I began questioning the Japanese translation of the English word “nature”
Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa
I had a visitor from Japan last night. As a nice gesture to welcome the guest, I cut a branch from the camellia tree in my yard, made a simple arrangement, and placed it at the entrance.
For me, this short stem with vivid red flowers and thick leaves in shiny green represents nature, with no doubt. You can bring nature into your home. Being at home and enjoying nature at the same time has no contradiction in my mind.
In articles written by American or western writers, however, nature seems to be something different. In their articles, nature seems something you encounter or experience only when you drive away from the city and step into mountains or forests. If you find man-made structures around you, you don’t say you are with nature.
I learned at school that nature is an English translation of the Japanese word “自然shizen”. In my interpretation, the camellia branch I brought home is something of “自然.” However, maybe it’s not appropriate or it makes no sense to bring nature into a home?
Definitely some words, concepts, or expressions in one language has no direct translation into another. “生きがい ikigai” is one example. A simple concept the Japanese people take for granted, but a foreign one to the western culture. Some people made a thorough analysis of this word and created a whole training business out of this concept.
Does “自然shizen” also fall in this category? Maybe I should be careful not to simply translate it into nature in English?