Japanese idioms for sword fans

[GHP]

PRICELESS!


Nick wins the internet today.

--Guy

I'll give you a sample text to make sense of as a "draw and cut test". A bad translator, who does not have knowledge of idiomatic expressions may end up producing something like this.

Me and my new boss, our swords had different rakes, which really slowed down progress of our project, until one day finally my sword got stuck and I couldn’t draw any more. So with my only sword, I made a charge at him and told him I didn’t like his control-freak ways. Naturally having been so outspoken about his shortcomings, I had no way to sheath that sword anymore and was decapitated by the company.
Tanaka, take it easy. You are raising your sword much too high on issues of business secrets. We do have competition, but nothing like the kind that wears down the spine of our swords that you may have experienced in the IT industry. Of course there might be some scabbard hitting from others, for instance, when we try to open a new shop on a sword grip screw street, but ours is still a new industry and there’s still enough business for everyone. We still have a couple of years before we have to lock hand guards with a competitor's sword.

Except for the idiom, "raise one's sword too high", meaning taking things too seriously, all idioms used, you will find above.

[Nick Komiya]

Shall we finish the language exercise with a proper translation of the second sample text?

Tanaka, take it easy, you are overreacting on issues of business secrets. We do have competition, but nothing yet like the cut-throat style you may have experienced in the IT industry. Of course, there might be those who try to throw a spanner in the works when we want to open a new shop on a busy street with good walk-in sales potential, but ours is still a new industry with enough business for everyone. We still have a couple of years before we are at each other's throats.

大上段に構え過ぎる Daijodan ni Kamaesugiru is to overreact. Daijoudan means the highest position, in this case, a sword raised to the highest position. Kamaeru is to take a stance and sugiru as suffix means excessive or too much. Literally "you raise your sword too high".

Of course, the sample texts are contrived to make excessive use of sword related idioms, so unless one is in martial arts and live with those terms, you will not encounter such words in this kind of density. However, every one of those expressions are very much alive today in daily conversation.