Dec
15
“The Japanese language is characterized among other things by evocative vagueness,” [Donald Keene] says. “You try to avoid being too precise. I used to write to a Japanese friend, and he would send back my letters with things crossed out or changed. If I said ‘I’ve been sick for four days,’ he would correct me: ‘You should say “about four days,” or “four or five days.” We Japanese never say “four.” We never say “five.”’ And it’s true. There’s a liking for a fuzziness, which the Japanese find more exciting because it leaves space for the imagination.”
Jamie Katz, Sensei and Sensibility
