I wonder how English difficulty would rate with native speaking Japanese learners? Otherwise, FWIW, on a very very basic level: Your post (here) about Hagoromo, along with two other brief English explanations of the story: your discussion, Leanne, was the only one that included those pivotal words "Doubt is for mortals; in heaven there is no deceit". Certainly for the Western mind, this is the "reason for the story". Its absence in the other two English explanations leaves the Western mind wondering "So?" Western drama does center on conflict and its resolution. If I was just walking along the street and kicking a pebble, from which I trip and fall, the Western mind-ers would want to know about the state of my psyche. Even if the street was a pothole paradise with accidents "just waiting to happen". Specificity from whose point of view? and by what means? Is this what Japanese structures so differently?
Wonderful post!
I wonder how English difficulty would rate with native speaking Japanese learners? Otherwise, FWIW, on a very very basic level: Your post (here) about Hagoromo, along with two other brief English explanations of the story: your discussion, Leanne, was the only one that included those pivotal words "Doubt is for mortals; in heaven there is no deceit". Certainly for the Western mind, this is the "reason for the story". Its absence in the other two English explanations leaves the Western mind wondering "So?" Western drama does center on conflict and its resolution. If I was just walking along the street and kicking a pebble, from which I trip and fall, the Western mind-ers would want to know about the state of my psyche. Even if the street was a pothole paradise with accidents "just waiting to happen". Specificity from whose point of view? and by what means? Is this what Japanese structures so differently?