We Must Know, We Will Know

 We Must Know, We Will Know

David Hilbert (1862–1943) was a German mathematician known for his foundational contributions to many areas of mathematics, including algebra, number theory, geometry, and mathematical logic. He played a key role in formalizing mathematics & establishing the axiomatic method. One of his most significant achievements is Hilbert’s 23 problems, including the Riemann hypothesis, which says about the mathematical mystery of prime numbers. On his tombstone, his declaration of optimism about the pursuit of mathematical and scientific knowledge is inscribed: “Wir müssen wissen, wir werden wissen.” In English, these words say:

We must know, we will know.

ダフィット・ヒルベルトはドイツの数学者で、代数学、数論、幾何学、数学論理など数学の多岐にわたる分野に対して基礎的な貢献をしたことで知られている。ヒルベルトは数学の形成と、公理的手法を確立する上で重要な役割を果たした。その最も重要な達成のひとつがヒルベルトの23の問題であり、その中には素数に関する数学上の謎になっているリーマン予想も入っている。ヒルベルトのお墓には数学と科学の知識探求に関する楽観論が刻まれている。

我ら知るべし、我らには分かるなり。

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□

DATA

GERMAN INSCRIPTION ON HILBERT’S TOMBSTONE

Wir müssen wissen, wir werden wissen.

ENGLISH

We must know, We will know.

和訳例

我ら知るべし、我らには分かるなり。

しちごちょう訳

知らないといけないことがあるならば知ることできる我らゆく道

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□

Rubaiyat XIII

Rubaiyat XIII, by Omar Khayyam, medieval Persian poet, mathematician & astronomer, is a stanza, which has a famous line: Take the cash and let the credit go! This saying means “Enjoy today, don’t care about the future (especially the afterlife!) Read these 4 lines translated into English by Edward FitzGerald, 1897 (4th ed.):

Some for the Glories of This World; and some

Sigh for the Prophet’s Paradise to come;

   Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go,

Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum!

中世ペルシャの詩人・数学者・天文学者オマル・ハイヤームの十三番目の四行詩には、有名な一節「金を取って信用は放っておけ」が含まれている。このことわざは「今を楽しみ、未来のことは気にするな。とくに、死後のことなんて」といった意味である。一八九七年にエドワード・フィッツジェラルドによって英訳されたこの四行を読んでみよう。

ある者はこの世の栄光を、またある者は

来るべき預言者の楽園を求めてため息をつく。

　ああ、金を取って信用は放っておけ。

さもなくば、遠くの太鼓のどんどこいう音を聞け。

Life is a Joke, a collection of sayings that entertain us.

40 Years Appreciation

40 Years Appreciation

It is said that the Turkish coffee house culture began in 1475, soon after the Ottoman Empire Sultan Mehmed II had started to rule Istanbul (Constantinople of the fallen Eastern Roman Empire.) Kiva Han, the 1st coffee shop,  was opened by two young Syrians, Hakam of Aleppo & Shams of Damascus. By the end of the 16th century, there were about 600 cafes stood in the capital of the empire. The Turkish people gathered in coffee houses to enjoy SOHBET (chats) with friends & the performance of MEDDAH (storytellers - Compare them with Ancient Sumer narrators, Homer s, druids, Central Asian shamans, Scheherazade s, & RAKUGO-KA.) There is a Turkish proverb that improves that coffee is the very important drink for them:

A cup of coffee is appreciated for 40 years.

(Bir kahvenin kırk yıl hatırı var.)

Arrival

Arrival

What is the beginning? What is the end? Which is the front? & the back? What is your memory? What is time? We are randomly traveling in our memory. Those who remember necessary things when necessary may live smart. What do you ask I say about? A message from the Heptapod, the extraterritorial intelligent, seven-limbed, life form of Arrival, that is the 2016 film. They suddenly appear at the 12 locations on Earth. An omniscient linguist, Dr Louise Banks, is on her way to try & communicate with the two messengers from the other planet, who have arrived in Montana, while the world gets into panic. The two Heptapods, nicknamed Abbott & Costello by Louise & Dr Ian Donnelly, finally offer the earthling a weapon. She asks Costello what it is. He says “Louise has weapon.” One day many years after they have left the Earth, she asks Ian, her husband then:

If you could see your whole life from the start to finish, would you change things?

