Porcine iPS Cell Technology

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Scientific strides in stem cell technology from the isolation of mouse and human embryonic stem cells in 1981 to the successful cloning/birth of Dolly the sheep using somatic cell nuclear transfer technology in 1997 greatly demonstrated the benefits and potential of stem cell research to the field of bioinformatics.

The practical application and goal of stem cell research is widely seen as to replace old cells and organs by growing new cells and organs with the help of pluripotent cells. A cell that is pluripotent can, by nature, differentiate into all three primary germ layers, including the 220 different cell types in the adult body ; in short, a pluripotent cell, like playdough or plastic, can be meld into any shape or function that the body needs it to be.

The use of embryonic stem cells, given their pluripotency, was the logical first choice for stem cell research after its aforementioned discovery and isolation from mouse and human in the years 1981 and 1998 respectively, as the embryo can be seen as the building block of all mammalian creatures, and stem cells being the building blocks of those embryos . Ethical protests to stem cell research arose, however, after the successful isolation of the human embryonic stem cell, given the fact that live (in-vitro) human embryos would become casualties in order for scientists to be able to extract and manipulate them.

A possible solution to override the ethical issue of using human embryos to further understanding and application of stem cells was proposed in 2006 by a research team spearheaded by Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto Unversity, Japan. Yamanaka’s team generated the first murine sample of an induced pluripotent stem cell—an artificially pluripotent stem cell which was derived from non-emrbyonic genes (later adult somatic cell), which effectively eliminated the need to sacrifice live/in-vitro human embryos for the purpose of stem cell extraction . Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells reached what can arguably be called the zenith of its research in November of 2007, when Yamanaka’s team at Kyoto University and a separate research team spearheaded by Thomson and Yu at University of Wisconsin-Madison announced the creation of iPS cells from adult human cells.

Among the wide range of animals from which iPS cells have now been extracted, pigs are a model of special pre-clinical interest, due to the remarkably similar biology they share with humans in size, anatomy and physiology ; in fact, pigs have already made extensive contributions to medicine, as pig insulin is currently used to treat insulin, while pig heart valves are often used to replace degenerate human heart valves in transplant surgery . With further improvement and refinement of the technology, scientist hope that porcine iPS cells will aid in creating models for human genetic diseases, engineering organs for transplantation therapies, and maybe even in improving pig farming .

The technology behind iPS cell generation using porcine somatic cells was spearheaded by Duanqing Pei et al., who used a modified version of the current iPS protocol to generate stem cells from a Tibetan pig species ; Pei et. al infected somatic cells with integrating retroviral vectors designed to express four reprogramming genes of POU5F1, SOX2, cMYC and KLF4 , as opposed to the OCT3/4 used by Yamanaka et al., and the NANOG, OCT4, and LIN28 applied by Thomson et al. in their respective human iPS extraction experiments.

The perceived difficulties with porcine iPS cell research currently lie with the difficulty of producing porcine ES (embryonic stem) cells and the difficulty in choosing the appropriate pig strain, donor cell type for iPS . The procedure of extracting ES cells from porcine species are known to be increasingly difficult when compared to that of humans and mice as the epiblast—a tissue type derived from the inner cell mass from which human and mice ES cells are extracted—forms considerably later in pigs; research in which porcine donor cell type and strain type would be best fit for iPS is still inconclusive as of date (samples have only been extracted from the Tibetan pig and limited species of domesticated pigs), whereas it is understood that the choice of cell type and strain is known to influence reprogramming efficiency, at least in mice and humans .

Porcine induced Pluripotent Stem Cell technology, therefore, provides a viable alternative to human and murine iPS cell research, and perhaps even serves as a balanced center between the murine and the human as research models. Whereas the porcine iPS cells cannot possibly trump human iPS cells in future medical applications toward the human body, it still provides a better anatomical scale and model than that of the murine; whereas some ethical issues still linger when it comes to using humans as models of iPS cell research, pigs fall outside the perceived region of ethics as they are creatures that have been long domesticated by humans.

