Yojijukugo (Japanese Four-Character Idioms)

参加者の戦い方は千差万別で、見ていて飽きない。

Their fighting styles were all different — variety is the spice of life.

「予定通りじゃなくてもいい、臨機応変に動け！」

It doesn’t have to go as planned. Play it by ear!

作戦会議は支離滅裂、誰も結論を出せなかった。

The strategy meeting was incoherent — no one could reach a decision.

判定に迷いはない。審判は公明正大であった。

There was no hesitation in the call — the referee was fair and square.

一心不乱に打ち込み、周囲の声など耳に入らなかった。

He was so focused, working with undivided attention, that he didn’t hear the voices around him.

「その案、お前の得になるだけだろ。我田引水じゃないか。」

That plan only benefits you. That’s acting in your own interest.

巨人に何度倒されても立ち上がる。七転八起こそ人類の魂だ。

No matter how many times the giants knocked them down, they rose again — fall seven times, get up eight.

晴れた日は畑で鍬を振るい、雨の日は本をめくる。晴耕雨読の暮らしが彼の力を育てた。

On sunny days he tilled the fields, on rainy days he turned the pages of books — a life in tune with nature and at one’s own pace.

同じ景色を見ても感想は十人十色だった。

Even seeing the same view, their reactions were all different — so many men, so many minds.

旅先の小さな港町で出会った老人と語り合った夕暮れ。もう二度と会うことはないだろう。その一期一会が、不思議な温かさを残した。

In a small harbor town on his travels, he spent the evening talking with an old man. They would likely never meet again, and that once-in-a-lifetime encounter left a strange warmth in his heart.