Iki wo Nomu Utsukushisa (息を呑む美しさ - Breathtaking Beauty)

Iki wo Nomu Utsukushisa

Lately, I work while seeing natural landscape videos on a display installed at the back of my desk.

I played a Russian landscape video today.

The beautiful scene was played continuously, but the scenery of jewel-like ice (probably Lake Bikal) was breathtaking.

In the last Japanese sentence, I added 'iki wo nomu' (息を呑む) before 'utukushisa' (美しさ), meaning "beauty."

'Iki' (息) means "breath" and 'nomu' (呑む) means "to drink/swallow."

That is to say, 'iki wo nomu' implies that you are so surprised that you hold your breath for a moment, and it can emphasize adjectives.

Today's work did not go well very much because I was fascinated by the video.

息を呑む美しさ

最近私は、机の奥に設置したディスプレイに、自然の映像を流しながら仕事をしています。

今日は、ロシアの景色を流していました。

美しい映像が続きましたが、特に宝石のような氷が広がる景色（バイカル湖でしょうか？）は、息を呑む美しさでした。

直前の文で私は、"beauty" を意味する「美しさ」に「息を呑む」という言葉をつけました。

「息」は "breath"、「呑む」は "drink" や "swallow" を意味します。

すなわち「息を呑む」とは「息が一瞬止まるほど驚くこと」を表し、形容詞を強調するはたらきを持ちます。

素晴らしい映像に見とれたため、仕事はあまり捗りませんでした。

• Lately, I work while seeing natural landscape videos on a display installed at the back of my desk.
• Lately, I work while seeing natural landscape videos are on a display installed at the back of my desk.

• The beautiful scene was played continuously, but the scenery of jewel-like ice (probably Lake Bikal) was breathtaking.
• The beautiful scene was played continuously, but the scenery of jewel-like ice (probably Lake Bikal) was breathtaking.

• Today's work did not go well very much because I was fascinated by the video.
• Today's work did not go very well very much because I was fascinated by the video.

If you are negatively surprised, you can say you "gasped". Positively, you can say something "took my breath away."