Japanese Lessons: Jugemu Part I, or the Meaning of Life

A while ago, I related how the Mario enemy Lakitu's Japanese name, Jugem, is a throwback to a Japanese tongue twister and some folklore that many children know.

Let's delve into some of the Japanese behind the lyric. As with the last time we did a Japanese Lesson, there will be a lot of Japanese characters in this post, so it's best if you view it on a device that can read them properly.

If you remember the anecdote attached to the tongue twister, it was about a priest giving a young boy a name that would grant him a long, long life. So the priest gives him a name with all sorts of meanings that could suggest many years without death. (I feel like the next sentence is going to be about what the Polish guy said to the Mexican. Oh well.)

Here is the tongue-twister once again:

Jugemu jugemu
Gokou no surikire
Kaijari suigyou no
Suigyoumatsu unraimatsu fuuraimatsu
Kuu neru tokoro ni sumu tokoro
Yaburakouji no burakouji
Paipo paipo paipo no shuuringan
Shuuringan no guurindai
Guurindai no ponpokopii no ponpokonaa no
Choukyuumei no chousuke

Now, what does it mean? Well, even if you are native Japanese, some of it is a bit head-scratchy, so we'll take each line one post at a time.

Let's start with the title of the tongue twister. Jugemu jugemu (寿限無、寿限無) is combination of three kanji that means something close to "everlasting life" or "life without limits." But be careful, this doesn't actually mean immortal to a modern Japanese ear, like the word fushi (不死), literally "without death" or fujimi (不死身), or "indestructible," do. Please note the second word is closer to the impervious definition of immortal, and often is used to describe somebody with an indomitable spirit, who never gives up. Another word for immortality would be furou (不老), or somebody who never ages. You can quite often see the two terms put together, as furoufushi (不老不死).

So please don't go around using the word jugemu to mean "everlasting life," or "everlasting gobstopper." The reason it means that in this special case is because ju (寿) is a character of celebration and can also be read as kotobuki -- the whole thing kind of comes across as "cheers for a good, long life." You'll see this kanji particularly at this time of year when a new year rolls around, or at certain birthdays, to wish the person a continued happy, long life.

It is quite important to remember that you will not see this kanji a whole lot in relation to life. jumyo　（寿命) or "life span" is one word that comes up in daily parlance. You could use it to describe the life span of anything, from a planet to a tree to a person. But if you wanted to use life as in the human philosophical concept, jinsei (人生) would be better, as in "My life sucks" or ore no jinsei ha saitei da yo (俺の人生は最低だよ）. Whereas seimei (生命) describes all types of life (and is another word that is derived by repeating two kanji with the same rough meaning, as the second one, inochi (命) also means life, but in a more holistic way). If you wanted to talk about your current life you'd use a word like seikatsu (生活). This describes more of your daily habits, routines, where you live, how much you wank, those types of things. [Note that you may recognize the sei (生) character as meaning life, and it does, among other things, but so does the katsu (活) character. In fact, the verb for life commonly uses the former, but sometimes, for poetic effect, will use the latter. For instance, ikaseru (活かせる) is likely to be used to mean "make something come to life" or "make the most of something."] So if you're trying to communicate more clearly in Japanese, one thing you should definitely watch out for are the nuances in what types of things different kanji with the same basic meaning can convey. 

So let's review the meanings of life:

sei 生 - the most basic, humanistic term for life
inochi 命 - life, as in the soul or spirit that burns within an individual until it dies
katsu 活 - activity, animation, life as the expression of movement
kotobuki 寿 - life as a happy congratulation of its continuance, also a piece of the word sushi by the way

(Unfortunately, almost none of these kanji or terms are commonly used to mean "lives" as in chances to try again in a game. That's a special discussion for another day.)

Meanwhile, gemu is actually a reversal of mugen (無限), which means "unlimited." Another way to say that in Japanese is kagiri ga nai (限りがない), which is simply saying a very similar thing to "there's no limit." (If you have absolutely no imagination for language, you might think "there's no limit" and "unlimited" mean the same thing. If so, you have my pity.) These days, nai often does not have a kanji attached to it, but if it does, it is most often the one we see at the end of jugemu, in this form: 無い.

So we can parcel out the pieces of the word to mean "may there be no limit to your happy, long life."

Right then, now that you've gotten a handle on life (all thanks to my blog) tomorrow's post will be about the second line, gokou no surikire, which is far more rooted in history and philosophy, and thus much harder to explain. Be ready, be vigilant, strike while the Japanese is hot!