案ずるより産むが易し。
Anzuru yori umu ga yasashi. |
Literally: Giving birth to a baby is easier than worrying about it.
Meaning: Fear is greater than the danger. / An attempt is sometimes easier than expected. |
馬鹿は死ななきゃ直らない。
Baka wa shinanakya naoranai. |
Literally: Unless an idiot dies, he won't be cured.
Meaning: Only death will cure a fool. / You can't cure stupid. |
出る釘は打たれる。
Deru kugi wa utareru.
|
Literally: The stake that sticks out gets hammered down.
Meaning: The nonconformist will be pounded down. / Don't make waves. |
挨拶は時の氏神。
Aisatsu wa toki no ujigami.
|
Literally: A greeting is the local deity who turns up providentially.
Meaning: Arbitration in a quarrel is a godsend.
Background: Here, 挨拶 aisatsu (greeting) means arbitration. |
秋茄子は嫁に食わすな。
Akinasu wa yome ni kuwasuna.
|
Literally: Don't let your daughter-in-law eat autumn eggplants.
Background: Eggplants are delicious in the fall season when they tend to be seedless. A mean mother-in-law would rather not share such a delicacy with her daughter-in-law. |
悪妻は百年の不作。
Akusai wa hyaku-nen no fusaku.
|
Literally: A bad wife spells a hundred years of bad harvest.
Meaning: A bad wife is a ruin of her husband. |
残り物には福がある。
Nokorimono ni wa fuku ga aru.
|
Literally: Luck exists in the leftovers.
Meaning: There is luck in the last helping.
Background: A mother might say this to console a young child who is left with the sweets that were not grabbed by faster, elder siblings. |
虎穴に入らずんば虎子を得ず。
Koketsu ni irazunba koji o ezu.
|
Literally: If you do not enter the tiger's cave, you will not catch its cub.
Meaning: Nothing ventured, nothing gained. |
晴天の霹靂
Seiten no heki-reki.
|
Literally: Thunderclap from a clear sky.
Meaning: A bolt from the blue. / A complete surprise. |
猿も木から落ちる。
Saru mo ki kara ochiru.
|
Literally: Even monkeys fall from trees.
Meaning: Everyone makes mistakes. / Nobody's perfect. |
蓼食う虫も好き好き
Tade kuu mushi mo sukizuki
|
Literally: There are even bugs that eat knotweed; it is a matter of taste.
Meaning: There's no accounting for taste. / To each his own. |
井の中の蛙大海を知らず。
I no naka no kawazu taikai o shirazu.
|
Literally: A frog in a well does not know the great sea.
Meaning: People are satisfied to judge things by their own narrow experience, never knowing of the wide world outside. |
蛙の子は蛙。
Kaeru no ko wa kaeru.
|
Literally: Child of a frog is a frog.
Meaning: Like father, like son. |
覆水盆に帰らず。
Fukusui bon ni kaerazu.
|
Literally: Spilt water will not return to the tray.
Meaning: It's no use crying over split milk. / A separated couple can never go back to as it was.
Background: Original meaning comes from an old Chinese story of a couple, but the proverb is often used in a more general sense today. |
二兎を追う者は一兎をも得ず。
Nito o ou mono wa itto o mo ezu.
|
Literally: One who chases after two hares won't catch even one.
Meaning: Trying to do two things at once will make you fail in both. |
Proverbs
Famous proverbs 
