So here we have a sign that was in front of a bronze horse at Edo Wonderland in Nikko. Let's break them nihongoes down!
Breakdown:
此の kono: this (bet you didn't know there was a kanji for this word :-p)
馬 uma: horse
乗る noru: ride/mount
べからず bekarazu: should not (a word only used on signs, never spoken. べかざる+noun is the non-sign version)
Gloss: Stay off this horse statue!
I want to call this sign language, but, well... Anyways, there is also a sign-specific use of こと to tell people what they should do. Ex: 五時に集合のこと= gather at 5.
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*: yes I still live an internet-free life at home. Kinda.
Wow. I did not know there was kanji for kono, and while the word べからず looked very familiar, I did not know what it meant. I've actually been trying to use my Japanese reading skills on the intar wub today while looking at porny sources (brief and not terribly impressive blog explanation forthcoming), and it's slow-going when you have to look up practically every kanji on Jim Breen. That's part of why I never got too into reading Japanese. I'm just not that interested in kanji.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to what you'll write as always.
ReplyDeleteKanji aren't too hard, once you get used to them, but that's pretty hard to do outside of Japan.
Good breakdown! Here's a modern statue along the same lines - keep off the beetle...
ReplyDelete