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　　Now,/let me tell you about a personal experience.// When I was a student in Kyoto,/I often visited temples and shrines.// I was wondering/what makes Japanese gardens attractive.// I remembered being told/that the essence of Japanese gardens is wabi-sabi.// I didn’t know what exactly this expression meant,/so I consulted my dictionary.//
　　Wabi-sabi  was defined as “elegant simplicity.”// And a more detailed explanation followed:/“Wabi  and sabi  are the highest aesthetic values/in traditional Japanese arts.// They refer to a sense of quiet sadness/and the encouragement of simplicity.”// I felt like I was lost in a deep cloud.// The concept was too complex/for me to understand.// But years later,/as I sat on the wooden veranda of a temple,/looking out at the garden,/I thought I finally had a sense of wabi-sabi.//
　　This episode shows/that it is often very difficult,/if not impossible,/to translate some concepts/from one language into another.// This is true/not only for an abstract concept,/but also for commonly used expressions in Japanese.// How about mottainai,/shikataganai,/otsukaresama,/itadakimasu,/and itsumo osewa ni natteimasu ?// See if you can find/equivalent expressions in English,/or ask your bilingual friends/if they are around.//