希望は最大の宝 kibō wa saidai no takara Hope is our greatest treasure
希望は最大の宝 (kibō wa saidai no takara), hope is the greatest treasure, is a maxim in the plainest Japanese form, subject, wa, predicate, written for an English line. No book to 1946 in the National Diet Library carries it; its nearest ancestor in Japanese is a 万葉集 poem asking what treasure surpasses a child.
Abstract
希望は最大の宝, kibō wa saidai no takara, hope is the greatest treasure, is grammatical modern Japanese for an English line, hope is our greatest treasure, and no public-domain book in the National Diet Library carries it to 1946. Its form is old: the oldest Japanese sentence of the shape X is the greatest treasure is a 万葉集 poem on a child, which is a family resemblance, not a source.
Overview
The sense. Standard Japanese: a maxim in the plainest possible form, subject, wa, predicate.
The words. 希望 kibō, hope: first the wish for a thing to come true, cited from an 1872 newspaper, then 将来に対する期待。また、明るい見通し, expectation of the future, a bright outlook, cited from 1875, with the note that the word was read kemō in the old Buddhist reading before the modern kibō [1]. 最大 saidai, greatest, cited from the 宝物集 of about 1179 [2]. 宝 takara, treasure, whose first citation is a poem in the 万葉集, 銀も金も玉も何せむにまされる多可良子にしかめやも, silver, gold, jewels, what are they to me; what treasure surpasses a child, which is the oldest Japanese sentence of the form X is the greatest treasure; the dictionary cites it as 万葉集 5.803 and does not name the poet; poem 803 of book five is Yamanoue no Okura's [3].
The text in English. Hope and 希望 match in both senses, the wish and the outlook [4].
The historical record
No witness to 1946. 希望は最大の宝 as written returns nothing from the Library's public-domain books to 1946 [5]. Its nearest ancestor in Japanese is the 万葉集 question about what treasure surpasses a child, but that is a family resemblance, not a source.
What is not a source. No text stands behind the maxim. It is plain modern Japanese for an English line.
Today. Hope is our greatest treasure is an English line with no English author; the Japanese drops its our, since Japanese needs no possessor. The maxim's wa is what a rendering keeps: it makes 希望は最大の宝 a proverb rather than a phrase.
A reading
Honest modern Japanese, and it stands as that. The form is the oldest thing about it: Okura asked what treasure surpasses a child, and the maxim answers the same kind of question with hope.
References
- 「希望」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/希望
- 「最大」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/最大
- 「宝」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/宝
- JMdict (EDRDG), 「希望」, at jisho. https://jisho.org/word/希望
- National Diet Library Digital Collections, next-generation full-text search on 希望は最大の宝, 0 books. https://lab.ndl.go.jp/dl/