(The increasingly less) Daily senryu thread

Somehow your wording made me think of another possible interpretation:

Maybe it’s just that many people aren’t heavily invested in the stock market, so the ups and downs don’t affect their happiness.

I’m curious if you had this or a different interpretation.

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I didn’t have exactly that specific interpretation, but my first thought was millennials hating the stock market, and occasionally rooting for the demise of hated companies. I’ve certainly felt that way before :sweat_smile:.

It reminded me a bit of this.

I do think that regardless of specifics, it seems to be someone who either has nothing invested in stocks or who has very little invested (like someone who works at the company in question and isn’t terribly fond of their job), and who feels a sense of relief or validation somehow at seeing the stocks fall, coupled with the solidarity implied by わたしたち.

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かぶさがり なぜかうれしい わたしたち

2-3-2 (やった!)

Puzzling -
down stock makes
us glad

A bit clumsy, but the pull of writing a 2-3-2 was too strong.

The reason for their happiness is not clear though, as there are many reasons to rejoice falling stocks such as buying into the market, options trading, schadenfreude, and so on. But, these are technical, trading driven reasons. I suspect the writer was alluding to a basic human reaction to falling stocks in this 川柳, which eludes me.

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Amen to that. One reason why I grew disillusioned with high-tech companies. The egos and behavior of the people at the top of high-tech, startup companies and their sense of righteousness towards others started to grate on me midway in my career. It made foolish-me snap out of the belief of solving world hunger through tech. :wink:

Ah, yes, this is more along the lines of a rationale for this 川柳, rather than technical, stock trading, behavioral reactions that I thought of.

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  1. 株下がり何故かうれしいわたしたち

Kana: ぶかさがりなぜかうれしいわたしたち

Translation attempt:

The stocks dipping
Had us overjoyed
For some reason

I think the interpretation that this is from the POV of someone who is not particularly invested is interesting, though in my translation attempt I went for a direct link between both halves of the 川柳. Either way, I don’t necessarily see an argument for or against either version in the text itself. :thinking:

3 Likes

Saturday, July 23, 2022


Previous senryu

  1. 株下がり何故かうれしいわたしたち
    かぶさがり・なぜかうれしい・わたしたち
    stocks are down. / for some reason, we’re / all happy

Notes:

  • Tough call, but :confetti_ball: goes to @fallynleaf (most votes)

  • :trophy: to @LaVieQ and @valvictorine

  • I tend to agree with the consensus: this appears to be from the viewpoint of someone emotionally uninvested in stocks (whether monetarily or not). It doesn’t say why they’re happy, but it may simply be wry commentary that stock prices don’t (or shouldn’t) always affect happiness.

Current senryu challenge

Volume: Intense

  1. 離婚後も同居続けるへんな仲

Interesting: this one does not appear to have any sort of hidden interpretation below the surface, and seems to just state the meaning directly. At least it seems pretty direct to me. 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(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.

Translation attempt

I came up with a 4-5-4:

  1. 離婚後も同居続けるへんな仲

りこんごも・どうきょつづける・へんななか

Post divorce and
cohabiting, odd
relationship

2 Likes

りこんごも どうきょつづける へんななか

4-5-4

Cohabiting
after divorce! Strange
relationship!!

Apparently happens a lot these days. There was even a long article about it recently. (Search for “Separated but under the same roof” in NY Times.) Still, it is an unusual arrangement.

1 Like

離婚後(りこんご)同居(どうきょ)(つづ)けるへんな(なか)

divorced but still
living together.
odd dynamic

5 Likes

Sunday, July 24, 2022


Previous senryu

  1. 離婚後も同居続けるへんな仲
    りこんごも・どうきょつづける・へんななか
    Post divorce and / cohabiting. Strange / relationship!

Notes:

  • :confetti_ball: @LaVieQ

  • :trophy: @fallynleaf

  • @LaVieQ and I came up with similar translations. I kind of mushed them together. As discussed, I like to keep these as close to the original as possible, so “and” rather than “but” (for the も) and “post divorce” for 離婚(りこん)().

Current senryu challenge

Volume: Salaryman

  1. 「ありがとう」 そのひとことが 潤滑油

Again this seems to have the meaning right on the surface.

I doubt anyone will need them, but just in case, here are some hints:

I’m pretty sure it’s 一言(ひとこと), but I don’t think there is any particular reason for writing it in hiragana.

This dictionary example seems to explain the meaning of the final term quite well:

・労使間の潤滑油の働きをする smooth relations [reduce friction] between labor and management.


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.

Yet both of your translations left out 続ける :wink:.

