King Gnu · Japanese · 33 words
CEREMONY, Part 1
CEREMONY (2020) is the album with Hakujitsu on it. Doron is a song about being shut out and carries the idioms for it - 蚊帳の外, 面の皮, 取り繕う, 期限付き - Humor works in precarious balance (悪あがき, 綱渡り, 裏腹, 胸騒ぎ), and Hakujitsu supplies the quiet register the band is best known for: 知らず知らず, 降り頻る, 地続き.
Vocabulary
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 期限付き | time-limited, with a deadline (きげんつき) | 期限付きの契約で働いている。I'm working on a fixed-term contract. |
| 蚊帳の外 | left out of the loop (かやのそと) | 自分だけ蚊帳の外に置かれた。I alone was left out of the loop. |
| 血走る | to become bloodshot (ちばしる) | 徹夜明けで目が血走っている。My eyes are bloodshot after an all-nighter. |
| 面の皮 | one's face, one's cheek (つらのかわ) | 面の皮が厚いにも程がある。There's a limit to such barefaced cheek. |
| 取り繕う | to patch up appearances (とりつくろう) | その場を取り繕うのはやめよう。Let's stop papering over the moment. |
| 真っ逆さま | headlong, straight down (まっさかさま) | 石が谷へ真っ逆さまに落ちた。The stone fell headlong into the valley. |
| 締め切る | to close up tight, to shut (しめきる) | 締め切った部屋は空気がこもる。A sealed room gets stuffy. |
| 瘡蓋 | a scab (かさぶた) | 傷に瘡蓋ができてきた。A scab has formed over the cut. |
| 剥がれ落ちる | to peel off and fall away (はがれおちる) | 古い塗装が剥がれ落ちている。The old paint is flaking away. |
| 等身大 | life-size, as one really is (とうしんだい) | 等身大の自分でいたい。I want to be my true size. |
| 欠片 | a fragment, a shard (かけら) | 割れた茶碗の欠片を拾った。I picked up the shards of the broken bowl. |
| 煌めき | a glitter, a sparkle (きらめき) | 水面の煌めきが美しい。The glitter on the water is beautiful. |
| 悪あがき | a futile struggle (わるあがき) | 今さらの悪あがきはやめよう。Let's stop the futile struggling now. |
| 綱渡り | tightrope walking, a risky balancing act (つなわたり) | 資金繰りは綱渡りの状態だ。The cash flow is a balancing act. |
| 裏腹 | the opposite, contrary to (うらはら) | 言葉とは裏腹の態度だった。His attitude was the opposite of his words. |
| 胸騒ぎ | a sense of foreboding (むなさわぎ) | 何かありそうな胸騒ぎがする。I have a foreboding that something's up. |
| 行き当たりばったり | haphazard, without a plan (ゆきあたりばったり) | 行き当たりばったりの旅も楽しい。An unplanned trip is fun too. |
| 桃源郷 | an earthly paradise, Shangri-La (とうげんきょう) | そこはまるで桃源郷のようだった。The place was like an earthly paradise. |
| 蝕む | to eat away at, to erode (むしばむ) | 不安が心を蝕んでいく。Anxiety eats away at the mind. |
| 知らず知らず | unwittingly, without realising (しらずしらず) | 知らず知らず口癖がうつっていた。I'd picked up the phrase without realising. |
| 犯す | to commit (an offence) (おかす) | 同じ過ちを犯すまい。I won't make the same mistake. |
| 降り頻る | to fall incessantly (ふりしきる) | 降り頻る雨の中を歩いた。I walked through the ceaseless rain. |
| 春風 | a spring breeze (はるかぜ) | 春風が頬をなでていく。A spring breeze brushes my cheek. |
| 地続き | continuous land, joined on (じつづき) | 隣の県とは地続きだ。It's joined by land to the next prefecture. |
| 羨む | to envy (うらやむ) | 他人を羨んでも始まらない。Envying others gets you nowhere. |
| 見落とす | to overlook, to miss (みおとす) | 小さな誤字を見落としていた。I'd overlooked a small typo. |
| 恐れ戦く | to tremble with fear (おそれおののく) | その報せに人々は恐れ戦いた。People trembled at the news. |
| 自由自在 | freely, at will (じゆうじざい) | 彼は道具を自由自在に扱う。He handles the tools with complete freedom. |
| 片隅 | a corner, an out-of-the-way spot (かたすみ) | 会場の片隅で待っていた。I waited in a corner of the venue. |
| 歓声 | cheers, a shout of joy (かんせい) | ゴールに歓声が上がった。Cheers went up at the goal. |
| 呑み込む | to swallow, to take in (のみこむ) | 言いかけた言葉を呑み込んだ。I swallowed the words I'd started to say. |
| 杭 | a stake, a post (くい) | 境界に杭を打ち込んだ。We drove a stake in at the boundary. |
| 担う | to shoulder, to bear (になう) | 次世代を担う人材を育てる。We train people who will carry the next generation. |
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