Japanese saying
 

Dear all,

I am trying to help a fellow translator (Italian > English) who has found a reference to a Japanese saying or proverb in the text she is translating from Italian. The article is about Italian artist and designer Bruno Munari and the influence of Japanese culture on his works.

In it, the author quotes from one of Munari's books (not yet translated into English) "Design e comunicazione visiva" (Munari, 1968) where Munari writes: "Osservare a lungo, capire profondamente, fare in un attimo", and says that it is an ancient Japanese saying.
Loosely translated, this means "To observe for a long time, to understand deeply, to do/act in a split second".

Does the above ring any bells with you? Could you provide a better or closer English translation of the actual Japanese saying?

Thank you very much for any help with this.

Anna

it's hard to find.

The closest one I imagine is 風林火山 but not it is far from the one indicated.

Thanks for your reply, RadioKid.
How would you translate literally (i.e. word for word) in English the expression you quote - 風林火山 - ?

風林火山(fu-rin-ka-zan;Wind, Woods, Fire and Mountain) is a motto of "Takeda, Shingen(family name first)" who was a lord of middle Japan area. It means "fasta as the Wind, Silent as the Woods, Invade as Fire and Unshakable as Mountain".

Your qiestion seems to relate to Chinese saying because they have many military saying like as Son's strategy.

As we have less saying related to fighting, 風林火山 just hit me as the closest answer.