国境のない世界はありえるだろうか

領土問題に関しては、クリミアより足元の尖閣を見てみなければなるまい。

尖閣諸島がもし無人でなくて、人が住んでいたら、その人が何人であるかによって、どの国に属するかが自動的に決まる。

日本語を話す日本人が住んでいたら、尖閣は日本になる。

中国語を話す中国人なら、「这里是中国」、即ち、「ここ中国あるよ」ということになる。

尖閣諸島が無人なので、問題がややこしくなっている。ただ、無人であっても、所有権は日本人が握っているようなので、日本の領土といって良いのだろう。

歴史を振り返ってみると、ユーラシア大陸とサハラ以北のアフリカ、その周辺の島々、及び、欧州列強が「開拓した新世界」や、近代以降の全世界では、ほとんどの場合、「土地は勝ってぶんどった方のもの」であり、それが「常識」であった。

一九四一年の大西洋憲章の下、まず英米が率先して領土の拡張はもうやめようということになり、二十一世紀になってやっと殺し合いによる領土の奪い合いが目に見えて減っているのだから、世界は少し住みやすくなった、といえるのかもしれない。

ヨーロッパで国境線が薄くなったり、消えたりしているが、世界が欧州化して、政治的な意味での国境はなくなればよいのに、と思う。

→入植政策

You Are What You Eat

The Physiology of Taste is a bible of the gourmet, published in 1825 by Jean Anthelme Brillat=Savarin (1755-1826), who was a French politician in the revolutionary era, known as a gastronome, now. This well-known quotation derives from the book:

Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.

根回し

根回しは木の移植を行う前に、根のまわりを切り詰めて準備しておくこと。転じて事業や計画が上首尾に進むように、前もって関係各位に理解と協力を要請しておくこと。

英語では、 preparation や arrangement が当てはまるだろう。 prepare は「前もって整える」で、 ラテン語の prae 「前に」と parare 「準備する、整える」を語源にしている。 arrange はラテン語 a(d) ragier 「～に並べる、整える」を語源にしている。

根回しの類義的な表現としてはお膳立てやセットアップがある。動詞句の to set up は「始業する、設定する、(はじめる為に) 整える」の意味である。

Buddhists, Epicurus, Physicists

There are infinite worlds both like and unlike this world of ours.

--- Epicurus, Letter to Herodotus

Some present-day physicists explain that the universe is not one & there exist an infinite numbers of other universes outside our space & time. In their theory of parallel universes, in one world, Elvis Presley is still alive & sing his songs now, & in another world, Marilyn Monroe has become a happy grandmother still alive, now. According to Alan Guth, “Anything can happen wiill happen” in the multiverse. To have created this theory, they may have been inspired by Epicurus (340-270 BC), ancient Greek philosopher, who sent a letter to the historian Herodotus, on which his cosmology was stated. Moreover, apart from whether he knew or not,  Buddhists in the ancient India thought that there existed three thousand or numberless worlds infinitely expanding. Here, we check the writing which Herodotus read:

There are infinite worlds both like and unlike this world of ours.

Prose Ode to Books

Charles William Eliot (1834-1926), the president of Harvard University & education reformer, known as the Nobel laureate poet T. S. Eliot’s cousin, states about books with high praise in his book The Happy Life (1910): 

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers. With his daily work and his books many a man, whom the world thought forlorn, has found life worth living.

Live Within Income

Cut your coat according to your cloth.

--- English Saying

Financial engineering, or simply, today’s economics, might suggest that if you make a value more than a debt interest during borrowing money, you should use the loan to realize your plan. In old times, however, people didn’t think so. They didn’t think that they could bear getting into debt, which generated the burden to pay interest. It was the best to live within one’s income.

Pax Optima Rerum

Pax optima rerum.

--- Latin Saying

Peace is better than anything else. This is the common sense of mankind that has never changed since ancient times. 

Come Back Full

Go empty, come back full.

--- Arab Saying

There are various kinds of husbands in the world. One always goes out of home with his hands full & comes back empty-handed; & the other always goes out of home empty-handed & comes back with his hands full. In Arab nations, to mean husbands like the former, their wives say: Go empty, come back full.

世界には様々なタイプの旦那さんがいる。ある人は家から持ち出すばかりですっからかんになって戻ってくる。別の人は何も持たずに家を出ていって、いつもどおりなにがしか稼いでくる。アラブでは前者のような駄目親父に対して、奥様方は次のように言う。「空手でいっていっぱい持ち帰ってちょうだい」

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Proverb Data

Arab Saying

Go empty, come back full.

逐語的邦訳

空手でいって、いっぱい持ち帰ってちょうだい。

連想される日本の常套句

甲斐性あるとこ見せてちょうだい。

この甲斐性なしめ。

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→About "Life is a Joke"

Like Father's Sister, Like Daughter

Take girls from the breasts of their fathers’ sisters.

--- Arab Saying

Like father, like son, say the English people. People in some nations believe that the daughter resembles her mother. However, the Arabs suppose the daughter to resemble her father’s sisters, & the son, his mother’s brothers. This Arabic proverb is advice for a boy who wants to marry someone.

Keep out of Other People's Problem

Do not be present at the measuring of the grain which does not belong to you; you will get your beard dusty, and you will get tired of carrying away the grain.

--- Arab Saying

For example, if your friend thinks to divorce his wife, you should not meddle in their talks. If you get into other people’s problem, you will get involved in their quarrels & tired of resolving it. In Japan, people say, A god who you have not touched, will not curse you.

Gato por liebre

Te dieron gato por liebre. --- When people in the Spanish-speaking nations find a person who has been tricked,  they will say to that person: "They gave you cat for hare."  This proverb reminds me of the Chinese legend that says that there was a tricky butcher in ancient China, who was selling horse meat displaying the head of a calf in order to make people suppose which he was selling beef.

Where Is Firewood?

He went through in the forest and saw no firewood.

--- Russian Saying

The blockhead can’t find any firewood in the forest. They can’t find anything useful, even though there are plenty of them.