REFERENCES

1. Evans, M. J. and Kaufman, M. H. (1981) Establishment in culture of pluripotential cells from mouse embryos. Nature 292, 154-156

2. Wilmut, I.,Schnieke, A. E.,McWhir, J.,Kind, A. J., and Campbell, K. H. (1997) Viable offspring derived from fetal and adult mammalian cells. Nature 385, 810-813.

3. R. Ensenat-Waser, A. Pellicer, C. Simon (2009) Reprogrammed induced pluripotent stem cells: how suitable could they be in reproductive medicine? Fertility and Sterility 91, 971-974

4. Baker, M. (2007) Adult cells reprogrammed to pluripotency, without tumors. Nature Reports Stem Cells, Retrieved March 9, 2010

5. Ertelt, S. (2009) iPS Cells, An Embryonic Stem Cell Research Alternative, Make Major Advance. LifeNews, 2009-MAR-02, Retrieved March 6, 2010

6. Roberts RM, Telugu BP, Ezashi T (2009) Induced pluripotent stem cells from swine (Sus scrofa): why they may prove to be important. Cell Cycle 19, 3078-81

7. Hall V. (2008) Porcine embryonic stem cells: a possible source for cell replacement therapy. Stem Cell Review 4, 275-282.

8. Esteban, M. A.,Xu, J.,Yang, J.,Peng, M.,Qin, D.,Li, W.,Jiang, Z.,Chen, J.,Deng, K., and Zhong, M. ( 2009) Generation of induced pluripotent stem cell lines from Tibetan miniature pig. J. Biol. Chem. 284, 17634.

9. American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2009, June 22). Engineered Pig Stem Cells Bridge The Mouse-human Gap. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 9, 2010,

10. Vogel G, Holden C. (2007) Developmental biology. Field leaps forward with new stem cell advances. Science 5854, 1224-5

11. Esteban, M. A.,Peng, M.,Zhang, D.,Cai, J.,Yang, J.,Xu, J.,Lai, L.,Pei, D. (2010) Porcine induced pluripotent stem cells may bridge the gap between mouse and human iPS. IUMB Life. Retrieved March 4, 2010.

いま俺が一番必要とするのは…

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patience

ちょっと贅沢な即席ねこまんま

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requested by Tora

Ingredients

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1 canned tuna (or alternatively some saba or salmon), 1 bowl of rice, 1 tbsp of soysauce (or tsuyu), 1 tbsp of sesame oil, 1 raw egg and 1 packet of furikake.

Step 1

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add 1 tbsp of sesame oil and 1 tbsp of soysauce or tsuyu on to the rice. although soy sauce gives off a more stronger flavor in the end, i prefer tsuyu mainly because it tends to offer a more complex mix of flavors to the palate.

Step 2

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open up your can of tuna, salmon or saba, and drain the water or oil from the can. i find that the “tuna in oil” tend to lubricate better with the rice, but the “tuna in water” seem more chewy in the final product; my favorite fish to use is salmon since it lubricates well and tastes chewy at the same time.

Step 3

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dump your canned fish of choice on top of the rice bowl, spread it out evenly, and add a cracked egg on top of this mixture; a lot of westerners seem to have this stigma against eating raw eggs, but i’ve been doing it for over 23 years and i’m still alive without a single salmonella infection to date!

Step 4

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tear open the packet of furikake you set aside and sprinkle on top of your mixture. i’m a particular fan of かつお furikake so i tend to use the かつお flavor most of the times, but i’ve tried this with salmon flakes, plain sliced nori, gohandesuyo, or just plain katsuobushi and they’ve all worked out great.

