Re: Alphabet (you're a fish?)

From: "Eric Christopherson"

>  laokou wrote:
> > Sooseki's famous novel "I Am a Cat" is
> > Wagahai wa neko de aru
> > not
> > Wagahai ga neko de aru
> Wagahai?
Yep, wagahai. The characters in Chinese are "wo3bei4", which my dictionary
translates as "we". There *is* supposed to be some humor in the title, as
here is this little cat using such a highfalutin word for "I", I guess much
like using the imperial "we" in English ("We are a cat."). (Imperial "I" in
Japanese, though, is its own word, "chin", which I seriously doubt anyone
would use à la Americans pretending to be a disdainful Queen Victoria.)
Beyond this title, I never encountered "wagahai" elsewhere, written or
spoken, so I don't know to use it correctly, whether for humorous effect or
no.

Kou

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