木村：飛行機が8時間遅れるそうですよ。ホテルにひきかえしましょう。
佐藤：荷造りするのに3時間もかかったのに、骨折り損のくたびれもうけでしたね。
Honeori-zon no Kutabire Mooke
Kimura: Hikooki ga hachijikan okureru soo desu yo. Hoteru ni hikikae shimashoo.Sato: Nizukuri suru noni sanjikan mo kakatta noni, honeori-zon no kutabire mooke deshita ne.
Kimura: The plane is going to be eight hours late. Let's wait in the hotel.
Sato: It took me three hours to pack; what a waste of time and energy.
* * *
Honeori-zon no kutabire mooke (lit. Hard work lost, exhaustion earned or Exhaustion as sole repayment for backbreaking effort) refers to an exercise in futility, to expending much energy in vain, to gaining nothing from all one's trouble or efforts.
The expression can be broken down into four parts : Though one 1. hone wo oru - struggles to expend a lot of energy in spite of one's 'backbreaking efforts' 2. one loses (zon) and 3. gains (mooke) 4. only exhaustion (kutabire).
I arrived at the airport in Kuala Lumpur at nine in the evening, two and a half hours before my Malaysian Airlines flight to London was scheduled to depart. In spite of the late hour, the airport was surprisingly full. It turned out my flight had been delayed until the morning ! Outside, Malaysian Airlines was busing the passengers to the Shangri-La Hotel, Kuala Lumpur's premiere hotel. At first, everyone was grumbling about the inconvenience. Once we had checked into one of the luxurious rooms and received the free dinner ticket, however, the complaining ceased. I overheard one British couple remarking at how lucky they felt to be able to stay in such a high-class hotel.
Karera wa honeori-zon no kutabire mooke to omotte inakatta yoo da (They didn't seem to think their efforts had been a waste). It was interesting to notice so many young people dressed in shorts walking around the otherwise elegant hotel. Though I finally got to bed at one in the morning, the wake-up call came at four and the bus for the airport left at five.
I wonder how much an airline loses everytime one of its fights is delayed? The bus ride to the hotel, the hotel room, the free dinner, the staff's overtime, the free long-distance telephone calls-kore wa honeori-zon no kutabire moke ni shika naranai (it can only amount to much labor lost, a lot of hard work for nothing ).
When has this expression been appropriate in my own experience? Some 15 years ago a certain publishing house informed me that they wanted me to publish a book with them. At that time I had yet to publish anything. I worked hard writing the book and finally gave the manuscript to the editor. After reading it, he told me it wasn't very good and would have to be rewritten. I was offended and took the manuscript back. All that time and energy spent writing the 300 pages! For nothing? (Honeori-zon no kutabire mooke datta.) It hurt inside. In the end, though, a much larger publishing house published the book and it has since been one of their longest sellers. My efforts had not been in vain after all (honeori-zon no kutabire mooke de wa nakatta)!