Happy 2018

Life is the biggest mystery in the universe. Why were we born here? For what? In Persia, about 1,000 years ago, there was a man who thought about it. He was a mathematician & astronomer working in the astronomical observatory to create a precise calendar, but he was also a mystic. Perhaps drinking wine, he was writing rubaiyat or four-line poems in search of the meaning of life night by night. His name is Omar Khayyam. Edward Fitzgerald, 19th century British literature lover, translated his legacy into English. Here is one of the poems:

Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring.

And your garment of Repentance fling:

The Bird of Time has but a little way

To flutter — and the Bird is on the Wing.

No Frigate Like a Book

No Frigate Like a Book

Emily Dickinson (1830-86), American poet, highly honored after her death, was reading books and writing to someone or herself, & composing poems in her life. She was writing after reading & reading after writing everyday. “My hair is bold like the chestnut burr; and my eyes, like the sherry in the glass that the guest leaves” is her self portrait. She says in her poem that a book is the best vehicle to travel:

There is no frigate like a book

To take us lands away,

Nor any coursers like a page

Of prancing poetry.

This traverse may the poorest take

Without oppress of toll;

How frugal is the chariot

That bears a human soul!

　死後に高く評価されるようになったアメリカの詩人エミリー・ディキンソンは、読書をして、相手がいてもいなくても手紙を書き、詩作して、人生を過ごした。読んでは書き、書いては読む毎日である。「髪の毛は栗のいがのようにちくちくしていて、目は客の飲み残しのグラスのシェリーみたい」というのがエミリーの自画像である。彼女は詩の中で旅をするのに最適な乗り物は本であるといっている。

本よりも素早く導く船はなし、

あっという間に諸々の国。

どんな駿馬もかなわない、

駆け抜ける詩歌のページに。

このじぐざぐ道は貧しくても辿れ得る、

通行料など心配無用。

とてもお得な、

人の心を運ぶ馬車。

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□

みそひともじ訳

本よりも素早く導く船はなしあっという間に諸々の国

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□

Life is a Joke, a collection of sayings that entertain us.

Invest in Books

Invest in Books

Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach (1876 - 1952), whose father had passed away around his age of 10, spent much time of his childhood in his maternal uncle Moses Polock’s  (1817 - 1903) antiquarian bookshop in Philadelphia, who was famous as a good dealer of rare books, manuscripts, antiques, & so on. The books in Polock’s store must have entertained young Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach. In 1898, he entered the University of Pennsylvania & then started collecting valuable books. He got the PhD, 1901, but he also had business acumen, founding the Rosenbach Company with his brother Philip Hyman Rosenbach, which had the two divisions. Abraham was the rare book hunter & his brother dealt with antiques. Once Abraham found a rare manuscript or part of a precious book, such as a fragment of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, a Shakespeare’s folio, Gutenberg Bible, George Washington’s letter, James Joyce’s handwritten Ulysses,  he exuberantly bid for the art treasures. A. S. W. Rosenbach invested in those books & sold them to his wealthy clients, such as Peter Arrell Browne Widener, US Steel founder, John Pierpont Morgan, banker,  Henry & Emily Folger, founders of Folger Shakespeare Library, Pelatiah Webster Huntington, adventurer & banker, & Lessing Julius Rosenwald, businessman & cheese patron. They all must have loved to devour books since their childhood days, & they were building libraries as real collections or in their minds through their lives. From a lesson which they teach us, we know that books could enrich us. A. S. W. Rosenbach humorously explains on his essay why the old books for children were traded at high prices:

Very young children eat their books, literally devouring their contents. This is one reason for the scarcity of first editions of Alice in Wonderland and other favorites of the nursery.

Hello 2017

Hello, 2017!

Ikkyū (1394–1481), a Japanese Zen monk & mystic, left his unique philosophy to us as the form of poetry called KYOUKA. This is one of his lines that tells us the meaning of the New Year: 

The New Year’s Day comes once a year
Which is the milestone of your journey.

(Your life is a journey to Heaven.)
When you have come to the new milestone, 

Celebrate it & think seriously about the rest of your life!

May 2017 be the best year of your life!

blind bard
the editor of LIFE IS A JOKE, 

a collection of quotations, sayings, verses, 

& any other things made with words 

that entertain us.

http://songbyriver.blogspot.jp/

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□

原詩

門松は冥土の旅の一里塚
　めでたくもありめでたくもなし

　　　　　　　　    　　　　　　　　一休

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□

LIFE IS A JOKE, 

a collection of quotations, sayings, verses, & any other things made with words that entertain us.

