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We saw last week that 露 (RO, RŌ, tsuyu) primarily means “dew.” But this kanji has also spun off several auxiliary meanings, most relating to dew metaphorically. Let’s take them one by one.
Dew
Photo: Mustangaly
Tears
This will be a very short section, because I can offer you only one expression involving 露 as “tears.” But it’s a doozy:
袖の露 (sode no tsuyu: tears falling onto the sleeve)
sleeve + tears
I’m hoping there’s also a phrase for “tears falling onto shoes” or “tears (sparked by poverty) falling onto empty wallet,” but if so, I haven’t yet found those expressions.
If you need to know more about tears in a kanji-related way, check out one part of the blog from two weeks ago, where tears flowed freely.
Transience
Both tears and dew are fleeting, so it’s no wonder that 露 has come to have associations with transience. There are some wonderful bits of 露-related philosophy about the ever-so-quick nature of life:
露の命 (tsuyu no inochi: life as evanescent as the dew)
dew + lifeThe definition sums up the situation—life passes almost as quickly as the time it takes dew to evaporate. If you remove the の from this expression, the individual yomi change, but the overall meaning stays the same:
露命 (romei: transient life, ephemeral existence)
transience + life
人生朝露 (jinsei chōro: a person’s life is as fleeting as morning dew) human + life + morning + dew
Again, a succinct, clear presentation of the situation we all face. The expression 人生朝露 is a yojijukugo, as is the next expression.
電光朝露 (denkōchōro: fleeting, evanescent)
lightning (1st 2 chars.) + morning + dew
This compound raises an issue—what’s more fleeting, a flash of lightning or morning dew? Or does this word encompass all of those, giving a sense of “lightning-fast”? I’m not sure dew and lightning combine well; I imagine fire as it sputters out in the presence of water. The first two kanji break down as lightning + light. But as you’ll see at the next link, we usually know the first kanji as “electricity.”
A Little Bit
When I came upon the following compound, I was puzzled as to how it fit into the 露-related patterns I’d seen thus far:
露知らず (tsuyu shirazu: utterly ignorant)
The second kanji means “to know,” and the -zu ending makes the word negative, but after I figured that much out, I was at a loss. Then I learned that 露 can also mean “a little bit.” This meaning derives from the minuscule size of a dew drop; the drop is a little bit, and when you negate the accompanying verb 知, you get “not even known a little bit.” If you don’t know something even a little bit, you’re utterly ignorant of that fact. Sounds harsh, but it isn’t necessarily a demeaning assessment of someone. Here’s a sample sentence:
彼が生きていたとは露知らず。
Kare ga ikite ita to wa tsuyu shirazu.
It never even occurred to me that he was still alive.彼 (kare: he)
生 (i(kiru): to live)
Although you see 露 in the sentence, people usually represent tsuyu shirazu as つゆ知らず.
Another Sample Sentence with 露知らず …
Russia
The kanji 露 also stands for “Russia” because it has the on-yomi RO. As “Russia” in Japanese is Roshia, that makes 露 a good phonetic match.
Plenty of words involve 露 as “Russia,” such as the following:
日露戦争 (Nichi-Ro Sensō: Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905))
Japan + Russia + battle + to argue
親露 (shin-Ro: pro-Russian) friendly + Russia
白露 (Hakuro: White Russia, Belarus) white + Russia
But I want to focus only on one Russia-related word, and just for the time it takes lightning to flash:
露語 (rogo: Russian (language)) Russia + language
It’s likely that you use ロシア語 (Roshiago) to refer to the language. If so, that’s good, as 露語 is quite rare.
So why did I include it, and what’s so special about this word, you ask? Why, I’m glad you did! It factors into this great sentence from Breen:
露語が全く通じなかったので露語で詰ってやった。
Rogo ga mattaku tsūjinakatta node rogo de najitte yatta.
He couldn’t communicate in Russian at all, so I told him off in Russian.全 (matta(ku): really, truly, entirely, (not) at all)
通 (tsū(jiru): to communicate, understand)
詰 (naji(ru): to rebuke, scold, tell off)
What a great strategy! For some reason, it reminds me of a conversation I recently had. A woman asked me if I knew any of my husband’s native language (Urdu). I said I knew about fifteen words, including the crudest insult possible. She was hell-bent on learning it, so I said it again and again until she had nailed the pronunciation. Then she asked how to say “hello,” and I realized I wasn’t quite sure!
Time for your Verbal Logic Quiz!
