Awesome Foreign Word of the Day: Mono No Aware

Mono no aware 物の哀れ (Japanese): literally meaning ‘the pathos of things’, mono no aware is a term used to describe the awareness of the impermanence of all things and the gentles sadness one feels at their passing.
Prononciation: moh-no no ah-wah-ray

Imagine if ‘mono-no-aware’ and Ya’aburnee had a linguistic love child. Imagine it. It would be the most beautiful word this world has ever seen; this word would be so powerful and full of tiger blood the masses would have coronaries at the mere whisper of the word.

It’s impending marriage to ya’aburnee aside, this word expresses that wistful feeling one experiences as ‘all good things come to an end.’ It describes that intense awareness one experiences as moment as it slips by. One example is Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu’s ending a film with a character saying ‘ii tenki desu ne’, meaning, ‘fine weather, isn’t it?’ during the paradigm shift or climax.

Unfortunately, my own life is nowhere near as epic as a Yasujiro Ozu film or a Haruki Murakami novel. I have to settle for moments that look something like this:

You: It’s too bad your flying privileges were revoked after that whole ‘free-pretzels-and-headphones’ rebellion you tried to start …
Me: *looks wistfully up at the sky, giving a heavy sigh* I’m a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
The End.

*Corrected pronunciation - i might have been crazy when I wrote this.