What do the words mean?

Blog entry for April 2014

Uma-ku-iku
Details of this puzzle

Someone asked if I could translate the words on the puzzle on the right, so here we are. This is this year's pun: it is the year of the horse (uma)...

Since this is written vertically (as almost all traditional writing is), read the columns from right to left, numbered 1 to 8.

Well, no-one said translating poetry is easy! It is very hard to convey the warmth of words, as opposed to their superficial meaning. But anyway, see how lines 3 and 4 repeat the uma-ku-iku pun to make sure no-one misses it: "Horse-nine-go / well (umaku) - go."

We are increasing the range of puzzles like this: collected together on this page: Art with words. I will always try to add some explanation, but I'm afraid it not always possible to provide a neat and complete translation. Remember that you can find out an amazing amount from Wiktionary — just paste Japanese words into the box, and with luck you will get an English explanation.