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27 Sep 2024 17:51

Language Log
Our supersubstantial rice

"Some idioms and terms pertaining to Japan's favorite grain", by Yuko Tamura, The Japan Times (9/25/24)

Rice is an essential part of the Japanese diet, so naturally it's also a part of the language. In fact, the word for "meal," ご飯 (gohan), also means "cooked rice." Before it's cooked, however, you'll see it referred to as 米 (kome). Below are a few terms and idioms that either use the kanji for rice or refer to it in some form.

* 朝飯前 (Asameshi mae): No sweat, a piece of cake. Something that can be done before breakfast. Ex., それくらい朝飯前だよ (Sore kurai asameshi mae da yo, That’s no trouble at all).
* 日常茶飯事 (Nichijō sahanji): Common, everyday things such as drinking tea or eating food that are a part of daily life. Ex., 彼の遅刻は日常茶飯事だ (Kare no chikoku wa nichijō sahanji da, His being late is a usual thing).
* 同じ釜の飯を食う (Onaji kama no meshi o kuu): A strong friendship forged through thick and thin, typically by sharing meals out of the same pot. The casual verb 食う (kuu) is often replaced by 食べる (taberu, to eat). Ex., 同僚とは同じ釜の飯を食べた仲だ (Dōryō towa onaji kama no meshi o tabeta naka da, My colleague and I have gone through many ups and downs together).
* 冷や飯を食う (Hiyameshi o kuu): Literally meaning, “eat cold rice,” implying receiving poor treatment. Ex., あの人は失言して以来、冷や飯を食わされている (Ano hito wa shitsugen shite irai, hiyameshi o kuwasarete-iru, Since the slip-up, that person has been hung out to dry).
* 実るほど頭を垂れる稲穂かな (Minoru hodo kōbe o tareru inaho kana): People who hold wisdom and virtue become more humble because empty rice stalks are likely to stand upright and full ones bend from the weight of their grains. Ex., 私の座右の銘は「実るほど頭を垂れる稲穂かな」です (Watashi no zayū no mei wa “minoru hodo kōbe o tareru inaho kana” desu, My motto is, “The boughs that bear most hang lowest”).
* 青田買い (Aota-gai): Buying a rice field before the harvest for future yields; investing in something expected to grow. Ex., いい立地の物件は青田買いするべきだ (Ii ritchi no bukken wa aota-gai suru beki da, It’s better to secure a well-located property ahead of time).

Rice, for Japanese, is as quintessential as bread is for us.

Our daily bread — the central pillar of the Lord's Prayer

Matthew 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread. (King James Version) Original Greek text and Syriac and Latin translations

τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον (tòn árton hēmôn tòn epioúsion dòs hēmîn sḗmeron)
ܗܒ݂ ܠܢ ܠܚܡܐ ܕ݂ܣܘܢܩܢܢ ܝܘܡܢܐ‎ (haḇ lan laḥmā ḏ-sūnqānan yawmānā)
panem nostrum supersubstantialem da nobis hodie

From the time I learned the Lord's Prayer as a child, I always felt that "daily" was either redundant or stylistically poor for its usage in combination with "day" earlier in the verse. When we look at the Greek, we find that it is problematic, since the word on which "daily" is ultimately based, ἐπιούσιον epioúsion is a dis legomenon (a word that occurs only twice within a given context), not quite a hapax legomenon (a word of which only one instance of use is recorded). Its meaning is poorly understood and contested among scholars of diverse backgrounds. All things considered, I take "supersubstantial", based upon morphological analysis, as closest to the original intended meaning. If you want to see how mind crunchingly challenging the translation of a single word from the Bible can be, take a gander at this Wikipedia article on ἐπιούσιον epioúsion. Selected readings

* "The rice is prosperous" (7/15/14)
* "A revolutionary, new translation of the gospels" (5/4/21) — "tomorrow's loaf" (Sarah Ruden)
* "'Pain Quotidien' and 'Raid the Larder'" (8/27/12)

[Thanks to Don Keyser]

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