兄「新婚だから奇麗にしてると思ったのに。なりふり構わないでいると、彼に嫌われるぞ」
いそが
妹「毎日忙しくて、なりふりなんか構っていられないわ」
Narifurikamawanai
(Kekkon shita bakari no imooto no ie wo tazunete)
Ani: Shinkon dakara kirei ni shiteru to omotta noni. Narifurikamawanai de iru to, kare ni kirawareru zo.
Imooto: Mainichi isogashifeute, narifuri nan'ka kamatteirarenai wa.
(Visiting his younger sister who has just gotten married)
Older brother: I thought you'd be fussing about your looks now that you're a newlywed. If you don't take care you'll lose your husband's interest.
Younger sister: Being so busy everyday, I just haven't the time to worry about how I look.
* * *
Narifurikamawanai means not being particular about one's clothes or appearance.
I think the expression is slowly disappearing from our active vocabularies, though. After all, don't Japanese worry about their appearance more than anyone? After visiting Europe or Asia and then return^ ing to Japan, for example, I'm always surprised at just how many people dress so nicely. In this sense, I think it's possible to say nihonjin wa hijo ni narifuri wo kamau kokumin (the Japanese are a people extremely particular about how they look). It's no wonder there's an idiom which expresses the opposite meaning in a negative way. Ano hito wa narifuri-kamawanai hito desu (That person doesn't care about how he/she looks). This expression is clearly heard as belittling the person's looks, and is nothing like what Americans and others mean by saying someone is "very casual" in appearance. As a way of understanding differences in national character I find this is very interesting.
Ano hito wa narifurikamawazu nan demo suru (That person doesn't care about how they look; they'll do anything). Narifuri is also used to refer to a person's actions.
Mr. A has retired from his company and now runs a small pub, He makes spaghetti and washes the dishes. One of his favorite expressions is, "Ikite iku tame ni wa narifuri nan'ka kamatteirarenai" ("In order to get on with living there's no time to worry about appearances"). One day, some young employees from his old company visit his pub. They are all surprised to see Mr. A working without regard for appearances (narifurikamawazu hataraiteiru). The only Mr. A they'd ever known had always worn a good-looking suit with a silk handkerchief tucked into the breast pocket. The shoes had always been polished and sparkling. This man who'd calmly sat in the manager's office and given them orders was now making their spaghetti right before their eyes. The ex-manager's words to his old employees weren't soon forgotten: "Boku wa mae kara ko iu narifuri-kamawanu ikikata ga shite mitakatta" ("I'd been wanting to live such a life of not having to care about appearances for quite some time" ).
I really understand how Mr. A feels. In order to live in Japanese society, itsumo narifuri wo ki ni shiteinakereba naranai no da (one always has to worry about one's appearance).