Step 5

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mix well in bowl, and enjoy! i also recommend adding some miso soup as a side for a complete meal.

legality and legitimacy

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(still a work in progress)

prior to studying about the history of religion and its political aspects, i was born into a family of christian missionaries, and was for a short time part of a group which is now under investigation as a cult, tried studying the koran and also the lotus sutra (the eight-fold path, etc.)

but further introspection into the aforementioned historical and political aspects of religion (along with inspiration from my favorite legal theorist) has persuaded me that religion is no different from politics in that it serves as a tool of legitimization and assertion of power; a tool which relies on a fear of the unknown, mystical, and powerful.

before diving into the religion part of my argument, it is probably best to ease some qualms the last statement may have generated–or otherwise stated, “the government [those who exercise politics] may be powerful, but how are they unknown and mystical?”

although there are many possible reasons as to why people eventually abandon an anarchic way of life and decide to conform to the legal and social standards as set by each respective government, my opinion on it is simple: people are afraid of the government.

just as the founding minds of liberalism likened the government to a powerful mystical monster in the middle ages, even now in modern times the government remains but a powerful yet curious entity. although it is seemingly bound to a set of regulations and restrictions, it from time to time transcends those boundaries and asserts its supra-legality; although its stated purpose seems to be that serving the people that it reigns over as protector, its actions oftentimes only seems to benefit itself.

so what, then, gives the government the right to be so capricious? what is the source of the government’s legitimacy and why should it be respected? one theory states that it is because the government has the power to declare a sovereign exception (of the schmittian kind)–that is, the government has the power to suspend all other law to regulate or commit an action thought to be necessary. (see suspension of habeas corpus, state of emergency for details) although this theory may not seem all that scary, seeing as how there is a trend of thought that agrees with the idea that “the government does whatever it wants,” but once one is reminded that the government holds society’s monopoly on violence — that is, the government has a legal right to commit acts of violence and murder, whereas the layman does not — the idea becomes awfully terrifying.

and this is where we can draw the parallel between religion and politics; people, when concerned with the government, fear it because it is perfectly capable of arbitrarily depriving people of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. (government spying on its citizens for suspected terrorist activity; signing sedition acts for denizens in “suspect” of treason to country; the holocaust, as examples of arbitrary government policy) in the same way, people of the old, if one were to take the words of “holy scriptures” at face value, feared deities because they too, did in fact deprive people of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for seemingly arbitrary reasons (the 40-year torture of the israelites in exodus; the holocaust of jezebel’s “false prophets” committed by elisha; jesus’ damnation of the fig tree, to name a few christian references)

the reason why the word arbitrary is highlighted above is not to say that these acts by the ruling sovereign–whether he be god or the government–were completely capricious and unreasonable (although some may disagree on a few of the examples) but to say that these were acts that were considered legitimate by the government, and consequently by the people it was governing, although such legitimacy is objectively questionable.

let’s take for example the holocaust. the genocide of those with jewish ancestry was carried out by the third reich under hitler’s belief and desire of forming a pure aryan nation. under the guise of ultra-nationalism, hitler carried out a plan to expel the non-aryan populace from germany through methods and powers vested to him by the reich under the fabled enabling act. i claim hitler’s “method” of expulsion to be arbitrary because where a mass exile order punishable by death could have sufficed, he went a step further and opted for mass execution instead; the fact that his actions at the time were considered legitimate (legitimate defined here as “carried out by the government so at least considered legitimate”) and fulfilled despite an obvious lack of absolute reason to do so makes it arbitrary.

in religion, the phrase “god works in mysterious ways” seems to ease unsettling minds when the question of legitimacy of action is brought up.

now that the framework of how religion and politics can be considered similar in terms of legitimacy, it’s now time to explore instances where said similarity was deftly recognized and utilized for the purpose of gaining legitimacy — for this we can look into religion (or the lack thereof) in the japanese archipelago during its yayoi to heian periods for one example, and the shift of religion from paganism to christianity in the roman empire.

japan isn’t a country that’s normally considered to be religious and that is for a good reason — religion in ancient japan, rather than being a system of personal beliefs and moral righteousness that it is today, was a legitimizing force which conferred power upon those who were regarded as their figureheads. examples of this idea can be found within the traditional idea of “kami” in shintoism; the effect of shamanistic/shinto beliefs in the tomb and late asuka periods; and the effect of buddhism int he yamato/soga vendettas and the nara period.

people of the japanese archipelago from as early as the jomon and yayoi periods were said to have celebrated and worshipped the existence of “kami”–supernatural beings that were incomprehensible and inexplicable through methods of this world, who frequently communicated from other dimensions through intermediaries such as shamans and miko. evidence from the sannai maruyama ruins in the form of religious artifacts and relics found in the key-shaped tombs of the tomb period suggest that the utmost value was placed in items that were thought to be in any way pertaining to the “kami.”

