(The increasingly less) Daily senryu thread

This 川柳 was explained in words through a scenario that a friend wrote. She later did a manga around it and sent it to me and so, here it is, for your viewing pleasure :wink:

4 Likes

She’s hired!

1 Like

Sunday, July 10, 2022


Previous senryu

  1. 俺の留守便座上がっている疑惑
    おれのるす・べんざあがって・いるぎわく
    So suspicious! / Toilet seat raised up / in my absence

Notes:

  • :confetti_ball: to @LaVieQ (welcome back!)

  • As a man, I can confidently state that a raised toilet seat wouldn’t cause me a second thought, even if I thought I’d left it down! Still seems funny to me regardless of the author’s gender.

  • I’m feeling under the weather with flu symptoms (is there something going around?). Doubt I’ll be of much use today.

Current senryu challenge

Volume: Salaryman

  1. 会議中 時の流れに 身をまかせ

No hints. I’m pretty sure anyone who has been to meetings in a corporate environment knows the feeling! Very poetic — I’ll try to remember this one.


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(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.

かいぎちゅう ときのながれに みをまかせ

3-4-3

In meetings,
just go with the
flow of time

Sit back, relax. It will take what it will take. “It is what it is.” :smiley:

2 Likes

I think I’ve finally figured out the meaning of this beast:

4-5-4
Dog’s insistence -
Only way out is
to give it rubs

I got confused by trying to figure out the person with whom the author is having an “impasse.” But, the only other being referenced in the 川柳 is the dog. 当たり前なのに! Also, translating 撫でている literally as “petting” makes one lose sight of the doggie behavior around which the statement is constructed.

Having cared for dogs in the past, the universal dictum: “The dog that wants a rub, shall receive one!” should have come to mind earlier, but that’s the 迷い of translating words literally.

Hope you’re feeling better today. It may simply be the seasonal changes in Northern California - must be warming up there, finally. I get that every year and got it this year a month or so ago.

1 Like

Monday, July 11, 2022


Previous senryu

  1. 会議中 時の流れに 身をまかせ
    かいぎちゅう・ときのながれに・みをまかせ
    In meeting: / surrendered to the / flow of time

Notes:

  • :confetti_ball: to @LaVieQ (with my inevitable tweaks)

  • Sorry for the delay. I’m still feeling under the weather.

Current senryu challenge

Volume: Life in one page

  1. ゴミ収集の前日わが家スイカの日

Ooh. This is a weird one.

I’m pretty sure this is about watermelons rather than a prepaid Suica train pass, but I still don’t get it. Maybe it’s just saying they don’t want watermelon rinds rotting in the garbage before collection?


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(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.

Yeah, that makes the most sense to me. I was leaning toward it being an impasse between the author and a dog, but wondered if there was something more. I forgot to ask my wife about it.

Dog’s insistence -
Only way out is
to give it rubs

and

Petting the dog —
the only way to
break the impasse

Seem pretty similar to me, so I’ll leave it. Would be fun to work in “scritches” somehow, though. :smile:

1 Like

Ok, on this one I’m not understanding the わ at all. Can anyone explain the grammar for that?

()() – “our house”

3 Likes

Ok, in that case I think I understand the meaning pretty well. I’m not a poet so I won’t submit anything though.

Thanks for the explanation! When stuff is in kana sometimes I can’t tell what’s part of a word or a particle or a grammar point.

Hah! You have seen my attempts, no?

Please do submit if you’ve an idea. I’m still mystified.

There is probably some deeply profound meaning behind choosing kana rather than kanji for 我 here, but danged if I know what it is.

ごみしゅうしゅうのまえひ わがやすいかのひ

Direct Translation
The day before garbage day,
is our family’s “watermelon day”

Poem

“Watermelon day”,
Conveniantly before
Trash collection day

Notes

I think it’s just messy and watermelon takes up a lot of space in a garbage can. Plus with the potential for leakage it would be bad to have it sitting in the can for a long time too. Also in Japan since garbage collection happens outside, there is a chance of, if you put out a trash bag with watermelon scraps in it for too long, local wildlife can get into the trash area and cause issues (ask my friend in a neighboring town about how they can’t put trash out at max 2 hours before the trash collector arrives due to local bears)

3 Likes

Please take some time to rest up and feel better! if this thread misses a day that’s no big deal, take care! Get well soon!

2 Likes

I interpreted it the same way as you at first, and then realized there’s another possible interpretation, and I don’t know which I believe more.

So my other interpretation is maybe it’s actually really inconvenient that garbage day is before watermelon day, if they’re expecting to have a lot of family over and are trying to frantically clean the house. So I’m wondering if this has a positive image (I’m lucky things lined up) or a negative image (things never line up correctly). A lot of these senryuu are sort of negative irony vibes, so maybe the second one is possible

1 Like

I see it more as a mom maxing the amount of clean up to do and just kinda like "oh wow! what a coincidence! especially since it’s from the journal titled “life in one page” Senryuu can be funny and ironic, but this one I can’t see it as anything deeper than the head of the house deciding, well this will work well! and maybe one kid noticing, hey… does watermelon day happen because of this? Kind of like, doing a specific deep cleaning task the day before the monthly guests come, but only now realizing, wait is that why we do this on this day?

I find the Salaryman ones to be more ironic and negative out of the few I’ve done

3 Likes

Yes, I’m also inclined to think this is all that’s going on. It’s just convenient to save the watermelon rinds for the day before garbage pickup. The wording is pretty specific that it’s the day before garbage collection.

2 Likes

Keep in mind that many or most of these are quite likely “Salaryman” senryu (submissions to the annual competition). The author just categorized them into similar themes. The ones labeled “Salaryman” in my spreadsheet were just later adds to the original page from the 2007+ competitions.

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I think basically everyone agrees on the literal meaning, but I’m still not sold on the context. My thought is

[spoiler]in America watermelons are huge and also normal occurrences, we eat them regularly at big gatherings, and they create a lot of waste, which is why my first thought was that it is convenient for the trash to go out after watermelon day.

But in Japan, watermelons are small and considered to be special things, so you bring them out as a very special treat or at a special event (at least that’s my understanding). So that might negate the idea of having a ton of waste in terms of the rind, and instead put forward the context of shoot, this is a special event, and I can’t put out the trash until afterwards[/spoiler]

In any case, I’ve got no clue which context a Japanese person would lean toward, this is all just idle speculation

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]
Japan treats most fruit as special and a luxury. Fruit here is expensive! and they are only really sold when they are in season which makes them more expensive. Also, often fruit will go bad within a day or two, so if you buy a watermelon you have to eat it all in one go. (this isdue to not using as many chemicals as America does on it’s produce)

So you have this big watermelon, lots of prep, very messy, always has seeds (there is no seedless watermelon in Japan) and it takes up space in the garbage. I’m sure the context is just, it’s a messy fruit, lots of clean up, and if you wanted to use it as a special occassion, it works well if it lines up right before garbage day
[/spoiler].

1 Like

Asked my coworker and she said she interpreted it as lucky, so I think you’re right and my alternate interpretation is wrong