Strength and Honor

力と名誉 (chikara to meiyo): strength and honor, two virtues set side by side as the English sets them. 力 (chikara) is strength, of the body in Japan's oldest chronicle and of the spirit in its oldest poems; と (to) is and; 名誉 (meiyo) is honor in the sense of a person's good name, a word that meant renown of any kind for centuries before it settled on the honor a person keeps. The English is older than the film that made it a salute: Strength and honour are her clothing, the book of Proverbs says of the good wife, and Maximus in Gladiator says the two words to his men before battle. The Japanese is Master Takase's rendering of that English, word for word and in the same order, and a Japanese reader takes it as the English reader does, two virtues named together and left to stand. 力と名誉 is composed of the words 力 (read chikara) meaning "strength", the grammatical element と (read to) meaning "and", and the word 名誉 (read meiyo) meaning "honor".