When the Eye Strays

Essay 1163 on 況 (condition, situation) has come out, and boy, was that a big project to finish! Those 19 pages contain plenty of keywords featuring 況, but while I was focusing on those terms and their associated sample sentences, a few other points of interest caught my eye. I almost feel as if I cheated on 況 by sneaking a peek at sexier kanji! But I'm sure you'll forgive me, as you know how enticing kanji can be! I'll present this sexy selection in the form of a quiz, giving all answers at the end.

1. The following sentence features 盛況 (せいきょう: success; prosperity; boom):

祝賀会は盛況のうちに幕を閉じた。
The banquet has ended and was a success.

祝賀会 (しゅくがかい: banquet); 幕を閉じる (まくをとじる: to come to an end)

The blue part figuratively means "to come to an end." You probably know 閉じる as "to close," but what's that symmetrical concoction before it, the one with the "grass" radical 艹 on top? And what could this phrase mean literally? Here are your choices:

a. As 幕 means "eyes," 幕を閉じる means "to shut one's eyes."
b. As 幕 means "flag," 幕を閉じる means "to lower the flag (at dusk)."
c. As 幕 means "tobacco," 幕を閉じる means "to smoke (after an activity)."
d. As 幕 means "curtain," 幕を閉じる means "to close a curtain."

2. The next sentence starts with 市況 (しきょう: market conditions):

市況が悪化したので、在庫は山を築いた。
The market deteriorated, so our inventory ____.

悪化 (あっか: worsening); 在庫 (ざいこ: inventory); 
山 (やま: mountain); 築く (きずく: to ____)

Here again I'm intrigued by the blue part at the end. What could 山を築く mean literally and figuratively? Choose one option:

a. As 築く means "to make," 山を築く means "to pile up."
b. As 築く means "to garden," 山を築く means "to rot (like compost)."
c. As 築く means "to become as thin as bamboo," 山を築く means "to become sparse."
d. As 築く means "to become a burden," 山を築く means "to become as heavy as a mountain."

3. Now we shift to 況 in 況してや (ましてや: still more; to say nothing of; not to mention; much less), a non-Joyo kun-yomi featured here:

彼は英語を話せない。況してやフランス語は論外だ。 
He can't speak English, much less French.

彼 (かれ: he); 英語 (えいご: English); 話す (はなす: to speak,
shown here in its negative potential form); フランス語 (フランスご:
French language); 論外 (ろんがい: __)

Why do the most interesting things come at the end?! I'm intrigued by 論外, which would logically break down as argument + outside. What could those kanji combine to mean? Choose an option:

a. taking an argument outside
b. unmentionable
c. out of the question
d. foreign

4. Our star kanji didn't fit very comfortably in the next sample sentence, so I cut 況 from that example, then dropped the sentence from the essay. Still, the remaining half contains a word of interest, again in blue:

１ヶ月先まで満席になっております。   
___ a month ahead.

１ヶ月 (いっかげつ: one month);
先 (さき: ahead); 満席 (まんせき: _____)

I love how the shapes of 満席 complement each other. What could these kanji mean when combined? Choose an option:

a. As 満 means "satisfied" and 席 means "attendance," 満席 means "requirements must be fully satisfied." 
b. As 満 means "full" and 席 means "seat," 満席 means "fully booked."
c. As 満 means "to expire" and 席 means "seat," 満席 means "not valid after a certain date."
d. As 満 means "full" and 席 means "constellation," 満席 means that there will be a full moon and sightings of a particular star.

I'll block the answers with a sneak preview of essay 1163:

Okay, here we go:

1.d. As 幕 means "curtain," 幕を閉じる means "to close a curtain." When a theater curtain closes, the show is over, so 幕を閉じる (まくをとじる) means "to come to an end"! Here again is the sample sentence:

祝賀会は盛況のうちに幕を閉じた。
The banquet has ended and was a success.

Note that 幕 can't mean any of what I proposed as false options (i.e., "eyes," "flag," or "tobacco"). 

This kanji is intimately associated with the theater, as in 開幕 (かいまく: rising of the curtain; opening scene of a play), which is the opposite of 幕を閉じる.

Henshall says in both editions of his book that the 巾 of 幕 means "cloth" and that the remainder of the character, 莫, might act phonetically to express "conceal." Thus, the whole character means "cloth that conceals," referring to a curtain!

2.a. As 築く means "to make," 山を築く (やまをきずく) means "to pile up." So "making a mountain" in this sense is having inventory pile up. That's how the end of the sentence translates:

市況が悪化したので、在庫は山を築いた。
The market deteriorated, so our inventory piled up.

Note that 築く doesn't match any of the false options ("to garden," "to become as thin as bamboo," or "to become a burden").

You may be wondering about the "bamboo" radical 竹 atop 築, which primarily means "to construct" and appears in words such as 建築家 (けんちくか: architect). I figured that the etymology would involve constructing buildings out of bamboo, but Henshall offers a long and very different explanation in both editions of his book. In short, he says that 築 originally referred to a "wooden stamper" used to tamp down ground prior to building, later coming to represent the "act of building" itself. That's not very satisfying somehow! (And what about digging a foundation before one builds?!)

3.c. 論外 (ろんがい: question + out) means "out of the question." Note that I have now defined 論 as "question" (not as "argument") here, following Halpern's lead. So learning French (in the scenario of the sample sentence) is out of the question. Here is that sentence again:

彼は英語を話せない。況してやフランス語は論外だ。 
He can't speak English, much less French.

4.b. As 満 means "full" and 席 means "seat," 満席 (まんせき) means "fully booked." When all the "seats" are taken, a place (even a hotel) is fully booked. The sentence therefore translates this way:

１ヶ月先まで満席になっております。
It's fully booked a month ahead.

With this fourth question, some false options contained valid definitions. That is, 満 can mean "satisfied" and "to expire." But 席 by itself cannot mean "attendance"; it needs to be in 出席 (しゅっせき: attendance) or 欠席 (けっせき: absence, nonattendance) for that. As for "constellation," that pertains not to 席 but to 座, a similar-looking kanji that also means "seat." In 星座 (せいざ: constellation), the 座 represents "constellation."

Are you fully satisfied?! I hope so!

Catch you back here next time!

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