How are you today?
Thank you for checking out the Japanese Proverb series.

I hope you are learning something new from this post. This is the 2nd Japanese proverb I chose for you.
The 1st proverb I chose is here.

Let’s start! 始めましょう!(hajimemashou!)

What does ’Chiri mo tsumoreba yama to naru’ 「塵も積もれば山となる」 mean in English?

The translation in English will be ‘Even dust, piled up, can become a mountain’.

Some other similar English proverbs are ‘Many a little makes a mickle’, ‘Light gains make heavy purses’, ‘Many drops make a shower’, and ‘Every little helps’.

The philosophy behind is similar to my previous post ‘Senri no michi mo ippo kara'(千里の道も一歩から).

The difference is,  the ‘Senri no michi mo ippo kara'(千里の道も一歩から) focuses on starting the work, though ‘Chiri mo tsumoreba yama to naru’ (塵も積もれば山となる) focuses on the process toward your goal.

Where did it originally come from?

It is related to Buddhism. Its origin is from a Buddhist treatise called Daichido-ron(大智度論).
Later in Edo period(Wikipedia)(江戸時代 1603-1868AC), ‘Chiri mo tsumoreba yama to naru’ was used in Iroha Karuta, Japanese playing cards(Wikipedia).

 

Let’s break them down word by word!

塵(chiri, ちり) – dust, dirt

Chiri is a word in Japanese for fine dust.

As for dust and trash, we have words such as:

埃   hokori, dust

ほこっりっぽい  hokorippoi, dusty

ごみ gomi, garbage, trash, rubbish,

ごみ箱  gomibako,  a trash can, a dustbin

くず kuzu, litter

汚れ  yogore, dirt, a stain, a smudge

Some of you may ask what’s the difference between ちり(chiri) and ほこり(hokori), the difference is the size.
ちり(chiri) is something you can gather them with a dustpan. ほこり(hokori) is something you cannot clean unless you wipe them.🧹

も(mo) – too, also, as well

Mo is a Japanese particle meaning ‘too’, ‘also’.

積もれば(tsumoreba, つもれば) – if it piles up

積もる(tsumoru) is a verb, meaning ‘to pile up’

reba in the conjugation shows us it’s a conditional form in Japanese.

I’m preparing a blog post about ‘The basic in Japanese conditional form’ on September (2020) 

The kanji 積 can be read as seki or sse!

山(yama, やま ) – a mountain

It means a mountain! The Kanji 山 is one of the first Kanjis Japanese children learn in an elementary school!🗻

となる(to naru) – to become

Tonaru (となる) means ‘to become’.

You are right, we are more familiar with になる(ni naru) which also means ‘to become’.
I will make a post about ‘What’s the difference between になる(ni naru) and となる(to naru)?’ soon!

 

Did you learn something new? I hope you did. 😀