more worshipped and cared after than the relics/treasures related to the “kami” were the representations of kami on earth, or intermediary beings that were thought to be closest to “kami” themselves; the most notorious of these being the shamans and the priestesses of the times. the influence of these intermediary beings were so great that they often assumed positions as heads of state (such as the fabled queen himiko) and so revered were their influence that they came to be used as a form of legitimization.

the yamato kingdom, which came to power during the tomb period, often altered their history to claim descendence from a lineage of “kami” and even established a system of clans (”uji” and “be“) which established a “kami” at the head of every clan. one legitimizing attempt by the faction in power saw the association of the yamato with the sun goddess amaterasu, while conferring their opposing clans with the status of being descendants of the malicious deity susanoo — this was later characterized as a fictitious battle of the “ise vs. izumo“; with the amaterasu-friendly ise faction being written off as victors and the original legitimate rulers of the land.

religion in the japanese archipelago shifted gears, albeit remaining within the same framework, with the advent of buddhism during the dawning years of the tomb period. religion again was not received as a system of personal/moral beliefs, but as again a tool of political influence: emperor kinmei, upon receiving buddhism as a gift from the kingdom of paekche apparently “leapt in joy” and was in reverence of the “magical powers” it possessed. although kinmei acknowledged the great powers and influence that could be wielded through buddhism, he feared the backlash of rebellion that might follow through the sudden adoption of this new religion, as the shamanistic/shinto influence at the time was still very great; a parallel perhaps, could be drawn to the council of nicaea, which aimed to secularize christianity after presenting and adopting it as the official religion of the roman empire.

kinmei instead charged the immigrant soga clan with experimenting and adopting the new religion, which soon after became a constant threat and a source of influence to the yamato “royal” clan. thus began a quasi-vendetta between the soga and its opposition forces on whose religion was to be regarded as supreme, with the end result being the amalgamation of the old shinto and the new buddhist in a process called honji suijaku which saw old shinto “kami” taking the form of buddhist gods and botthisavas–reified during the reign of suiko tenno and shotoku taishi during which buddhism enjoyed an elevated status as state religion.

even the status of “state religion” did not change the view of religion from that of a political tool–the governing body held the monopoly in all things religious (through a “department” of the government known as the jingikan) and laymen/commonfolk were prohibited from the study of the holy texts; the rise of “rogue missionaries” such as gyoki and the great popularity with which they were received suggests that religion at the time was still being used primarily as a means to confer authority to those who held the power to control and distribute it.

thus as seen in the three different japanese eras and the treatment of and in regards to religion in each, it cannot be denied that religion held a great stake in the amassing and conferring of political power in the archipelago–similar parallels can of course be drawn to the european middle ages, where a similar situation of an amalgated church and state brought forth similar results (see divine right of kings), and also where limited access to holy canonical texts provided the government with what almost seems like the relentless support from the people through the legitimacy that religion conferred upon them as its chief propagator/source. this charade continued both in japan and europe until a vulgarization of religion took place; in japan with the popularization of the kana/gana scripts and the “translation” and vulgarization of the holy scripts that took place in the late heian and kamakura periods — in europe with the protestant revolution and the closing of the elite-proletariat divide that took place soon after.

addendum:

as a mercantilist society emerged from the originally thought to be “self-sustaining” shōen estates of the kamakura period, the practice of making into business what was considered to be “evil” by the government—or to quote amino yoshihiko, practices that were related to the “magical powers of coinage and currency” —was booming. whereas the buddhism that was given rise by heavy government influence during the nara and heian periods simply propagated the political views of the government toward these “evils”, the new kamakura religions embraced these so-called “evils” with a forgiving eye, and preached universality while the old religions strictly called for condemnation.

