Japanese Proverbs: The Light of Money

December 3, 2006 on 2:07 pm | In Culture, Language | | Email This Post

Well, now that I’m a student again, time for more Japanese language learning! Everyone loves proverbs, right?

Here is one.

hotokeno hikari yori kane no hikari

「仏の光より、金の光」

This proverb means that, rather than having the light of Buddha, having the light of money on your side is better. Or, there is nothing to be more thankful for than money.

Hrm… sacrilegious.

Here is one explanation in Japanese.

仏の有り難さも金の有り難さには及ばないということ。「光」は威光の意で、金の威光の大きいことを言う。

This Japanese is difficult, but a rough literal translation would be… “Thankfulness for Buddha does not reach the thankfulness for money. The character 光 has the meaning of  power, authority, or influence in this context. Thus the influence of money is large.
There is another explaination in Japanese on this site.

Hrm… Money… Always a problem!

- Harvey

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3 Comments »

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  1. Gravatar

    Yikes, I’ll take the 光 of the Buddha instead!

    Comment by Jessica — December 4, 2006 #

  2. Gravatar

    Harvey, Probably crossing a line here but do you have any recommended literature for n00bs on learning Japanese?

    I’ve been eyeing off the stuff on J-List but wasn’t sure about the verdict other people may have about it.

    Comment by Clive — December 5, 2006 #

  3. Gravatar

    Clive! Let me see what I can gather about that. Maybe I’ll put them all together in one helpful post for others who may be interested. Gimmie a few days :-)

    Comment by harvey — December 5, 2006 #

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