Uncle Sam's Trump

Uncle Sam’s Trump

Just Luck? The art of his deal? Or true popularity? Donald Trump (b. 1946) has won the US presidential election on Nov 8th, 2016, anyway. He has experienced many business  successes & several bankruptcies, since he attained control of his family business, a small real estate development firm, Elizabeth Trump & Son (later renamed “The Trump Organization”), 1971. During the 2016 election campaign, he defied all politically correct terms, rated women by looks, made the Hispanic & Muslim peoples scapegoats, & judged the Japanese to be cunning. He is politically called a racist, populist, nationalist, or fascist,  but it is true that he is really a super conservative, whose  thought is as old as the idea of the two emperors who lived about 2,000 years ago, Hadrianus of the Roman Empire & Qin Shi Huang of the Qin Dynasty of China.  Trump says that he will build the wall along the border in the 21st century when numberless airplanes fly around all over the world. It is uncertain whether he will make America great again (not great now?) but it is certain that he will never give up until his triumph. He is tough & smart in walking in his life:

Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war.

木乃伊取りが木乃伊になる

木乃伊取りが木乃伊になる

エジプト発祥 (3200 BC ?) のミイラは

作る際に、蜂蜜を防腐剤に用いる。

中世の中国人はそうしてできた木乃伊を
蜜人と称し、不老不死の薬になるだとか、
骨折を治す薬になる、と考えていた。

しかし、蜜人があるのははるか西方だから、

取りにいっても無事に帰れないことがあった。

そこでできたことわざが、

ミイラ取りがミイラになる。

探し求めているうちに、
いつの間にか、探される側になる。
探求しているうちに、いつしか、
自分がその色に染まる。

そういった状況を指す。

英語の類似のことわざは、

He goes out for wool & comes home shorn.

羊毛を刈りにいって、つるっぱげにされて帰る。

日本語のミイラはポルトガル語の mirra から。

英語 mummy はアラビア語 mum 「蜜蝋」から。

かつての英国人の中にも、
mummy には薬効成分がある、
と考える人々がいた。

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□

Proverb Data

ことわざ

木乃伊取りが木乃伊になる。

Literal Translation

A mummy hunter has become a mummy.

Similar English Saying

He goes out for wool & comes home shorn.

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□

Two Famous Pangrams

Two Famous Pangrams

A pangram in English is a sentence that has all 26 letters of the alphabet. It is probably ideal that every letter of the set of phonograms in a language is used only once in a pangram. Our ancestors accomplished it perfectly. I-Ro-Ha-Ni-Ho-He-To…. is the opening part of a famous pangram in Old Japanese, whose entire sentence was made with all 48 letters of the Old Japanese phonogram set called “hiragana” (the 2 archaic letters have disappeared now,) which says a secret Buddhist law of life or the fate of all living beings: One must die as a beautiful flower must die; & everything is changing in the universe; the truly peaceful happiness, however, awaits us in an afterlife (death has not only taken away all one’s dreams, but also all one’s worries at the same time.) On the other hand, a famous English pangram, though composed far from the idealistic form,  is a sentence that just simply describes daily lives of living beings in this world:

The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog.

Keep Going

Keep Going

The Irish playwright Sean O'Casey (1880-1964) once said: “All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.” Stars can probably perform ad lib very well on the stage, which is full of wonders & dangers, but it is so hard for ordinary actors & actresses to improvise songs scene after scene. You sometimes regret your choice of the past, & your legs also turn to jelly so that you can’t stand on the stage. But even if you found your play turning into a bloody tragedy, don’t mind! Winston Churchill tells us how to act when we have fallen in hell:

If you're going through hell, keep going.

Happy 2016

Poets are friends over generations, nations, & religions. Here is a stanza of Omar Khayyam’s Rubayyat translated into English by Edward FitzGerald, which makes you wonder about the cycle of nature:

Now, New Year reviving old Desires,

The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires.

   When the WHITE HAND OF MOSES on the Bough

Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires.

