it's mikan season!
everyone knows that a thing does not exist unless it can be called, by name; it's also difficult to eat the non-extant, even though it may be delicious. so, while i try out all the various ways to put the word into its plural (mikani, mikanove/mikanovi, mikane?), because some things just don't happen by themselves, i am suddenly floored: Japanese has no identifiable plural, but only its concept. i stop walking, jerked by an invisible string, barely holding onto my just-purchased multi-kilos. the busy market street continues around me, soundless now, upside-down and gel-tinged with a headache halo around its edges. ghosts take all sorts of forms; i hear the ripping sound that may turn out to be Thought itself, rent asunder from Language, and i am frozen between wonder and fear.
the snobbery, however, rescues me: surely these are not real mikans i've bought. they're from Macedonia....
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
> Japanese has no identifiable plural, but only its
> concept.
That is very cool. Fun to not even notice the absence of something we might for granted.
need not have a plural to be a plural?
it's true for bikers and, ahem, other essential forms.
Post a Comment