In present day Japan, "alchemy" is only used metaphorically; to refer to improper means of making money by politicians or religious hucksters with no morals or shame.
Relationships built on money will end when the money runs out.
金の切れ目が縁の切れ目。
Don't say such ill-omened things.
縁起の悪いことを言いなさんな。
He often uses the slightest thing as a pretext for a fight with anybody.
あの男はよくつまらぬことで誰にでも因縁をつける。
My Latin teacher used to look down sternly on me over the rim of her glasses, but now I know it only had to do with the fact that she was wearing reading glasses and that she will have found it a nuisance taking them off all the time, so what looked like
I spent that day listening to the lonely scrapings of a pen. During that time, from time to time, I heard a Java sparrow twittering. It occurred to me that maybe Java sparrows twitter out of loneliness too. I walked out to the veranda to see. Nevertheless
The girl had grown up without any money and when she married she became a spendthrift.
あの女の子はお金に縁がなく育ったが、結婚してからは浪費家になった。
Poverty seemed to have nothing to do with them in those days.
当時、貧乏は彼らにとっては無縁なものと思われた。
A boy is taking his sweet time pushing the cart toward the curb.
男の子が縁石の方へカートをゆっくり押しやっている。
Four is an unlucky number in Japanese.
４は日本語では縁起の悪い数字だ。
It's bad luck to say that.
縁起でもないこと言うなよ。
The adventures I read about are absent from my life.
私の読んだ冒険談は実生活とは縁遠い。
To my campaign manager, David Plouffe! The unsung hero of this campaign, who built the best, the best political campaign, I think, in the history of the United States of America.
