Any Update on Ken?

calkins

January 31, 2010, 11:18 PM posted in General Discussion

Can someone at Cpod shed some light on how Ken is doing? I decided to create a new post for this, to get away from the "negative publicity" of the original post about the issue. I would just like to know, as I'm sure others would, if Cpod staff (or anyone for that matter) has an update on how Ken is doing. I see he is still on the "Team" page, so hopefully that is a good sign. Will he eventually return to the team?

Here's my post from the other thread:

I've been wondering (worrying) lately, "Why haven't we heard anything about Ken?". It's been a month and a half since this all went down and there's no update.

That just seems strange to me, as Cpod was Ken's baby. Can anyone at Cpod comment on how he is doing, if he's alright, etc.? I'm sure many users would like to know. I still can't understand why Cpod would want to distance itself from him, after all he gave to the company.

If anyone has any news (hopefully good), please share.

changye

February 01, 2010, 12:44 AM

There is a Japanese saying "武士の情け", which literally means "Samurai's mercy". In this case, it might be perhaps translated as "better left unasked" or something like that. I hope that zhenlijiang would show us a much better translation/explanation of the saying.

xiaophil

I don't know if "better left unasked" is the best translation, but its meaning is clear.

Tal

I don't know anything about Ken, but 'Samurai's Mercy' sounds like one hell of a great name for a rock band!

bodawei

I am intrigued by the connection between 'Samurai's Mercy' and 'better left unasked'. I imagine that Samurai are not renowned for mercy, so this might be ironic. Do Samurai normally shoot first and ask questions later? Their form of mercy may be to ask questions and then shoot. In which case the question was better left unasked (just prolonging the inevitable.)

Or is this question 'better left unasked'? Changye? Zhenlijiang?

zhenlijiang

不是不是！(haha, sorry for the pun. couldn't quite resist that one.) Not ironic, no. Samurai (武士 bushi) are all about honor. They live and die by that. They would rather die, than be caught destroying another just because they can, if that person is currently unable to defend himself, is obviously too weak to. But that might be construed to mean that Ken is somehow an opponent or foe, or that he is in such a state of weakness, which isn't Changye's intent of course. He means that perhaps (besides the likelihood that there is no news to give) silence is CPod's way of showing Ken the respect they feel he deserves as a peer.

I don't mean to add to any speculation here. Just hope that helps explain somewhat re "samurai's mercy", which FYI is a translation I dislike intensely.

Oh and also (you know this of course), samurai don't shoot. That would be unthinkably dishonorable, to try to bring down your opponent from a distance, to try to do so without ever getting close enough to him to be spattered with his blood even if you do win the match.

bodawei

Well Zhen, thanks for that. I am humbled (not an infrequent experience.) Yes, I think I see now how 'Samurai's Mercy' may imply silence in this case; that ChinesePod is giving Ken respect by not saying anything. Actually 'better left unsaid' is not a good translation for this message (apologies to Changye.) In the West (and possibly most poddies are Westerners) this implies I think something other than respect. Because in the West it might be considered more respectful to lay out the facts, to clear the air so to speak (we are SO predictable, no?) I note that you also do not like the Samurai-style mercy translation - so ... we're all just going to have to learn Japanese!

I'm starting with 不是不是不是 - I will look out for this when next watching a Japanese film. Pun indeed - this is language learning..

zhenlijiang

Well yes, I saw Changye's comment in which he named me to come up and give a translation/explanation and thought--oh no. Of course it was problematic. And no dictionary I have has a good translation for 武士の情け either. I would think Inazo Nitobe's book (obviously I have not read it) Bushido would have a good one.

Sorry Calkins for taking up space here.

changye

Hi zhenlijiang

Thanks a lot for your to-the-point explanation on the saying, as I expected. Actually, I also think that "武士の情け" is rather difficult to translate into foreign languages, so the best way would be explaining it, but not translating it.

By the way, this time, your おやじ(?)ギャグ, 不是不是, is fairly hilarious. I should have come up with that. I tip my hat to you, hehe!

zhenlijiang

Oh no, a guarantee from the meister himself.
I think what it's saying is that 武士, although unless I'm mistaken many samurai were mercenaries, were never killing machines. They were always human, had the 情け. If you lost that, then you ceased to be a samurai, lost that honor.

Tal

Ah so, all I can add is some very fine Samurai underpants.

Wearing these one should certainly show no mercy, (nor be given any.) Let me have your address Ken, and I'll send you a pair. XXL, right?

武士 is wǔshì though isn't it?

pretzellogic

I suppose it makes sense to ask this question if, periodically, Ken himself checks into the site to see what's going on, and then seeing that people ask about him and his whereabouts, he can weigh in if he wants. It's understandable why Cpod might not want to mention anything about Ken's whereabouts for reasons mentioned here. The way the site posts comments, the only way to keep the question of "how are you doing Ken?" in front of him is to periodically post the question.

My take is that Ken will post directly on the site if he wants to talk to Cpod users. He certainly knows how to.

zhenlijiang

"... have your girl getting geisha on you"--? That is truly awful. Actually what I've heard of these 内裤 is that 歴女 reki-jo, that is young women who are 'into 歴史 rekishi, history (which really means our Warring States period in the 15th-16th century and all the feudal generals 戦国武将 sengoku busho)' and spend their free time visiting fortresses, castles and battlegrounds, reading historical novels, playing RPGs and partaking in discussions with fellow fans to gush about their favorite hero--they're the ones buying them, the ones with their favorite general's family crest. Yeah I know, Japan is weird. I don't, like understand it all, or anything.
武士 is bushi if you're speaking Japanese, wǔshì if you're speaking Mandarin.

Sorry Calkins. (>_<)

changye

Err.. it seems I'm responsible for the disgression, hehe.

bodawei

Changye - please don't take credit where it is not deserved! Your initial comment was pretty much right on topic as far as I can see. It was that rebel Tal that really got us off course. I naturally cannot help myself and will follow any loose end - sorry Calkins.