Of green sky and blue oceans

[ljwrites]

This article about different perceptions of color by culture, jumping off from the Homeric texts that describe wine-dark seas and cornflower hair, got me thinking about the language and perceptions of color in Korean culture that I had almost given up on expressing in English. Korea has no native word for "green," you see, but rather uses "blue" to describe the sky, the forests, and the ocean alike. We had to borrow the Chinese word for green in order to separate it out linguistically, so it felt weird to have Korean characters who don't even know Chinese to think of and use the word "green." On the other hand, I thought, it would feel odd for English-language readers to see forests and leaves described as "blue." For that matter, Koreans call hair with a slight brown/yellowish sheen "yellow" which would call to mind blond hair for many English speakers but is actually still dark brown hair. But hey, if Homer can get away with wine-colored seas, why can't I ha ve blue forests and brown yellow hair, right?

Comments

[asya_ana]

This is really interesting! I did not know that about green.

[redrikki]

That was a deeply cool article. Thank you for sharing it. I'd heard a bit before about how different cultures see colors differently based on what has a name, but I knew nothing about ancient Greek color sense, let alone Korean.

[loopy777]

Color is broken. We should all just stop using it.

That should simplifying buy cars, at least.

Pantone has <strong>an</strong> answer.

[jesse_the_k]

Before computers, I worked in a "quick print" shop. Our press operators would use the Pantone system to mix inks to a standard color spec. The Pantone system was pricey--we had to buy new color palettes every year since the sun would fade their accuracy.

But your approach is much more poetic.

[lb_lee]

Japanese also has the blue/green thing! (Though they DO seem to have a non-Chinese derived word for "green," but the one for blue seems more common, and I'm not sure of the exact etymology or history.)

--someone (Sneak?)

[dhampyresa]

Fucking go for it, buddy.

I admit to having a similar dilemna when writing Breton inspired stuff, since Breton also doesn't blue/green (caveat).

A blue forest would make me think it was pine though, as pine needles are blue-ish.

[minoanmiss]

*reads and contemplates*

I would be tempted towards simile ("a spring forest like a vast bowl of lettuce" instead of "a bright green spring forest") but I should have gone to bed an hour ago so I may not be the best judge.

[second_evtales]

That article is top quality and it's really interesting to learn about the colourscapes of different cultures.
Thanks for sharing your blue forests with us.