — and how Plato's noble lie, Islamic jurisprudence, and the Buddhist burning house parable each face the same question about truth, compassion, and necessity.
№ 04 Japan
More Than the Turtle's Shell, the Years' Merit
亀の甲より年の功
kame no kō yori toshi no kō
Why Japanese says years' merit beats turtle's shell — and how the same age-as-wisdom claim, carried by a homophone pun on kō (shell) and kō (merit), differs from the Mongolian horse, the Spanish devil, and the Mandarin ginger.
№ 03 Japan
Easier to Give Birth Than to Worry
案ずるより産むが易し
anzuru yori umu ga yasushi
Why Japanese mothers and managers say that giving birth is easier than worrying about it — and how Russian, Mandarin and Latin reach the same observation about the gap between fear and the act.
№ 02 Japan
Bitter Medicine
良薬は口に苦し
ryōyaku wa kuchi ni nigashi
Japanese inherited a Chinese proverb about bitter medicine and the criticism that tastes like it. Mandarin, Russian, and English know the same fact: what helps does not feel good in the mouth.
№ 01 Japan
The Hammered Nail
出る杭は打たれる
deru kui wa utareru
Why Japanese parents tell their children that the nail which sticks out gets hammered down — and how the same observation surfaces in a Chinese hunt, a Roman garden, and a Norwegian novel.