(The increasingly less) Daily senryu thread

I propose bradyperaltamotus

Or, if you don’t speak a mix of Greek/Latin: slow-burn-deep-emotion :joy:

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When the section title is more poetic than the senryuu themselves !

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My iPhone thinks that’s Finnish!

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Friday, May 13, 2022


Previous senryu

  1. 家中でだまされてやる父の嘘
    うちじゅうで・だまされてやる・ちちのうそ
    The whole family / pretends to be fooled / by dad’s fibs

Notes:

  • Congrats to @Arzar33 :confetti_ball:
  • This one was tricky. I’ve taken editorial liberties with the editing again (mea culpa), but I really like @Arzar33 's choice of the word “fib” rather than “lie”.
  • The trickiest grammar point was だまされてやるinstead of だまされる. They’re purposefully falling for his fibs.
  • I think it’s more likely うちじゅう rather than いえじゅう (or even かちゅう) but who knows?

Current senryu challenge

Volume: husbands

  1. 俺の方ばかり見て言う注意事項

No hints again. Again I’m not confident in my translation yet.

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 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.

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Translation attempt

He who says “Look at me only” is a red flag

Or something like that )

PS I’ve been reading this thread for a while now and must admit I do like it. Well done starting this one :tada: :tada: :tada:

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Welcome!

I’m probably mistaken but I get a sense like

“why am I always the one to have what I say examined/doubted?”


Yup. As usual, after checking in with my daughter, I’m completely wrong. :bowing_man:

俺の方ばかり見て by itself is a clause meaning “<someone> keeps looking in my direction” or “someone keeps looking at me and only me”.

So it’s apparently something like: “the person giving out (announcing?) warnings keeps looking in my direction.”

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Well, I certainly blew this 川柳.I didn’t know the flipping function of やる - I am now properly edified. I asked around and apparently やる is the informal version of ふり・ぶり (pretending to…).

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At some point my family is going to tire of me asking for help with these, but it’s almost every day we are discovering something like this.

There’s no way I’ll remember it all, but I do feel like I’m learning more every day.

Like many, one of my goals has been to read Murakami in his native language. This project, though, has made me realize how much more I want to be able to follow every detail of sketch comedy (old Downtown bits, etc.).

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5-7-5 contortion:
おれのほうばかりみていうちゅういじこう
For my sake alone / were the cautionary notes / pointedly stated

Straight-ahead translation:
Addressed to me alone, / as it were, / the cautionary notes.

My impression is that the author was picked on for sins of his past, although I don’t see why it is solely a husbands’ predicament. Happens often enough in a corporate/project environment too. Then again, I may have misunderstood it. :roll_eyes:

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You weren’t alone. Please see the last sentence here: (The increasingly less) Daily senryu thread - #405 by Rrwrex

I believe the context is someone announcing warnings like “lately we’ve had several staplers go missing” or “we’ve had complaints of people not parking in designated spaces”

I think these are challenging enough for natives even. I got enthusiastic support when I asked for an explanation.

Oh, brother! That’s a receding objective on the horizon for me… I was hoping to read Kawabata when I started down the path of learning Japanese. In my despair, I feel as if: “apresドン・キホーテ, c’est moi.”

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Someday, someday I need an explanation as to how Cervantes begat

(This is the inside of the ドンキホーテ store in Gotanda if anyone is confused)

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Ok, I see where you’re coming from… but what’s the 言う’s function here? :thinking:

I thought it would mean someone has to say something in this case… I guess it would be something like 俺の方ばかり見て「と」言う「人は」注意事項 if it was not a senryu but a regular sentence.

Or is it something other than this? Can it be ommited in this case?

No translation attempt, because I can’t find a fun way to translate 注意事項.

At first I was baffled by the て-form + 言う, but after looking at your daughter hint, I think I got the meaning.

I think 俺の方ばかり見て qualify 言う, it’s the manner of how the 言う is done.

A 注意事項 that {someone} say looking straight at me.
Who is {someone} ? Volume is “husbands”, so the stereotypical complainer would be the wife. I guess the joke is that a 注意事項 is normally a generic warning, not addressed to someone in particular?

I’m completely relying on my daughter here, but it’s implied that there are other people receiving the warnings/getting scolded, but that the author is the only one getting looked at.

The 言う means they are verbal warnings here I believe. It “belongs” to the second half, not the first if that makes sense. (That’s my understanding - I’m 100% confident in my daughter’s translation, but I didn’t ask her about 言う here specifically).

Unsure why this is in the husbands volume — other than we are always getting in trouble. :slight_smile:

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Exactly. It translates as: A verbal warning spoken while looking at me and only me.

言う(た)注意 • spoken/verbal warning (not 100% sure about the omitted た, but I think that’s basically what’s going on)

From the website of the Hawaii branch of Don Quijote:
“Our company stores were named after the hero in Miguel de Cervantes novel, whose style corresponds to ourselves defying unfair restrictions and regularity, bravely and aggressively offering challenges to the conventional retail industry.”

“Challenging the conventional retail industry” seems to include late hours, discount prices, and amusement. I must admit, “We deeply identify with this addled and deluded old man character” is a bold business ethos.

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Saturday, May 14, 2022


Previous senryu

  1. 俺の方ばかり見て言う注意事項
    おれのほう・ばかりみていう・ちゅういじこう
    Verbal warnings / while only looking at me

Notes:

  • @LaVieQ and @Arzar33 were closest to understanding, I think.
  • This one was difficult I think because of the 5-7-5 (err 5-7-6) constraints put on the author. Japanese grammar is tricky since entire clauses can modify other clauses, but I think this one was basically two halves: “(someone) was looking at me alone” and “spoken/verbal warnings”.

Current senryu challenge

Volume: Children

  1. パトカーが付いて来るよと子ははしゃぎ

Hints:

  • This one should be pretty easy.
  • パトカー means “patrol car”. I learned this many, many years ago rather comically when I was a passenger in a car and someone said something like そこにパトカーがあるよ. It might even have been the exact phrasing above. As is often the case with 外来語(がいらご), I just assumed it was yet another Japanese word I didn’t know. I’m looking out the window trying to figure out what on earth they were pointing at while saying in ever louder voices パトカー、パトカー、英語(えいご)だよ! English?!! I was completely mystified. Eventually my wife took pity and said ぱ と ろ る か あ — “patrol car”.
  • (はしゃ)ぎ doesn’t appear until level 51. Nice to get a jump on it!
  • Don’t let the よ throw you. Remember the function of と.

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 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.

  1. パトカーが付いて来るよと子ははしゃぎ

ぱとかーがついてくるよとこははしゃぎ

“Ooo! A police car
is following us!” exclaims
my child, gleefully.

I feel you there.

Tangential personal anecdote

英語だよ!is a familiar phrase from my time in Japan. This has happened with (among others)
シトラス - citrus
ウルフ - wolf
ツイスト - twist,
and my personal favorite, ホン コール - えぇ? 本凍る???..oh, a PHONE CALL, Jesus,
and my confusion was always met with an insistent “英語だよ! 英語!”

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Outstanding 5-7-5. :clap: :clap: :clap: Well done.

I wonder if it was a child that announce the following or the spouse? I interpreted it as the spouse or other passenger saying it, and the child/children getting excited, but it totally works (probably better) with the children saying it, too.

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