the reason why the new kamakura religions took flight, therefore, was not because they were “easy” to understand and practice, but because unlike the buddhism of previous periods which mandated that all followers of the religion must adhere to a life of good-deeds, devoid of kegare, in order to throw oneself into a cycle of reincarnation in the hope of one day attaining buddhahood, the new “kamakura religions,” especially shinran, rennyo and nichiren, postulated that salvation without the complicated cycle of repeated births. furthermore, the new kamakura religions—rennyo in particular—also made it possible for women to achieve enlightenment and salvation, where previous beliefs in Buddhism stated that women were to cumulate good deeds in their current life cycle in hopes of being born male in their next life cycle; the rennyo faith specifically states that faith should be extended out to women as amida tathagata “made a vow to save women ” because of their evil karma, and even goes on further to sanction the marriage of priests [in charge of lodgings] contrary to the long-held idea that priests adhering to the buddhist faith should stay celibate.

another aspect of kamakura religion that earned them the admiration of the people was perhaps the fervency with which they were practiced. the nichiren sect, for example, challenged its believers to become like martyrs willing to give up their lives for faith, evident in the story of its founder nichiren, who accepted his execution order after slandering the imperial government for not heeding his words of impending doom in the face of mongolian invaders with joy, claiming that there could not be a “greater joy” than to die as a martyr. on a less fanatical note, the religious practices of the shinran sect also required a degree of fervency from its believers, as each believer was expected to chant the nembutsu until the moment they achieved shinjin [a state of a believing heart], even though the canonical script on the subject of nembutsu is divided on the frequency and the intensity with which one should chant the nembutsu (or in the words of shinran himself, at the moment when one achieves shinjin, one should be able to chant the nembutsu “without a doubt” )

therefore, the new kamakura religions gained the favor of the people not because they were in their entirety “easy to understand and practice,” but because they were best suited for the needs and the requirements of the times; whereas the government-sponsored buddhism called for a return to an agrarian lifestyle under the shogunate and soon-to-be feudal lords, the new kamakura religions and their doctrines of universality made it possible for people whose lifestyles and very livelihood depended on those things preached against by the government to live wholesome, fulfilling lives.

jfk, the linguist 続編

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an unfortunate tennis ball related accident on friday left my poor vgn-z750d crippled albeit in a temporarily usable shape. 24hrs later, the lcd screen on the z finally gave out, and half the screen was rendered unusable. my normal reaction to these things is to kick myself and mope for about a week, but seeing as how the instrument which in itself is the very essence of my sustenance was significantly compromised, i had to think quick.

a quick call to sony support (my old nemesis) revealed that the repairs would cost up to 700 dollars; weighing all my other alternatives, i decided that as costly as it is, this would be my only and best option at the moment, bit my lip and sent the laptop in for repairs.

but then came the question of what i were to do for the 2-3 weeks i’d be without a portable form of computing necessary for my work and research — i considered using the computers at work and solely relying on the computer labs there, but then i realized this would probably not become such a feasible option when i have to work late nights.

then the cliche “i’ll sleep on it” actually became of some use — waking up some 12 hours later, i realized that one solution would be to buy an interim computer, or a disposable computer of sorts which i could use until my computer comes back from repairs. then i realized that this would be the most opportune chance to buy myself a netbook and probably the only way to justify spending two and a half bills on yet another toy i probably don’t need.

so thanks again president kennedy, for your conveniently conventional words of wisdom, and allow me to introduce the newest member of the amano uji, the asus 1005ha:

aint she a beaut?

jfk, the linguist

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When written in Chinese, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

き‐き【危機】
大変なことになるかも知れないあやうい時や場合。危険な状態。「経済―」「―を脱する」

【危】
〔音〕キ、ギ
〔訓〕あぶない・あやうい・あやぶむ
〔意〕①あぶない。あやうい。不安定でくずれそうだ。「危険・危殆きたい・危篤・危害・安危」
   ②あやぶむ。不安に思う。「危惧きぐ」
   ③高い。けわしい。高くする。「危峰・危座」

