Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。
They're the flowers of myosotis or more commonly known as forget-me-nots or scorpion grasses in my neighborhood. It's a little early for the plant to flower. In Japan, forget-me-nots usually flower from March to May.
The name "forget-me-not" is a word-for-word translation of the German "vergissmeinnicht," and its Japanese name "wasurena gusa" is also a word-for-word translation of these German/English terms. As a translator who compares words in the source language with their Japanese translations almost everyday, I found that the translation of "vergissmeinnicht/forget-me-nots" into Japanese was pretty easy because German, English and Japanese speakers should all understand the feelings of someone saying "Don't forget me." But what would you do if you want to describe a thing to those whose language has no word describing that thing?
One way would be to make an analogy using something similar, and one such example is the translation of "Danse de la Fée Dragée (i.e., Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy)" to "Dance of the
Konpeito Fairy (
Konpeito no Sei no Odori)" in Japanese.
Konpeito, the Japanese way of pronouncing the Portuguese word "confeito," is a round sugar candy usually less than 0.4 inch in diameter with horn-like prongs on the surface. It's not dragée but the analogy between konpeito and dragée is so good that the Japanese, most of whom have never seen or eaten dragée, can easily imagine what the dancing of dragée fairies would be like!
Konpeito was introduced from Portugal to Japan in the 16th century and since then has evolved in Japan to have dozens of flavors, such as strawberry, ginger, vanilla, green tea and chocolate! If you have a chance to come to Japan, konpeito is one of the beautiful Japanese sweets you should try!!
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| Myosotis 勿忘草 |
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| Forget-me-nots ワスレナグサ |
