Thoughts on 覚

前後不覚 (zengo fukaku: unconscious)          before + after + not + awake

I like 前後不覚 because I’m drawn to 覚. It means “to memorize, learn, remember, awake, sober up,” and it kind of looks like those things. As 目 is the pictograph of an eye, it’s easy to imagine the top three strokes of 覚 as the lashes of an alert eye. It’s as if all the studying and remembering (or the sounding of an alarm clock) has made the lashes stand at attention, just as the hair on a dog’s back goes up when the dog senses a threat.

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