Why British people don’t dance in the moonlight —どうしてイギリス人は月の光の下で踊らないのかー

I have been listening to a series of lectures called, “The History of World Literature” recently.  It has been very interesting.  In the lectures, I came across this ancient Chinese poem.

 

Drinking Alone Under the Moon

By Li Bai (761 to 762 AD)

This translation by  Joan Derbyshire

 

Among the flowers with wine beneath the sky

Alone I drink – no friend or kin, just me.

I raise my cup to toast the moon on high.

That’s two of us; my shadow makes it three.

 

Alas, the poor moon knows not wine’s delight.

My shadow follows like a living thing.

At last with moon and shadow I unite

In joyful bond, to seize the last of spring.

 

I sing: it sets the moon to rock in time.

I dance: my shadow cannot hold its place.

Sober, we share companionship sublime;

Drunk at last, we drift apart in space –

 

Lost to worldly things, until some day

We’ll meet again, beyond the Milky Way. 

* 

This poem reminds me of an argument I once had with my Australian flatmate at the time, Adam.  We were coming back home after a night out, and we were both a little drunk.  Adam stripped off his shirt in the cold night air, enjoying the moonlight on his skin. 

“Take your shirt off! He commanded enthusiastically. 

“No, I don’t want to.  We’ll annoy the neighbors.” 

“Don’t be so British,” he said.  “Be like a pagan and dance under the moonlight!” 

“Adam, I have work in the morning,” I said. 

Adam then stalked off to dance in the moonlight without me.  Sometimes I wish I had a more romantic soul.

Vocabulary:

one’s kin – a slightly old-fashioned word, meaning one’s family and extended relations (eg. “Many of my kin still live in Scotland.”)

to toast someone – to raise a glass, usually containing an alcoholic drink, to show respect to someone (eg. “The bride and groom were toasted at the wedding reception.”)

to be sublime – of very great excellence or beauty (eg. “Bach’s music is sublime.”)

a pagan – a person who follows a pre-Christian religion, or a religion that is not one of the major world religions (eg. “Some pagans worship the sun or the moon.”)

 

The King of Sandwiches —サンドイッチの王様—

Since I first heard about the Elvis sandwich, which contains banana, peanut butter, and fried bacon, it has been always on my mind.  It ought to be tasty, since 50 million Elvis sandwich fans can’t be wrong!  Or maybe it is a devil sandwich in disguise?

Okay, no more Elvis puns, I promise.  We need a little less conversation and a little more action.

I didn’t expect to like the sandwich, because I am not a huge fan of banana.  But the sandwich worked surprisingly well.  The soft banana, crunchy peanuts and crispy bacon made for an interesting mix of textures.  And I thought the peanut butter might dominate over all other flavours, but I could still taste the bacon.  I give this sandwich 8 out of 10.

Vocabulary:

a pun – A joke which plays on the fact that one word or phrase sounds like another, or has two meanings (eg. “My cat is just purrr-fect!”)

(a) texture – the feel or consistency of a surface (eg. “This wood has a rough texture.”)

Karamazov —カラマーゾフ－

I used much of my free time over the New Year’s holidays to finish reading Dostoevsky’s novel, “The Brothers Karamazov.”  It was very long, but very interesting.

Here are a couple of passages I found particularly interesting.

1:

The man who lies to himself can be more easily offended than anyone else.  You know it is sometimes very pleasant to take offence, isn’t it?  A man may know that nobody has insulted him, but that he has invented the insult for himself, has lied and exaggerated to make it picturesque, has caught at a word and made a mountain out of a molehill.  He knows that himself, yet he will be the first to take offence, and will revel in his resentment till he feels great pleasure in it.

*

I didn’t realise that Twitter existed in 19th century Russia.  At least, Dostoevsky seems to have understood the psychology of many Twitter users very well!

2:

It’s God that’s worrying me.  That’s the only thing that’s worrying me.  What if He doesn’t exist?  What if Rakitin’s right – that it’s an idea made up by men?  Then if he doesn’t exist, man is the king of the Earth, of the universe.  Magnificent!  Only how is he going to be good without God?  That is the question.  I always come back to that.  Who is man going to love then?  To whom will he be thankful?  To whom will he sing the hymn?  Rakitin laughs.  Rakitin says that one can love humanity instead of God.  Well, only an idiot can maintain that.  I can’t understand it.  Life’s easy for Rakitin.  “You’d better think about the extension of civic rights, or of keeping down the price of meat.  You will show your love for humanity more simply and directly by that than by philosophy.”

I answered him: “Well but you, without a God, are more likely to raise the price of meat if it suits you, and make a rouble on every penny.”  He lost his temper.

*

Somehow this passage made me think of political parties claiming to be communists, and to love humanity more than any other group.  Then they install themselves as an elite at the top of the country, “making a rouble out of every penny,” or finding a nice profit for themselves.