Plant a Tree

Kenjuu, a simple, pure peasant in Kenji Miyazawa’s (1896 - 1933) short story, plants 700 cedars & grows them, not feeling down for his neighbor’s sarcasm. As years are passing so trees are building themselves to be the garden, where children gather to play. After he has passed, the garden grows more beautiful. George Orwell (1903-1950), English novelist, essayist, & journalist, I think, didn’t know the story of Kenjuu’s Garden, but he recommended us to plant a tree:

The planting of a tree, especially one of the long-living hardwood trees, is a gift which you can make to posterity at almost no cost and with almost no trouble, and if the tree takes root it will far outlive the visible effect of any of your other actions, good or evil.

People in Love

People often say that if you are in love, you will be more beautiful. Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960) , American lyricist, librettist, & director of musicals, once wrote the question that the world would keep in mind:

Do you love me because I'm beautiful, or am I beautiful because you love me?

Morning Has Flung the Stone into the Cup

Edward FitzGerald, the devotee of literature in the 19th century, repeated to read Rubayyat (Persian Four-Line Poems) by Omar Khayyam, a wine-loving  astronomer & poet in the Middle Ages, who was in search for the mystery of the universe & the meaning of life. FitzGerald revised his own English translation at least 5 times; the last one was published after his death. Let's read the 1st verse of the 1st edition with his footnote:

Awake ! For Morning in the Bowl of Night

Has flung the Stone that puts the stars to Flight:

And lo ! the Hunter of the East has caught

The Sultan’s Turret in a Noose of Light.

Flinging a stone into the cup was a signal “To Horse!” in the desert.

Are You Ready Well?

Rice & salt were the basic necessities for the Japanese living, bacon was needed for the English living, & fish was the daily diet in Philippine. While the Japanese earned the money to buy rice & salt, the English worked to bring home bacon.  The peoples wanted more rice, more bacon, or more fish, by the natural desire. Old Filipinos had got a very simple idea to bring home more fish. The old Tagalog proverb tells us that if we were ready well, we would bring home sufficient necessities:

The man goes about with more fish-baskets is the one who brings home a lot of fish.

米塩は日本人の生活必需品であり、ベーコンはイングランド人になくてはならないものであり、魚はフィリピンの日々の食べ物であった。日本人が米塩の資を得ている間、イングランド人はベーコンを家にもたらす為に働いていた。人々は自然な欲求としてもっと多くのお米、もっと多くのベーコン、もっと多くの魚を欲しがった。古きフィリピン人たちはより多くの魚を取るためのとてもシンプルなアイディアを持っていた。古きタガログ人のことわざはいう。準備万端なら、十分な必需品を持って帰れる。

びくを沢山もって出かける者は家に沢山の魚をもたらす人。

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□

Proverb Data

Old Tagalog Saying

The man goes about with more fish-baskets is the one who brings home a lot of fish.

邦訳

びくを沢山もって出かける者は家に沢山の魚をもたらす人。

みそひともじ訳

魚取りとにかく多く取るのならびくは沢山持って行くべし

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□

About "Life is a Joke"

飲食物に関する言葉

Don't Forget the Prayer

In the Japanese language, the hand is the symbol of working & making. Te-ma, means “time to work or labor,” te-wo-kasu means “to lend a hand, to work with another, to help or assist,” te-wo-kariru, litterally, “to borrow one’s hands,” means “to get aid, to work with an assistant, helper, friend, etc,” te-wo-kuwaeru, literally, “to add a hand,” means “to make better,” & te-wo-nuku, literally, “to pull one’s hand off,” means “to work or make irresponsibly or carelessly, to neglect part of one’s business; to be lazy.” The Japanese people also say, kuchi-yori-te-wo-ugokase, literally, "Work your hands before your mouth," which means "Shut your mouth & work harder." In Arab nations which Muslims are obliged to pray 5 times a day, it is thought that a man is lazy who forgets to say the Arabic prayer Alhamdulillah, or Praise be to God; thus, to such a person who neglects part of his business, an Arab says:

If you forgettest to say “Praise be to God!” in what other words wilt thou pray?

Useful as Ornithology to Birds

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), Vienna-born Cambridge philosopher,  has once concluded that the traditional philosophy is of no use at all. John D. Barrow (b. 1952), British cosmologist, once expressed humorously & more gently than Wittgenstein about the position of philosophy:

The philosophy of science is about as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds.

George Orwell's Definition of Liberty

The author of 1984, a 1949 novel which depicts the fear of a totalitarian state, where “Big Brother is watching you” all the time, George Orwell (1903-50) was looking for the definition of liberty. One of his answers reads:

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.