忘 | wàng | wáng

In Mandarin Chinese, 忘 (Pinyin: wàng 🔊 or wáng 🔊) means “to forget”.

According to Wiktionary, 忘 is both phono-semantic and ideogrammic compound:

phonetic 亡 (OC *maŋ, “to lose, disappear, flee”) + semantic 心 (“heart”).

Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

As per 亡 (obscure) + 心 heart/emotions → obscure state of mind, in the form of forgetfulness or overlooking something → forget; overlook; leave behind.

As forgetting usually has negative connotations, 忘 is often found in combination with 不 “not”: 不忘 (bù wàng), “don’t forget”:

• 念 + 念 + 不 + 忘 = 念念不忘 (niàn niàn bù wàng): to keep in mind constantly; to never forget
• 永 + 志 + 不 + 忘 = 永志不忘 (yǒng zhì bù wàng): to remember forever and never forget
• 安 + 不 + 忘 + 危 = 安不忘危 (ān bù wàng wēi): to be mindful of possible danger in time of peace

But why should it have negative connotations? One of my university professors used to call the ability to forget a golden feature of our brain. Without it, our memories, to quote Funes the Memorious, would be “like a garbage heap”. Not only that. In his Nobel Lecture, Elie Wiesel said:

it is surely human to forget, even to want to forget. The Ancients saw it as a divine gift. Indeed if memory helps us to survive, forgetting allows us to go on living.

Like other hanzi with 心 in the lower part (思, 想, 念, 意, 息), 忘 reminds me of a sailship.

Other compounds of 忘 include

• 忘 + 我 = 忘我 (wàngwǒ): selfless
• 忘 + 年 = 忘年 (wàngnián): to disregard age
• 忘年 + 交 = 忘年交 (wàngniánjiāo): friend despite the difference in age
• 勿 + 忘 + 草 = 勿忘草 (wùwàngcǎo): forget-me-not

Haiku time! In Japanese, the verb “to forget” is 忘れる (わすれる), wasureru. Here are three haiku where you can see the stem 忘れ, wasure:

燕や 何を忘れて 中がへり 乙由 Tsubakuro ya nani wo wasurete chūgaeri The swallow Turns a somersault; What has it forgotten? Otsuyu 長閑さや 早き月日を 忘れたり 太祇 Nodokasa ya hayaki tsukihi wo wasuretari Calm days, The swift years Forgotten. Taigi 忘れ草は 咲󠄁けど忘れね 昔哉 諸九尼 Wasuregusa wa sakedo wasurenu mukashi kana The forget-me-not is blooming; But the things of long ago, — How can I forget them? Shokyū-ni * (All haiku translated by R.H. Blyth)

More photos related to thought, day-lily, forget-me-not, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

*

In Blyth’s book (Haiku vol. 3, Summer—Autumn, Hokuseido Press, 1952, p. 313), this haiku appears as わすれ草は咲󠄁けどわすれね昔哉 For the purposes of this post, I took the liberty to replace わす with 忘. Blyth also writes in a footnote to the word “forget-me-not” (ibid., p. 314): The Japanese is a “forget-me” flower, the day-lily. In other words, 忘れ草, which Blyth translated as “forget-me-not”, is a completely different flower, Hemerocallis fulva. Shokyū-ni (1714—1781) probably wasn’t even aware of the European forget-me-not, Myosotis sylvatica. According to Wiktionary, the word 忘れな草 (wasurenagusa), a calque of English forget-me-not, was first attested in 1913. So it seems that, for the benefit of English readers, Blyth radically changed the meaning of the haiku. It really should be The “forget-me” flower is blooming; But the things of long ago, — How can I forget them? This makes much more sense.

念 | niàn

In Mandarin Chinese, 念 (Pinyin: niàn 🔊) is a word with many meanings. As a verb, it can mean “to miss”, “to long for”, “to think of”, “to recall”, “to consider”, “to contemplate”, “to worry”, “to be anxious about”, “to feel compassion for”, “to show affection for”, “to commemorate”, “to pay tribute to”, as well as “to study”, “to learn”, “to read aloud” or “to chant”. As a noun, it can mean “idea”, “thought” or “memory”.

Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

As per 今 (contain) + 心 heart/emotions → thought/idea contained deep within the heart (compare 意) → caution (← profound idea).

Once again, Howell mentions the meaning “contain”, this time for 今. However, 今 really means “current”, “now”, “present”. On the other hand, 含, itself a phono-semantic compound of 今 and 口, in addition to its original sense “to keep in the mouth”, can indeed mean “to contain”, “to harbor”, etc. Could it be that 口 “mouth” in 含 simply got replaced with 心 “heart”, so 含 “to keep in the mouth” → 念 “to keep in the heart”?

Some compounds of 念 include

• 意 + 念 = 意念 (yìniàn): thought, notion, will
• 思 + 念 = 思念 (sīniàn 🔊): to miss, to think of, to yearn for, to reminisce
• 想 + 念 = 想念 (xiǎngniàn 🔊): to miss, to think of, to yearn for, to reminisce
• 念 + 想 = 念想 (niànxiǎng): to miss, to cherish; thought, idea, impression; souvenir, keepsake, memento
• 念 + 白 = 念白 (niànbái): spoken parts of a Chinese opera
• 念 + 念 + 不 + 忘 = 念念不忘 (niànniàn bù wàng): to keep in mind constantly; to never forget

念 is a simplified form of a traditional character 念, which is also used in Japanese. As you can see, there is no much difference, apart from the stroke under the “roof” 𠆢.

In Japanese, 念 is pronounced nen (ねん) and means “thought”, “feeling”, “care” or “concern”.

念入て 尺とる虫や 菊の花 一茶 nen irete sashi toru mushi ya kiku no hana carefully measured by the inchworm... chrysanthemum Issa (Translated by David G. Lanoue)

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忆 | yì

In Mandarin Chinese, 忆 (Pinyin: yì 🔊) is a verb “to remember”, “to reminisce”, “to reflect upon” or a noun for “memory”.

忆 is a simplified form of the traditional character 憶. According to Wiktionary, 憶 is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 忄, a radical form of 心 “heart”, and phonetic 意 (Pinyin: yì) which also contains 心. So we can say that there are two hearts in 憶. In the simplified form, 意 got replaced by unrelated but similarly-sounding 乙 (yǐ). You may remember that the same story happened with 亿 (← 億).

Compounds of 忆 include

• 回 “to return” + 忆 = 回忆 (huíyì 🔊): memory, to remember
• 失 “to lose” + 忆 = 失忆 (shīyì): to lose memory
• 记 “to record” + 忆 = 记忆 (jìyì 🔊): to remember, to recall
• 记忆 + 力 “strength” = 记忆力 (jìyìlì): ability to remember; memory

In Japanese, 憶 could be rendered as either おく (oku) or おもう (omou 🔊).

夏燕 谷ゆけり記憶 散りゆけり 金子 natsu tsubame tani yukeri kioku chiri yukeri a summer swallow flies through the valley  — memories scatter Kaneko *

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*	Kaneko Tohta, Selected Haiku, Part 2: 1961—2012. Red Moon Press, 2012, p. 63.