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Perhaps life is just that - a dream and a fear
Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes
The thing I fear most is fear
Michel de Montaigne, Les Essais
"I think you're scared." He took hold of my hand. His was strong, hard, warm and slightly sticky. "I know you're scared," he whispered.
"I'll get over it," I said. "One way or another."
Raymond Chandler, Farewell My Lovely
The irony of the photograph is that the guy is secure enough to wear a jacket with INSECURITY on it. Or maybe he just doesn't speak English.
Courage in Japanese is yu 勇 or yuki 勇気. Anxiety in Japanese is fuan 不安. Fear in Japanese is kyofu 恐怖.
All humans have weaknesses - like selfishness and pride - and fears - like the fear of death or the fear of the unknown or the fear of failure. How do we face our weaknesses and fears and understand them and overcome them? That question - and the answer - will be left behind when we die.
So what is written on your jacket?
Language note 1
Words with long or double vowel sounds can be written in English with a macron bar diacritic in the Hepburn romanization system or with an extra letter. For example勇 can be written yū or yuu which are more accurate and more helpful for readers than yu. But we write judo and aikido in Tokyo not jūdō and aikidō in Tōkyō or - even more clumsily - juudou and aikidou in Toukyou. So for consistency as well as simplicity I normally use short forms. Please use a dictionary if you want to go into the language in more depth.
Language note 2
At the bottom of the Kisaburo Ohsawa thread there is one of those interesting serendipitous links to a question about the use of the words shihan, sensei and sempai. Peter Goldsbury wrote a very interesting, detailed and comprehensive exposition: http://www.aikiweb.com/language/goldsbury1.html. Anyone interested in the Japanese language will learn a lot from it.
05-29-2011 01:25 AM 
