NOTES ON JAPANESE 'DREAMER' AND JAPANESE TRANSLATIONS

Translating is tough, especially if you catch yourself in the trap of directly taking your mother tongue and changing it into the language of your choice. It also works vice-versa if you find words that are being said in another language but you just can’t grasp the meaning within them.

One of my Japanese teachers had a good laugh one day when a student wrote:

“Anata no fuku no aji ga ii!” which directly translates as “your clothes taste is good.”

English speakers probably wouldn’t see anything wrong with this expression (‘your taste in clothes’ would sound more natural but). However if you were to use this as a complement to a Japanese person they may first question your diet before unconsciously pulling their clothes tighter and suggesting you both go eat ramen.

Next imagine yourself at the top of a mountain, the air is crisp and there is no city car exhaust.

“The air is so fresh!” you may say.

Yet to express this naturally in Japanese you would rather say: “kuuki ga oishii!” which roughly translates as, “the air is delicious!”

I can kind of understand on some level that air may taste delicious. However I think if I were to go to the Wattigan mountains back in Australia and exclaim,

“the air is really delicious here!” I may get some questioning glances.

There are so many examples just like this but there is one curious word I have stumbled that gets lost in translation.

Dreamer.

In English it is defined as ‘someone who dreams or is dreaming; a person who is unpractical or idealistic.’

It’s a common word and mention of it may bring John Lennon to mind and lines like, "I may be a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”

In Japanese the word dreamer does actually exist. It translates as 夢想家 (musouka) which is written using the kanji 「夢」dream, 「想」idea, and「家」home.

However, most people I have spoken to seem to have never heard of the word before.

Unlike the English word it is not commonly used – to the extent it’s not commonly known.

Apparently it is more common to say “yume o miru hito” which translates as, “someone who sees a dream.” Yet this is more nuanced towards someone who literally has a dream while asleep.

It is always curious to come across these language differences and use. It can say a lot about cultures and about what ideas they feel important to give meaning and emphasis to.

The German-American anthropologist Franz Boas after travelling through Northen Canada during the 1880s discovered that in native Inuit people had 50 words to describe snow. In the language there was even a word to describe ‘softly falling snow.’

In Japanese I have certainly noticed when it comes to snow there is far more words to describe its various forms compared to English. For example:

“Mizore” wet snow – that dreaded snow that shows that spring has come.

“Yusetsu” melting snow.

The need that people feel to define these things around them, or these feelings in one way to shows the importance that they have in that particular culture.

“Komorebi” describes the light that filters through trees.

It is possible that this word was created due to a connection with nature and Zen Buddhism’s focus on ephemeral beauty.

Which makes me question, why is ‘musouka’ dreamer, not seen as an important word in Japanese?

It could be related to the community value over the individual in Japanese culture where,

“The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.”

And being a dreamer could be seen as an individualistic trait, not collective minded in nature.

Studying a new language is not just giving you the ability to communicate alone. Studying a language is studying a culture and all the symbols and meanings interwoven within it.