BTW, do you go by Jim or James?  I have no idea why I called you Jim!  LOL   Anyway, I read what you wrote about the colors and the tradition from which you learned them.   Clearly, I should just sit down, listen and learn!  :-)  What you said about it all depending on the state of things really rang true with me. 

Also, since you're such a crack hand at languages, you should add Irish to your impressive list!  It's a neat language and sounds so lovely.  On one of my sojourns there, I spent a month in the Gaeltacht taking an intensive language course from University College Galway.  It was a long time ago & now I'm so rusty at it that I squeak!  LOL  I still know/understand a lot of the grammar & can understand a good bit, although my vocabulary & conversational skills are pretty darn weak.   But that was a fun month!

Well, good luck (or go n-éirí an bóthar leat, as they say) with the Irish if you do decide to tackle it. That is often translated as May the road rise to meet to you, but it's idomatic and that is not a suitable translation into English, even if it does make sense to English speakers.  A better translation would be along the lines of may you succeed with the road (or way) of your journey.  Anyway, if you do take it up, I'm sure you will find some fascinating linguistic links between Sanskrit and Irish words.

Hello James, I just noticed you had left a comment. Yes, I have read Jäniksen vuosi and many other Paasilinna's books. I thought they already were translated in English. At least many of them are in French, he's popular there. Best work are from his early career, maybe he got bit lazy later.

I like many Elvis' gospels even though I don't really care about the lyrics mostly but the sincerity of his singing is great.