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The harder you practice the luckier you get.
Gary Player (professional golfer)
Arma virumque cano - I sing of arms and the man
Virgil, The Aeneid
Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit.
R E Shay
The Greeks have snatched up their spears.
They have pointed the helms of their ships
Toward the bulwarks of Troy.
Euripides, Iphigeneia in Aulis translated by Hilda Doolittle
Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.
William Saroyan, The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze
Someone I know just got back from a trip to Turkey. I heard about the sense of history at the site of Troy. It is in Anatolia. That area used to be called Asia Minor. And I was given a souvenir. A lucky charm. It is supposed to protect me against the evil eye. The evil eye is a curse or harmful wish. So it is not really a good luck charm. It's to protect me against evil specifically directed at me.
In Japan an amulet or lucky charm is called an omamori おまもり お守り. You can get them at shrines and temples. Some of them are also for specific kinds of protection. Against harm on a journey, or for protection during pregnancy, or for help for exams, say. Many martial artists and sports players have an omamori on their equipment bags to protect against injury.
In English we say "good luck" to people who are doing an exam or playing in a sports match. So we are saying that we hope some higher power will look kindly on them.
In Japanese they say "gambatte!" Do your best! or fight! or try your hardest! So they are saying: Don't rely on a higher power. Do the work yourself. Train hard. Prepare well. Succeed by your own ability and your own efforts. Maybe that is a more effective approach.
A strange thing happened that day. My friend had told me that the best food in Turkey was pomegranates. Then later the same evening someone else I know told me that while he was clearing out some old things he had found a book that he had bought in Kochi many years ago. It was a bilingual edition of some short stories by William Saroyan. He told me the story that he had always remembered was The Pomegranate Trees. Wow, pomegranates twice in one day. In Japanese pomegranate is zakuro ざくろ, 柘榴 or 石榴 or 若榴.
I have an essay in a charity e-book put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.
10-28-2011 11:45 AM 
