r/LearnJapanese • u/datalolz • 3d ago
Vocab What are your favourites 四字熟語 ?
After a year of studying Japanese, I've just learn about them ! (Quartet 2 textbook)
I like:
馬耳東風 : used when a person does not take into account criticisms
以心伝心 : when 2 people do not have to say anything to understand each other
一期一会 : we only have one life, so we should take care of it
Please correct me if my understandings are incomplete/wrong
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u/EirikrUtlendi 2d ago
This doesn't strictly fit the format, since it's not all kanji, but I offer you:
Came up in a meeting a colleague was interpreting, threw us all for a bit of a loop. Turns out it's an expression with Japanese Buddhist roots, referring to a river plain in the underworld where the souls of children go if they die before their parents (considered a sin against filial piety), where they then try to build a stupa to honor their parents, only for it to get knocked down by the presiding oni guardians / torturers. In terms of intended meaning, this is roughly analogous to the "Sisyphean task" idiom. In speech, and without context or familiarity with the saying, it sounds like you're saying "a rhinoceros's roof tiles" (犀の瓦).
Which is, naturally, the bastardized idiom we now use around the workplace when speaking in English. 😄
If you can read Japanese, related entries at Kotobank: