Otherwise they’ll just make do with some energetic jumping, apparently.

Here’s one thematically similar to Sunday’s kotowaza:

窮鼠噛猫
kyuu.so.gou.byou

Literally: destitute / suffering / cornered – mouse / rat – bite – cat

Alternately: A cornered rat will bite at a cat. Those in desperate straits will become unexpectedly fierce. Nobody fights like someone who has nowhere else to turn.

Note: This four-character compound can also be expanded to 窮鼠猫を噛む (kyuuso neko wo kamu), which as you can see is just the same thing with some grammar thrown in.


Pyao pyao pyao!

About Confanity

I love the written word more than anything else I've had the chance to work with. I'm back in the States from Japan for grad school, but still studying Japanese with the hope of becoming a translator -- or writer, or even teacher -- as long as it's something language-related.
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