Vocabulary:

to be offended – to be annoyed, usually because one feels they have been insulted (eg. “I think he was offended when I criticised his country.”)

picturesque – visually attractive in a charming way (eg. “Shirakawago is a picturesque village.”)

to make a mountain out of a molehill – to make something seem much bigger than it really is (eg. “I didn’t say you were fat, I just suggested that you eat fewer snacks.  Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill.”)

to revel in something – to take great and lively enjoyment in something (eg. “After winning the match, the football team revelled in their victory.”)

a hymn – a religious song of praise to God (eg. “People sing hymns in church.”)

The Celebrity Sandwich Shop —セレブサンドの店—

My son has a simple English book called, “Sandwich, Sandwich.” 

The book describes how to make a simple sandwich, including steps such as selecting fluffy bread, slicing a tomato, adding some lettuce, etc. 

It struck me as a good, short topic to use in an English lesson: Tell me how to make the perfect sandwich.  So recently I have been asking many of my students this question. 

One student came up with an interesting answer.  Her husband likes an “Elvis sandwich.”  Apparently, Elvis Presley liked to fill a sandwich with banana, bacon and peanut butter.  So that is an Elvis sandwich. 

How about this for a business idea?:  The Celebrity Sandwich Shop! 

The shop only sells sandwiches, and all are named after celebrities.  Preferably the celebrities are dead, in order to avoid legal troubles.  I’m not much of a chef, but even I can make a sandwich.  Now I just need some ideas for some other celebrity sandwich fillings. 

The Karl Marx sandwich?  The bread is the cheapest available, suitable for the oppressed proletariat.  The fillings are tomato, red pepper and red meat, all drenched in the blood of the capitalist oppressors – sorry, I mean chili sauce. 

The Margaret Thatcher sandwich? (for political balance)

The filling is liver, chickpeas, and dried apricot.  All ingredients are good sources of iron. 

If you have any other suggestions for celebrity sandwich fillings, please send them my way!

 

Vocabulary:

fluffy – light and soft like loosely connected strands of wool (eg. “It is so nice to stroke the fluffy fur of my cat.”)

an oppressor – a group or person who treats people harshly and holds them down in an inferior position

Lots of Love, Mr. President －大統領へ、愛をこめて－

It must be hard to be a world leader.  There are so many things you have to understand, from foreign affairs to economics, from policing to media relations.  And if you make even the slightest mistake, you will be blamed by your country’s angry citizens.  Surely only a fool would apply for such a difficult job. 

That must be why so many world leaders appear foolish. 

I had to laugh when I heard Joe Biden begin a speech by saying, “Let me begin with two words: Made in America!” 

It is hard to appear more foolish than George W. Bush.  One of his many gaffes was this: “If you are a single mother with children, which is the toughest job in America as far as I am concerned, then you are trying hard to put food on your family.” 

But I think my favourite gaffe was from former British Prime Minister David Cameron.  It was recently revealed that for years he signed off his emails and texts with “lol! David.”  He thought that “lol” stood for “lots of love.”  In fact, it stands for “laughing out loud.” 

So, the Prime Minister must have sent lots of emails like this: 

It is my great honour to reward you for your charity work in poor countries.  Without your efforts, many poor people in Africa and Asia would have died.

Laughing out loud!

David

 

Oops!

Vocabulary:

a gaffe – an unintentional act or remark causing embarrassment to its originator; a blunder

Inclusive Travel Report —インクルーシブ・トラベル・レポート－ ジャパンタイムズに記事が掲載されました

I was contacted recently by an organisation which encourages large companies to make their businesses inclusive for disabled people.  They recently released a report about the travel industry, which named the top ten cities in the world for disabled people to travel to.  One of those cities was Tokyo.  I wrote an article for the Japan Times about the report, which you can find here: 

ジャパンタイムズ記事リンク（2022/12/3）

Hasta la vista, baby －アスタ・ラ・ビスタ、ベイビー－

I was searching a news website today for interesting headlines to write about.  How about this one, from the BBC?: 

“San Francisco to Allow Police Killer Robots” 

Just from the headline, it is not quite clear whether the robots are “police killer robots,” meaning that they are robots being used by the police to kill criminals, or “police killer robots,” meaning that the robots are being used by someone to kill police officers. 

Apparently, it is the former. 

In situations of extreme danger, such as a sniper targeting police officers, or a terrorist group determined to kill, it might be too dangerous to send real humans in to incapacitate the suspects.  The “killer robot” could be sent in to incapacitate them instead.  This could include the use of lethal force. 

Some citizens, quite understandably, are a little nervous about the idea of killer robots.  Hasn’t anyone ever seen the Terminator movies?  Killer robots always end up turning against humanity.

In America, there is a campaign group called “Stop Killer Robots.”  A spokesperson for the group said, the robots could, “make humans more and more distant from the use of force and the consequences of the use of force.” 

This story made me remember the ending to the movie, “Terminator 2: Judgement Day.” 

“Watching John with the machine, it was suddenly so clear.  The Terminator would never stop.  It would never leave him, and it would never hurt him – never shout at him, or get drunk and hit him, or say it was too busy to spend time with him.  It would always be there.  And it would die to protect him.” 

I hope the killer robots are always on our side.

 

Vocabulary:

the former – the first of two options given

to incapacitate someone – to prevent from functioning in a normal way; to disable

lethal force – the use of force which results in death