(The increasingly less) Daily senryu thread

Nice to know I’m not alone in being mystified. :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Maybe the thought is you’ve been looking for that damn handkerchief all winter and spring, and now finally in June when you haul the summer picnic hamper out from the back of the closet – there it is! you must have left it lurking in the bottom there when you put the hamper away in autumn ?

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[spoiler]Am I correct in thinking the entire thing is just a noun phrase? Everything before 出る modifies 夏バック?

In that case the meaning is just The summer bag that the handkerchief I was looking for came out of[/spoiler]

Not sure what it actually means though. This is the same gripe I had with a previous translation, if it can’t be understood in English by English speakers to have some meaning outside of the original Japanese, then the translation probably sucks :grimacing:

3 Likes

@pm215 & @KJules - that’s it! Why didn’t this common, frequent experience that we all have not come to my mind? Doh!

探してたハンカチが出る夏バック

さがしてた・ハンカチがでる・なつバック
Missing hanky -
emerges from the
picnic hamper!

  • 4-5-4 translation
  • Fixated on the 夏バック, instead of the main topic, which is the missing hanky’s reappearance.

It’s like saying, “Ah, the picnic hamper! That’s where the handkerchief was all this while!!”

Not unlike my “Doh!” moment above. :wink:

I’m going to be out for a coupla days over the long weekend - labor day on Monday here in the US. Y’all have fun!

3 Likes

Yup. I, too, think you and @KJules have nailed it.

Searching for 夏バック images on google, though, turns up images for ladies summer handbags (lots of woven hemp bags like the image below) not picnic baskets. Most of the linked sites convert バック to バッグ but a few still omit the だくてん for some reason that still mystifies me.

As always, katakana-go is the hardest part of Japanese.

One other thing caused a bit of confusion for me. It may be related to being the son of a US navy officer, but to me a “handkerchief” is a square of plain white cotton cloth that men keep in their back pocket. In Japan, though, ハンカチ are definitely available for either sex, are almost invariably patterned or dyed, and are available in many different materials (those targeted for women often in silk). I’ve known this, but still think of my dad’s cotton handkerchiefs whenever I hear the word.

1 Like

Friday, September 2, 2022


Previous senryu

  1. 探してたハンカチが出る夏バック
    さがしてた・ハンカチがでる・なつバック
    Missing hanky / emerges from my / summer handbag!

Notes:

  • Good job gang. This one was weird.

  • I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that the missing 濁点(だくてん) is a typo, albeit a pretty common one. It appears that 夏バック is a summer handbag, regardless.

Current senryu challenge

Volume: Various settings

  1. 二番目に好きと言われて終わる恋

Hmm. Another one involving 二番目に好き!

I think this one seems more straightforward though (which I suspect means I’m about to be proven wrong).


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! Questions and comments are as valued as translation submissions.

Please try not to be disappointed if your translation isn’t selected or if you disagree with the daily choice: the judge isn’t terribly consistent with his grading (and has awful taste!).
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. The 語源(ごげん)由来(ゆらい)辞典(じてん) is also an excellent resource for researching the etymology of various words and expressions.

Here are the links to the 356 Japanese originals (spoiler free) and to the the spreadsheet with all the upcoming senryu as well as the translations to date.

2 Likes

Since no one else has commented, I’ll chime in

いちばんめにすきといわれておわるへん

I’m not sure how to parse 言われて終わる. Is it something like “to end [something] by saying”?

I’m also thrown by the category “various settings” and my inability to discern notable clues about what has finished. My first instinct is to think of it as a breakup - like, the flip side of the last 二番目に好き, where now being second place is the excuse for a breakup? But I’m not sure that tracks. Or maybe its the end of a job interview and the candidate says the company is their second choice?

Strange, to end it / by saying “this is / my second choice”

Once again, what am I missing here?

1 Like

Maybe instead of this is my second choice it’s you are my second choice

2 Likes

Yes, sort of, to my understanding. Note that it is 終わる恋, however (こい not へん). Also the 言われて inflection perhaps means being told something?

Was that what you were missing?

(Apologies I’m on my phone)

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:woman_facepalming:t2: Yes of course that is a 恋 not a 変, I can read kanji, really I can :tired_face:

2 Likes

No, I caught the “being told”, I guess my question is more one of cause and effect:

Is it that B told A “you’re my 2nd choice”, so A ended the relationship
Or
B told A “I’m ending this because you are my second choice”

1 Like

As always, I’m unsure and likely wrong, but I understood it as “He told me he liked me second best - that was the end of love”. That word has a strong connotation of sexual love as well as romantic love…

Edit:

I suppose it could also be interpreted as ”love is being told afterward that he liked me second best”. I can’t think of another interpretation for that wording, though. This way seems far less likely to me.

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That’s an interesting distinction, I don’t think we can tell based on the Japanese, but I could be wrong

1 Like

My interpretation is After being told about being second choice, our love ended which could have either participant as the main actor. But to me it seems more likely that the writer was told, just from my interpretation of the passive voice.

2 Likes

Damn I just check this thread for the very first time and y’all translating some heavy shit lol.

I see some right answers and wrong answers, so while I’m here:

Summary

It means “love that ends after being told ‘you’re my second choice’”. (I.e. there’s someone I 好きmore)

There is only one other possible interpretation, but it doesn’t make sense so its easy to tell that’s not what they were going for. The other possible interpretation is “love that ends after your second choice tells you they like you”. This would be essentially parsing it as 二番目に、「好き」と言われて終わる恋

6 Likes

Well, senryu are many things, but “heavy” is rarely one. The ones in the “intense” category sometimes come close, though. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

1 Like

We seem to have come to a consensus on how to interpret this one.

Now we just need some English senryu submissions.

It’s a holiday weekend in the US, so I expect activity may be light. So let me make an attempt:

二番目に好きと言われて終わる恋

にばんめに・すきといわれて・おわるこい

He tells me
“I like you second best”
Loving ends

I’ll wait for another several hours before posting the next one. I’m certain you folks can come up with something better!

1 Like

Sunday, September 4, 2022


Previous senryu

  1. 二番目に好きと言われて終わる恋
    にばんめに・すきといわれて・おわるこい
    He tells me / “I like you second best” / Loving ends

Looks like nobody wants to submit another attempt, so you’ll have to suffer with my translation!

Current senryu challenge

Volume: Life in one page

  1. こりゃ誰だこの歌なんだ大みそか

Hmm. I understand the first part of this, but I’m mystified what it has to do with the end!


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! Questions and comments are as valued as translation submissions.

Please try not to be disappointed if your translation isn’t selected or if you disagree with the daily choice: the judge isn’t terribly consistent with his grading (and has awful taste!).
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. The 語源(ごげん)由来(ゆらい)辞典(じてん) is also an excellent resource for researching the etymology of various words and expressions.

Here are the links to the 356 Japanese originals (spoiler free) and to the the spreadsheet with all the upcoming senryu as well as the translations to date.

Likely a reference to popular new-year’s entertainment show NHK紅白歌合戦 and to typical old person reactions to all the current-generation pop stars who appear in it…

3 Likes

Ah! That makes sense. I’m familiar with 紅白 but hadn’t made the connection. Thanks!

I don’t get the popularity, but I guess the Jerry Lewis Telethon was popular for many years over here. Equally spamtastic.