L8 Flashcards
川
STREAM // flows like water like character, by Chinese doesn’t allow wavey lines sadly (just a little-un, not bigger) / flood
州
STATE // drops of land form like silt islands in the river, and state lines are drawn between them in water
顺
OBEY // stream… head… does one obey the head? or the stream of public opinion? One must obey one or the other!
水
WATER // walking stick dropped into water splashed everywhere / water 氵 / snowflake 氺
永
ETERNITY // William Blake saw “infinity in a grain of sand and eternity in an hour”, while here we have sod all in sand and eternity in a drop of water
脉
BLOOD VESSELS // if you were to lay someone’s blood vessels in a line, they would stretch to eternity. you’d have to rip them from the flesh, though! yuck, nasty.
求
REQUEST // “We request your presence” a formal invitation to the wedding of of Mrs Snowflake and Mr DripDrop
泉
SPRING // a bubbling spring, with fresh white water atop it
原
FLATLANDS // “The flatlands are alive with the sound of music”, as she skips through springs before halting at a cliff face
泳
SWIM // absolute bliss, water for eternity swimming into the sun
洲
CONTINENT // continents are regions seperated by great bodies of water
沼
MARSH // marshes summon water to their land, but alas, soon they are over-run with bog!
沙
SAND // the sister character of ‘gravel’ but here water has created finer particles. You wouldn’t be able to walk barefoot on it, by the watery sea otherwise, would you?
江
YANGTZE // China’s mississippe, the girder is actually Huck’s raft, and it’s a working river too.
汁
JUICE // needle juice, diluted with water. Excruciating.
潮
TIDE // like in algebra, do the grouping first to make this ‘water’ + ‘dynasty’. Imagine the ebb and flow of tides as matching the rise and fall of dynasties.
源
SOURCE // water + flatlands. under the arid flatlands lies the source of water… better dig down to in.
活
LIVELY // at a bangin’ lively party, tongues babble like splashing water
消
EXTINGUISH // in fighting the fire, accuracy is key and here each spark is individually targeted by water / disappear / vanish
河
RIVER // upgrade from ‘stream’. The ‘little engine that could’ has become amphibious and is heading upriver, puffing spikes out still.
鱼
FISH // Fisherman catches and binds up a fish, gets home and chucks its head on rive field and the rest on his floor for the cat. Bind, field, floor.
渔
FISHING // adding a pre-step to ‘fish’, the unsuspecting fish is swimming around obliviously in water.
湖
LAKE // a legend, people whose flesh is old get cast out accross the water, a life-ending lake
测
FATHOM // the rules that surveyors use require a wooden measure, used to fathom the depths of water
土
SOIL // not a pictograph, but just remember it, eh??
均
EQUAL // Soil is ladled up into equal portions for each person to plant in. “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than other” said the uniformed pigs
肚
BELLY // which fleshy part of one’s belly looks most like a mound of soil…?
尘
DUST // a small piece of soil. Imagine trying to fill a plant pot with that!
填
FILL IN // when you fill in a form, you need to provide true information. don’t you? But actually, f*** them, being all nosy and asking for your P60, send back the form with a shovel of soil in the envelope!
吐
SPIT // If you had a mouth full of soil, you’d spit..!
压
PRESSURE // at the whitby cliffs, the slightest drop of extra pressure (lots of soil makes pressure), would be catastrophic. particularly at cliffs, though.
圭
>> BRICKS >> Pile up mud bricks to make a wall.
哇
WHAAAA // cry out, like the tumble of bricks from one’s mouth / vomit / wow
寸
CHINESE INCH // just under 1 1/3 english inches, or a tenth of a chinese foot. A drop of 10!
/ glue – V frequent!
封
SEAL // Instead of using hot wax to glue the letter seal, you use an unbreakable brick. Thoughtful, if a tad pricey to post.
时
TIME // time is fixed and constant, it’s as if a clock is literally glued to the sun
寺
BUDDHIST TEMPLE // so fervant is the sentiment of some monks that they would physically glue their feet to the soil of temples
火
FIRE // pictography, like a bloke on fire.
/ also appears as cooking fire like in 点
灭
DESTROY // a fire raises its eyes to the ceiling, with intent to destroy the very room you’re in! yipes, the flames are licking the roof tiles
灰
ASHES // after the fire, carry a bucket of ashes by your side until they scatter afar
烦
VEXED // when vexed, one feels ‘really burned out’ as if your head is on fire
炎
INFLAMMATION // fire belongs in the fireplace, not above it. if it’s over the fireplace, there’s a danger of the whole place being inflamed.
淡
THIN // fire and water dilute each other, or thin each other out
灯
LAMP // it’s tough to read by the fireplace, so our ancestors invented a way of nailing down fire into a neat lamp
点
SPOT // a witch can use the spots in a cooking fire to tall fortunes
照
ILLUMINATE // to make something obscure (say, clay) more evident, one has to cook it in fire (kiln) to make a shiny, very visible pot. Illuminating chefs’ lives.
