(The increasingly less) Daily senryu thread

That’s a pretty good attempt. :smiley:

One thing I think you missed is 来いこい, which is the imperative form of 来るくる, to come.

Without that, I think your translation would indeed be correct.

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Yep, i noticed that after I read the other attempts. But that’s what I was saying before, you really need to pay attention to everything, so that’s why I think it’s fun :blush:

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Totally agree. :smiley::+1:

I also think this is a good learning exercise because, like @Rrwrex said, Senryu are short but they highlight nuances that you have to work to pick up on. And you have other people participating to act as sounding boards.

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I think it’s meant to invoke the feeling of relating to 単独 or even 独身 rather than just a neutral “living alone”

That makes sense — thanks!

I only knew 独身(どくしん).

Kinda apropos, actually (in a temporary sense). I can’t wait for her to get back from Japan. Hopefully only a few more weeks — it will even be nice to see a vegetable or two in my diet again! <laugh>

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Yeah, I’ve found that the more vocab I learn the more I can see interrelationships. And they get a bit easier to memorize. lol

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Friday, April 29, 2022


Previous senryu

  1. 鬼でも来い独り暮らしはもう飽きた
    おにでもこいひとりぐらしはもうあきた
    Even an ogre, come! I’m fed up with being alone.

Notes:

  • Congrats to @NicoleIsEnough :confetti_ball:
  • I changed Nicole’s wording slightly, dropping the “please” since (ko)い is an imperative command (I think that’s the technical term) and ogre seems a better fit for (おに) here.
  • The wikipedia article on 鬼 gives a pretty good overview. Devil or demon are definitely correct, but somehow don’t seem to cover as much ground.

Current senryu challenge

Volume: Corona

  1. 会社へは 来るなと上司 行けと妻

This one shouldn’t be too difficult. Have fun!

Remember to please use the spoiler tag with your translation attempts! Also, please include the reading in kana with your submission.


Everyone is encouraged to participate, no matter your level!

Online tools like dictionaries, sentence databases, and even AI translation engines are fair game and can be extremely helpful. Yomichan is particularly handy if you use the Chrome or Firefox browser.

Here’s the link to the spreadsheet with all the upcoming senryu as well as the translations to date.

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Translation attempt

  1. 会社へは 来るなと上司 行けと妻

かいしゃへはくるなとじょうしいけとつま

Regarding going to the office: / “Don’t come!” commands my boss / “Go!” commands my wife

There must be a more natural way of phrasing this without too many changes, but this is the best I could do with a fairly literal translation.

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“Don’t come in to work”
Said my boss,
“Go in”, said the wife

Never seen へは before, also a lot of words missing, the と without any verb was definitely a red herring.

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I think it’s reasonable to translate the は here as, “as for” or “regarding”.

会社(かいしゃ)へは as for going into the office …

As I think you explained previously, the と’s are just quoting what the boss and wife are saying.

I know, it just tripped me up, that there wasn’t an 言った or similar after it

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For others following along:

()るな don’t come!

()け go!

These are both complete sentences. The と that follows just quotes these sentences.

These negative and positive conjugations of the base verbs are rough, very direct commands that you’d normally only give to an inferior (like a child or pet that you’re disciplining). They can sound very rude, so be careful using them in conversation! It’s safest to use these forms when you’re discussion what someone else said to you (as in this example).


This reminds me: I remember diagramming sentences in elementary school. I’ve forgotten how to do it, but it occurs to me that doing something similar with these might be fun and useful.

Something like this:

会社へは 来るなと上司 行けと妻

会社へ to the office
  は as for / regarding
     来るな don't come! [imperative command]
       と quotation -> "Don't come!"
       上司 my boss [speaker of prior quote]
     行け go! [imperative command]
       と quotation -> "Go!"
       妻 wife [speaker of prior quote]

Regarding going to the office: / “Don’t come!” commands my boss / “Go!” commands my wife

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You definitely need to read more books :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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My fist thought on seeing that was YAML. :joy:

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:laughing:

I was one of those weird kids that really loved diagramming sentences.

I still am one of those weird adults who loves YAML (and ruby). But I still remain vaguely suspicious of whitespace mattering in Python.

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Ruby bros, it’s my go to “snack” language

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Saturday, April 30, 2022


Previous senryu

  1. 会社へは 来るなと上司 行けと妻
    かいしゃへはくるなとじょうしいけとつま
    Regarding going to the office: / “Don’t come!” commands my boss / “Go!” commands my wife

Notes:

  • Thanks to @Gorbit99 :confetti_ball: for being the only one besides myself to submit a translation!
  • I’m going with my more literal translation, though. Far less poetic, but I think it’s worthwhile to remain as faithful to the original as possible (which means I may need to tweek the weighting).

Current senryu challenge

Volume: Global truths

  1. 雑草の名前わかると抜きにくい

No hints today. The first word may require a dictionary lookup, but otherwise this one should be pretty straightforward.

Remember to please use the spoiler tag with your translation attempts! Also, please include the reading in kana with your submission.


Everyone is encouraged to participate, no matter your level!

Online tools like dictionaries, sentence databases, and even AI translation engines are fair game and can be extremely helpful. Yomichan is particularly handy if you use the Chrome or Firefox browser.

Here’s the link to the spreadsheet with all the upcoming senryu as well as the translations to date.

1 Like

You greatly overestimate my abilities, sir.

  1. 雑草の名前わかると抜きにくい

ざっそうのなまえわかるとぬきにくい

When knowing the name of a weed, it’s harder to pull it out.

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Heh. Not at all, I think you got the gist.

I think it means that you end up learning the names of weeds you spend a lot of time trying to remove (researching various strategies, asking friends and neighbors, etc.). If they are easy to pull out and go away, you don’t even bother.

Oh! I have to admit that I love the fact that the Japanese word for “weed” is “random grass”!

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Translation attempt

  1. 雑草の名前わかると抜きにくい

ざっそうの・なまえわかると・ぬきにくい

The weeds you can name are the hardest to pull.

(@Gorbit99: You have a typo in the last stanza of your hiragana.)

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This is why I need typing practice you see

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