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Thorin Engeseth sent in these two photographs of a Zara brand shirt that his wife bought yesterday:

Let's start from the bottom of the front of the shirt and work our way upwards, from easiest to hardest.

The word at the bottom is "kawaii", which is known to practically every young person on the planet, and lots of older people too.  It means "cute; lovable; adorable", and is the watchword for the esthetics and culture of cuteness in Japan.  The epitome of cuteness culture is Hello Kitty, so there's a definite tie-in with felines right there.

The next line up is pretty straightforward, but you have to know your early 20th century Japanese literature to grasp it fully:

wagahai wa neko 吾輩は貓

wagahai wa neko de aru 我輩は猫である

"I am a cat"

This is from the title (as well as the opening line) of the famous satirical novel, I Am a Cat (1905-6), by Natsume Sōseki 夏目漱石 (1867-1916).

If we read the characters of the top line separately with their kun (Japanese style) pronunciation, then we have "yume ai neko" ("dream love cat"), which doesn't make a great deal of sense.  If we try to read it in its on (Sinitic) pronunciation, then we get "mu ai byō", which doesn't help much, though it leads to another radical solution, as suggested by Nathan Hopson:

Once you know that the middle line of text means "I am a cat", the top line starts to look like a failed joke: 夢愛貓 = ai あい・mu む・neko ねこ = I'm neko = I'm a cat. Of course, because of the 愛 character, there's also an implication of cat love. The problem with this interpretation, and the reason I speculate that it's a failed joke, is that the character order is different: 愛夢貓, not 夢愛貓. So I guess it's also possible to read this as a list of the greatest things in a kawaii life: dreams / ambitions / desires, love, and cats (natch).

As for the characters on the back of the shirt, they are sōryoku tokushū 総力特集, but reversed, as in a mirror.  This is a common phrase used by magazines. It denotes a special issue with the entire contents devoted to a particular topic.  I have no idea what it's doing on the back of this shirt.

[Thanks to Hiroko Sherry]

September 21, 2018 @ 12:19 am · Filed by Victor Mair under Language and culture, Language and fashion, Language and literature

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