染み渡る (shimiwataru: to penetrate, pervade, spread)
to soak into + to spread
くーっ、ビールが五臓六腑に染み渡たる。
Kū, bīru ga gozōroppu ni shimiwataru.
Ahhh! I feel that beer seep into every fiber of my being.くーっ (kū: onomatopoetic representation of the sound of drinking beer)
Seems impossible to represent that final っ in rōmaji!
五臓六腑 (gozōroppu: the internal organs)
5 + internal organs + 6 + internal organs
The last kanji in 五臓六腑 is non-Jōyō.
This compact expression contains a great deal of theory from Traditional Chinese Medicine.
The 五臓 represents the five “yin organs.” According to one source, “The yin organs, in traditional Chinese medicine, produce, transform, and store qi, blood, bodily fluids, and essence. The five yin organs are the lungs, spleen, heart, liver, and kidneys. The pericardium is sometimes considered a sixth yin organ.”
Meanwhile, 腑 stands for the six “yang organs.” A source says, “The yang organs, or hollow (fu) organs, separate impure substances from food and drain them out of the body as waste. The six yang organs are the stomach, the small intestine, the large intestine, the urinary bladder, the gallbladder, and the ‘triple burner.'”
Given the way these 11 organs figure into the sentence, it’s interesting that the translation involves “every fiber” of the speaker’s being. That sounds all-inclusive. And it’s certainly nicer to imagine that the beer (with all its relaxing properties) is seeping into the muscles, blood cells, and hair, not just the organs. Or … it would be if beer smelled better. Maybe tea is a more pleasant image.