も is a tricky one. Yomichan doesn’t even define it as “and” or “but”, haha, because the meaning seems to be closer to “also,” “too,” “in addition,” etc. In my opinion, both “and” and “but” convey that both of the things are occurring, but “but” feels a little more natural for the translation into English because “post-divorce” and “living together” are qualities that seemingly contrast with each other (like in the phrase “Separated but under the same roof” in the NY Times article that LaVieQ mentioned).

Maybe I’m wrong, though :sweat_smile:.

4 Likes

Fair point.

While your “still living together” is more direct, “cohabiting” still seems a reasonably concise translation of “continuing to live together” (同居(どうきょ)(つづ)ける).

You’re definitely right that when a noun is followed by も, it mostly means “also” or “either” (see Particle も: Addition Marker). I was thinking of “and” as in “and also living together” where the “also” is somewhat redundant.

If the author wasn’t under (おん) count constraints, they might have chosen to use ですが or something similar, but because they didn’t it feels ever so slightly off to translate も as “but” here. (Just my opinion, of course.)

Lastly, though, I think you’d agree that “relationship” for (なか) is more direct than “dynamic”.

Anyway, yours was a fine translation but ultimately I decided to go with the mashup.

Yes, my translation was not very good, but it seems a bit arbitrary which words you care about being direct/left in, and which ones you don’t :sweat_smile:

THAT’s a fair cop. :grin:

Ultimately I don’t think we can always have universal agreement: ultimately I have to make a call.

(And there is nothing wrong with your translation!)

kana:

ありがとう そのひとことが じゅんかつゆ

literal translation:

“Thank you” the one phrase that keeps things running smoothy

Poetic translation:

Say “Thank you”;
keeps things runn/
ing smoothly

If i break the word then the syllables line up for a 3/4/3 so :person_shrugging:

4 Likes

Lol whenever I submitted a translation, I ultimately just ended up feeling bad, so I just check every day to see if I understand them and don’t submit anything. I figured it wasn’t worth it to work hard trying to perfect the English for an arbitrary prize that I will never be awarded, but still feel ashamed at not getting, even though it literally doesn’t matter.

All that to say, your translation was fine, regardless of whether it was deemed good enough, prizes on the internet are fake and we gotta do the hard work of just letting it go.

1 Like

Yikes!

I really really don’t want to discourage anyone from submitting a translation!

Please say something if anything bothers you about how I’m running the thread. I’m pretty thick-skinned, but if I don’t know about an issue I can’t address it.

I didn’t realize I was causing problems explaining my rationale for picking any given translation over another.

Mea culpa.

So unless someone has a better suggestion, I’ll just unceremoniously pick a translation without comment, and quit with the :confetti_ball: and :trophy: silliness.

Unfortunately, I don’t think counting likes suffices because late entries are effectively penalized. I’d like to continue the mostly daily pace, though, so polls don’t really work, either.

I never meant for this to be a competition or to make anyone uncomfortable submitting an attempt! Exactly the opposite: I was hoping for as much participation and discussion as possible.

(Also, FWIW, “that I will never be awarded” seems harsh: your translation was selected on 5/23 and 6/3.)

3 Likes

I think these are cute! Maybe just giving another emoji for the daily translation attemptees might help get more people to join?
You explain why you choose the translations you do, and I think it’s as fair as having one judge can be. The rules are laid out at the beginning of the thread and you’ve adjusted them as things and suggestions came up so I don’t think thats a big problem.

Maybe allowing past senryu to be retranslated might help? Like, “oh i thought of this translation for a previous day, what do you think?” but I can also see how that can devolve quickly trying to refind things.

I think in the end, people who want to try just need to jump headfirst into it! I also get discouraged if I look at other people’s translations first, (but that’s a willpower thing for me personally) and if I don’t look I still have fun even if I’ve translated something a little different than what the grammar says.

I have not seen any comment from anyone on here that was too critical or overly mean that would actively discourage those from trying so I think you’re doing good at making a friendly atmosphere on this thread!

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Please, yes! Not just allowed, but encouraged.

The spreadsheet is available as well as the top post. If anyone has any comments or suggestions for prior translations, please don’t hesitate to bring them up.

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I should make it clear, this is a me problem and not a you problem, and I don’t think you need to change what you’re doing. Mentally at this point i find the competition aspect difficult to handle for my own personal reasons, and that’s been more true in the last 2 months or so, again for personal reasons. I thought i detected those same vibes in the previous comment so i wanted to show some support and solidarity, although reading back it may sound like criticism. I like this thread, and I like participating in a way where i am not submitting my work for judgement, but others may feel differently. Please feel free to just carry on. I didn’t mean to derail the system, only offer my own perspective.

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