neko no te mo karitai lit. ‘I’d even borrow a cat’s paws’
Japanese idiom, everyday. To have a lot of work or problems to deal with at once.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Japanese speaker.
How do people use 猫の手も借りたい
?
Everyday Japanese that you’ll hear at work, on farms and in shops at their busiest time of year. It nearly always comes with ほど or くらい plus 忙しい: “猫の手も借りたいほど忙しい” means so busy you’d accept help from the cat. Said on its own, it’s a sigh about being short of hands.
猫の手も借りたい
in real sentences
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猫の手も借りたいほど忙しい。
Neko no te mo karitai hodo isogashii.
We are very busy and short-handed.
Tatoeba, sentence by Sim5634, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
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年末は猫の手も借りたいほど忙しくなる。
Nenmatsu wa neko no te mo karitai hodo isogashiku naru.
We become very shorthanded at the end of the year.
Tatoeba, sentence by small_snow, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does 猫の手も借りたい
come from?
Japanese Wiktionary and Nihon Kokugo Daijiten (via Kotobank) both point to the same first appearance: Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s puppet play Kanhasshū Tsunagi-uma, first staged in 1724, where a household is in “猫の手もかりたい忙しさ”, a bustle so great they’d borrow the cat’s paws. Neither source says why the helper is a cat. The joke works without an explanation, since a cat is about the least useful pair of hands in the house.
Mistakes learners make with 猫の手も借りたい
Swapping も for を. “猫の手を借りたい” just says you’d like to borrow the cat’s paws, while the も (even) is what turns the cat into the last and least useful helper you’d still take.
Other Japanese idioms like 猫の手も借りたい
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?
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