To storm a fortress

[ewx]

I'm finding it quite a struggle to get to Karate three times a week at the moment, partly directly because of the heat and partly through general tiredness (which the heat probably isn't helping with). Nonetheless I managed to get there today, and Wednesday is the one that usually falls first since it's furtherst away, so it's looking like I'll manage the three this week at least.

We've been learning a new kata, Bassai Dai, which feels fairly different to me from most of the previous ones we've done (though there are the odd points of similarity here and there). At the start of this evening's lesson I couldn't really remember any of it, by the end I was beginning to make some sense of stretches of it.

Comments

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

"To storm a fortress"?

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Translation of Bassai Dai given in one of my Karate books. The web suggests other translations may be more popular, but I thought that one sounded better as a title.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Ah, of course. Doh. And I heartily applaud your translation style; the spirit of the phrase is obviously more important to the kata than the literal meaning :)

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

In addition to learning Bassai Dai, I'm also learning Kanku Dai (Dai means greater by the way...). And that means "To view the sky". Which is really odd because, other than the very first move (where you do indeed look up, but without moving your head), it would be a really bad idea to do much looking at the sky: you're far better off looking at your opponents instead.

I'm not sure if there is any viewing of the sky at all in the viewing of the sky (lesser) kata, Kanku sho. Which is a much more senior kata, so we won't do it for a year or two yet!

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

My first thought was "If 'Bassai Dai' means 'storming of the castle' and 'dai' greater, then 'bassai' must mean 'nearly storming a castle but not quite'. Wow, those people had a word for *everything*"

But then I read the rest of the paragraph and got it.

Hmmm. Of course, it's presumably more of a mnemonic than a definition.

[naath.livejournal.com]

Does your karate class have a spare fortress to practice on?

It is Too Damn Hot *flop*.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

No fortresses were harmed in the making of this kata.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't do Bassai Dai like in that video clip in front of sensei.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I noticed a few bits that I thought were different, too. But variations in style are no longer news to me...

[gareth-rees.livejournal.com]

My dictionary translates bassai (伐採) as "lumbering; felling; deforestation." dai (大) is just "big". So maybe "big timberrr!!" would be a good idiomatic English translation…