【機】
〔音〕キ
〔訓〕はた
〔意〕①はた。はた織りの道具。「機織・機業・孟母断機」
   ②からくり。複雑なしかけ。細かいしくみ。「機械・機関・発動機・飛行機」。特に、「飛行機」の略。「機首・機長・搭乗機・三機編隊」
   ③細かいはたらき。「機能・機根・心機・有機・無機」
   ④他人にはうかがい知れない細かい事柄。「機微・機密・軍機」
   ⑤物事の起こるきっかけ。きざし。はずみ。しおどき。「機を見るに敏びんなり」「機が熟す」「機会・機先・機縁・時機・危機・臨機応変」

whereas many linguists will and have disagreed with the definitiveness of the former president’s remark (mainly under the pretense that the main lexical entry attributed to “機” in Chinese no longer equates to “opportunity”) i do agree with the sentiment that one should try to see more than the negative even in the most disadvantageous of situations.

life, after all, is too short to keep moping about things that are out of your control, is it not?

the lament of the legal scholar

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(work in progress)

philosophers and legal scholars alike have continuously plagued their mind through the ages over the idea of parens patriae, or the idea that the government should act as the “parent of a nation”; that it step in as the legal guardian or parent of its people where and when it is deemed necessary. although this idea in modern criminal law generally applies to child custody cases–where a child with no/indeterminate/inappropriate guardian is placed under the custody of government protection/intervention (i.e. social services)–the idea of the government presiding as a “parent” of its citizens when deemed necessary, or involuntarily making decisions regarding the welfare of its citizens where citizens are deemed unable to do so, is not an unfamiliar concept to the mind of any legal scholar.

whereas this issue can be further expanded to apply to other theoretical fields of legal and political science (i.e. the liberty vs. security debate, federalism vs. republicanism and etc.) and be elaborated upon in many articulate and florid ways pertinent to the field of law, one limerick of a “lighter vein” seems to explain this issue best:

My doctor has made a prognosis
That intercourse fosters thrombosis
But I’d rather expire
Fulfilling desire
Than abstain, and develop neurosis.

saudade

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ウィキペディアより

サウダージ(Saudade、サウダーヂあるいはサウダーデとも) は、郷愁、憧憬、思慕、切なさ、などの意味合いを持つ、ポルトガル語およびガリシア語の語彙。ポルトガル語、およびそれと極めて近い関係にあるガリシア語に独特の単語とされ、他の言語では一つの単語で言い表しづらい複雑なニュアンスを持つ。

There are other words in other languages which have a similar meaning. Saudade relates to the Italian malinconia, in which one feels an interior satisfaction because it is impossible to find something, but one never stops thinking that one is searching for it. It is an incompleteness that one unconsciously wants to never completely resolve. Saudade relates to the French regret, in which one feels a hard sentiment, meaning hardful, but in nostalgic sense. Saudade relates to the Spanish extrañar, in which one feels a missing part of oneself, which can never be completely filled by the thing you can’t have or get back. The word can also be translated by the Spanish expression “echar de menos”, which would be roughly an equivalent to the Portuguese one “ter saudades”, missing something or someone. The Greek word that comes close to translating saudade is νοσταλγία (nostalgia). Nostalgia also appears in the Portuguese language as in the many of other languages with a Indo-European origin, bearing the same meaning of the Greek word “νοσταλγία”. There is yet another word that, like ’saudade’, has no immediate translation in English: λαχτάρα (lakhtara). This word encompasses sadness, longing and hope, as ’saudade’ does.

In Albanian, a direct translation of saudade is the word mall, which encompasses feelings of passionate longing, sadness, and at the same time an undefined laughter from the same source. Other variations which give different nuances to this word are: pëmallim, përmallje, etc.

The Torlak dialect of Serbian has the expression that corresponds more closely to the Japanese and Greek examples below, but can be compared to saudade in a broader sense of longing for the past. It is жал за младос(т) / žal za mlados(t) i.e. “yearning for the bygone”; since the dialect has not been standardised as a written language it has various forms. The term and the concept has been popularised in standard Serbian through short prose and plays by Vranje born fin-de-siècle writer Borisav Stanković.

