Beautiful words are countless; it is quite difficult to pick just five of them because words can be beautiful in many ways. I picked five words from my mother tongue, Japanese. All of them are beautiful in a way that you could suddenly come up with a scene after just seeing or hearing the word and I think that is the most beautiful way words can be.
The first word is “amayadori”. If I translate it literally, it means “taking shelter from the rain”, but there is a slight difference in nuance between this translation and the original word. If you say amayadori, you are okay to get a little wet, you enjoy hiding from the rain, and you enjoy watching the tears dropping from the roof waiting until the rain stops. Including all of these chain of events, we say amayadori ; it’s not just about avoiding the rain. It’s a classic in films to meet someone really special on a rainy day rushing in under some roof.
The second word is “Seishun”, and it means youth. The meaning of the original Chinese character is “blue spring”, but we all know that this word includes all the memories in our springtime of life. I think it’s beautiful to use a color and a season to describe a specific period of our life.
The third word is “shunminn” and it means spring sleep. Spring nights are shorter than winter, but it’s a perfect time to sleep really well. I can picture a spring morning that is too comfortable to get out of my bed. I can also come up with a scene on a drowsy afternoon in the spring warm sunshine.
The fourth word is “komorebi” which means the sunlight through the leaves of trees. I think it is beautiful that people made a word just for this specific sunlight. We often say that komorebi pours down, which makes it more glorious.
The last word is “koromogae”. It means to change your clothes in your closet to the ones that are suitable for the next season. For example, preparing for warm clothes for fall and winter, after summer. It is exciting to do “koromogae” because you can imagine how and when you are going to dress up for the next season.
I think that languages are profoundly connected to the countries’ weather, history, and culture, etc. I believe that every country has its own beautiful words and I’m really curious about them.
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