ポッドキャストをお聞きの皆さん、こんにちは。３分日本語のお時間です。

Hello, podcast listeners. Welcome back to 3-minute Japanese.

前回に引き続き、桜をテーマにお送りしています。

We are staying with the topic from the previous episode, which is Sakura.

Have you heard of these words?

物の哀れ, 諸行無常, and 儚さ – they all express the transience of things, in other words “nothing lasts forever”. It has a nuance of sadness and appreciation towards what is right in front of you, whether that is beauty, power, or prosperity.

Japanese language is rich in expressions when it comes to appreciating the fleeting nature of beauty. Finding beauty moment by moment in the everchanging world is a common theme in the Japanese aesthetic and philosophy. Good examples can be found in the teachings of Buddhism and Bushido, the spirit of Samurai.

It is quite a contrast with the western culture, in which Christian values are deeply rooted. The idea of eternal life plays a major role in Christianity. Easter, which is today, is about Jesus dying for our sins, rising on the third day, and offering us mere mortal the path of eternal life. Forever and ever in Latin is In Saecula Saeculorum, which literally means in an age of ages. To me, it sounds like the word Sakura. it may sound oxymoron, but perhaps one can say Sakura represents ephemerality, and yet, the beauty is timeless. It’s most likely that these words are not directly related, but I find the similarity in sound fascinating.

日本語は、物の哀れ、諸行無常や儚さなどと言った表現が豊富です。美しさや権力あるいは栄光であれ、やがて消えては去ってしまう物に対する日本人の美意識や哲学が伺えます。いつまでも変わらないことはないという考えは、仏教や武士道の教えにも顕著に現れます。

一方で、キリスト教が深く根付いた西洋文化には対照的な考え方があります。永遠の生命という概念はキリスト教の基盤です。本日はキリスト教最も重要な行事である復活祭です。イースターはイエスが私たち罪人の代わりに死に、三日目に復活し、人々に永遠の生命へのお導きを与えるお祝いです。ラテン語でIn Saecula Saeculorumという表現がありますが、永遠という意味になります。ただの偶然かもしれませんが、さくらという音に少し似ている気がします。確かに、桜は儚さを象徴する一面、時を超越した美しさでもあります。

はい、今回はここまでです。

That’s it for now. In the next episode, I would like to talk about the origins of the word and Kanji of Sakura. Stay tuned.

次回は桜の語源と漢字の成り立ちについてお話しします。お楽しみに。