One translation of “saudade” into Dutch is weemoed; a fuzzy form of nostalgia. In the Romanian language, the word dor bears a close meaning to “saudade”. It can also stand for “love” or “desire” having a derivation in the noun dorinţă and the verb dori, both of them being translated usually by “wish” and “to wish”. However, although the word dor has a complex meaning, it still does not encompass the full meaning of “saudade”. Dor is derived from the Latin dolus (”pain”), the same root as the Portuguese word dor, also meaning “pain”. In Welsh, Saudade is said to be the only exact equivalent of the Welsh hiraeth and the Cornish hireth. Esperanto borrows the word directly, changing the spelling to accommodate Esperanto grammar, as saŭdado.

The Finnish language has a word whose meaning corresponds very closely with saudade: kaiho. Kaiho means a state of involuntary solitude in which the subject feels incompleteness and yearns for something unattainable or extremely difficult and tedious to attain. Ironically, the sentiment of kaiho is central to the Finnish tango, in stark contrast to the Argentine tango, which is predominantly sensuous. There is a religious context for kaiho in Finland as well; a sect of herännäiset or körttiläiset more familiarly, has central to their faith a kaiho towards Sion, a unity of faith, and a connection with God, permeating their central book, Siionin Virret (Hymns of Sion). However, saudade does not involve tediousness. Rather, the feeling of saudade accentuates itself: the more one thinks about the loved person or object, the more one feels saudade. The feeling can even be creative, as one strives to fill in what is missing with something else or to recover it altogether.

In Korean, keurium (그리움) is probably closest to saudade. It reflects a yearning for anything that has left a deep impression in the heart – a memory, a place, a person, etc. In Japan, saudade expresses a concept similar to the Japanese word natsukashii. Although commonly translated as “dear, beloved, or sweet,” in modern conversational Japanese natsukashii can be used to express a longing for the past. It connotes both happiness for the fondness of that memory and goodness of that time, as well as sadness that it is no longer. It is an adjective for which there is no quite fitting English translation. It can also mean “sentimental,” and is a wistful emotion. The character used to write natsukashii can also be read as futokoro 懐 [ふところ] and means “bosom,” referring to the depth and intensity of this emotion that can even be experienced as a physical feeling or pang in one’s chest~ a broken heart, or a heart feeling moved.

In Armenian, “Saudade” is represented by “կարոտ” (karot) that describes the deep feeling of missing of something or somebody.

The Arabic synonym for Saudade is وجد (Wajd), a state of transparent sadness caused by the memory of a loved one who is not near, it’s widely used in ancient Arabic poetry to describe the state of the lover’s heart as he or she remembers the long gone love. It’s a mixed emotion of sadness for the loss, and happiness for having had loved that person. In Turkish, the feeling of saudade is somewhat similar to hüzün[citation needed].

In Ithkuil, the root x-ḑ is equivalent to saudade.

ter saudades da sua terra (da pátria)
to be homesick;

matar saudades
to cheer oneself by the sight of someone or something one longs for;

dê-lhe saudades minhas
remember me to him;

tenho muitas saudades dele
I long to see him, I miss him very much;

deixou muitas saudades a todos
his going away was regretted by all, everybody misses him

サウダージ

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the story

私は私を、はぐれる訳にはいかないから
いつかまた逢いましょう。その日までサヨナラ恋心よ

嘘をつくぐらいなら、何も話してくれなくていい
あなたは去っていくの、それだけは わかっているから
見つめあった私は、可愛い女じゃなかったね
せめて最後は笑顔で飾らせて

涙が悲しみを溶かして、溢れるものだとしたら
その滴も、もう一度飲みほしてしまいたい
凛とした痛み胸に、留まり続ける限り
あなたを忘れずにいられるでしょう

許してね恋心よ、甘い夢は波にさらわれたの
いつかまた逢いましょう。その日までサヨナラ恋心よ

時を重ねるごとに、ひとつずつあなたを知っていって
さらに時を重ねて、ひとつずつわからなくなって
愛が消えていくのを、夕日に例えてみたりして
そこに確かに残る サウダージ

