Monday, June 27, 2022
I was out of pocket all day yesterday (watching the Giants get mugged). Did everyone behave while I was away?
Previous senryu
- 食い逃げ追って行った男も帰らない
くいにげおって いったおとこも かえらない
He ran out in hot pursuit / of the dine-and-dash thief but / never came back either
Notes:
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to @pm215 (and welcome!) -
2nd try was the charm! Congrats for figuring it out. It seems 99% of the time the trick to understanding these is figuring out the subject/protagonist (in this case a restaurant owner)!
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Note that we’ve come to realize that syllable-counts and 音-counts don’t really correlate 1:1. 5-7-5 syllable counts in English tend to feel wordy and not as “poetic” as the original Japanese. In general, 11 to 15 syllables are preferrable (3-5-3 or 4-5-4 tend to “feel” similar to the originals).
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to @superelf94 and @LaVieQ
Current senryu challenge
Volume: Salaryman
- 無茶言うな！ サンタはそんなに 金がない
Note that the “Salaryman” volume just means it was a winner of the annual salaryman senryu contest, not necessarily about of for salarymen (this one is obviously aimed at parents).
Another easy one to read. I think it also has just one possible interpretation — prove me 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!
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 語源由来辞典 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.