想いを紡いだ言葉まで、影を背負わすのならば
海の底で物言わぬ貝になりたい
誰にも邪魔をされずに、海に帰れたらいいのに
あなたをひっそりと思い出させて

諦めて恋心よ、青い期待は私を切り裂くだけ
あの人に伝えて、、、寂しい、、、大丈夫、、、寂しい

繰り返されるよくある話
出逢いと別れ 泣くも笑うも好きも嫌いも

許してね恋心よ、甘い夢は波にさらわれたの
いつかまた逢いましょう。その日までサヨナラ恋心よ

あなたのそばでは、永遠を確かに感じたから
夜空を焦がして、私は生きたわ恋心と

I can’t keep misleading myself
so farewell, o love, until that someday when we meet again

I’d rather you not talk to me if you’re just going to lie
because the fact of the matter is, you’re moving on
the girl that was staring back at me was no longer a lovely woman
at least let me savor our end with a smile

If tears could overflow and melt sadness
I wish I could drink those drops
I’ll never be able to forget you
as long as this dignified pain continues to pile up in my heart

Forgive me, o love, my sweet dreams have been washed away with the waves
so farewell, o love, until that someday when we meet again

With each passage of time, I learn about you more
and with each passage of time, I’m confused about you more
For some reason I try to compare the fading of love to the evening sun
as a certain saudade remains in my heart

If I could absolve responsibility for words that spur emotions in my heart
I’d become like a mute clam that lives in the bottom of the ocean
I wish I could go back to the ocean without being bothered by anyone
Let me quietly think of you

Forgive me, o love, your naive expectations only keep tearing me apart
Please tell her… I’m lonely…. I’m okay… I’m lonely.

The classic story repeats itself
Hellos and Good-byes, tears and laughters, love and hate

Forgive me, o love, my sweet dreams have been washed away with the waves
so farewell, o love, until that someday when we meet again

I felt the certain existence of eternity next to you
so let me singe the starry sky in my heart, as I have lived with love in my heart

M-1グランプリ2009決勝戦名言集

no comments

「不運なことにジーコに遭いまして、一年間ロカビリー生活を過ごしました。」
ナイツ 塙
ヤホーのちょいアップグレードバージョンの感じ。やっぱナイツの音ボケは何回聞いても飽きない。

「心の辞書開いてみたら『殺意』と書いていた」
南海キャンディーズ 山里
山ちゃんキモッ!けどたまにはいいこと言うw

忘れ物を取りに来ました」
東京ダイナマイト ハチミツ二郎
昔からあんまり好きではなかったんだけど、この一言はめちゃくちゃ格好良かった!と言っても本番のネタはいまいち~

日本ハムは?!」
「仲間の選手のチンポジ羨ましがるな!」
笑い飯 西田
「鳥人」でいいとこまで来たのにネタのチョイスミスで惜しくも脱落な感じ?今年まで毎年最後の最後まで来てすべてると言うか… いい加減優勝してくれや!

「控え目のフック」
ハライチ 岩井
予想外な実力。ボケの方ちょっと成宮に似てるかな?

「お宅のテレビがうるさくてね、うちの掃除機の音が聞こえないんですよ!」
「まったくこれだから、最近の同世代は」
パンクブーブー 黒瀬
レッドカーペットか他番組で一回戦のネタみたことある気がする。面白いのは認めるがサンドイッチマンの時と同じほど納得いかない優勝。はっきり言ってNON STYLE井上の気持悪さと笑い飯のネタチョイスミスがなかったら優勝はなかったかも。

「百年後:この野郎~」
NON STYLE 石田
去年の王者がそのまんま再挑戦して来ると言うインチキなパターンに関わらず一回戦のネタはめっちゃウケ。敗者復活での同じネタで最終決戦までいけるなんすごいと思う。だとしても、井上嫌い。伸助さんの「フリートークは下手」にめっちゃワロタ。

ちなみに、NON STYLEのwikiに行ってみると石田に関しては呆れるほど詳しく書いてあるのに井上に対しては

ツッコミ担当。身長165cm、体重63kg、B84cm、W66cm、H89cm、F25cm。神戸学院大学経済学部卒

だけ。

そろそろ自分の気色悪さに思い知ってほしい。

あと最終結果発表寸前の「今年もCMの後です」もいい加減やめてほしい!