I tend to agree with everyone, I think it probably is the wife without a smile. My previous comment with the other interpretation (that I was not certain of) was just my initial thought.
It is still possible to interpret it as the author trying to hide a smile, though. The に unfortunately doesn’t help to clarify who is not smiling at leaving on time.
Current senryu challenge
Volume: Intense
うますぎる話見抜けぬ欲の皮
Once again I’m amazed at actually being able to (s-l-o-w-l-y) read another one without a dictionary, while still having absolutely no idea what’s going on!
Here’s how I parse it, but I’m still struggling with the real meaning (as always, mistakes are likely below, but you may not want to look until after you’ve tried your hand at it).
So l suspect the meaning is something like “clever talk is the skin covering hidden desires” but I’m still completely unsure if that’s even close or if that even makes a lick of sense!
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.
Had a spare moment, and thought I’d drop by! So glad I did, since this includes a new expression for me. I’m excited to see how everyone else interprets this poem.
Also I find ぬ to be especially fun,
since I accidentally learned it really early in my language journey. We’re talking です、ます、and ぬ - the point where I used to think it was as common as ない.
うますぎるはなし / みぬけぬ / よくのかわ
a story
too good to be true
conceals greed
The perspective of my interpretation:
Ideally, I wanted to express that you “aren’t able to see the greed of the other party, when being told something that’s too good to be true”.
Too good to be true
But where is the catch?
I‘m getting greedy
#2
Too good to be true
I can’t figure out the trick
Gonna get greedy
I didn’t know how to approach this at first, but @Axazel‘s interpretation helped me figure it out! I went reading a bit about the expression 欲の皮が引っ張る, and to me it seems like it’s describing the feelings of the author: he can“t seem to figure out the trick of this deal, so he“s getting greedy because there might actually be no catch. Happy to be corrected though
How did you find or know to look for 欲の皮が引っ張る? I’m learning so much about how to research in this thread it’s amazing, but that was a serious leap — any tips will be more than appreciated.
I couldn’t find that exact phrase, but did find
欲の皮が突っ張る (you are greedy as you can be) and
欲の皮が張る (to be greedy)
Both were completely new phrases to me.
This one is really hard! I’m amazed that you and @Axazel figured this much out. I was completely stumped.
欲の皮 just sounds like a proverb, 見抜けぬ欲 doesn’t make much sense and a random trailing の皮 also doesn’t make much sense, so I figured that must be the expression.
TIL what “clever talk is the skin covering hidden desires” means (laugh).
The key to understanding this one is the expression 「 欲の皮が張る」 which means “to be greedy” (a new one for me). What an odd way to express that!
Current senryu challenge
Volume: Heartfelt (しみじみ編)
「この人と渋茶すすっている不思議」
Again with the easy to read but mysterious meaning! I even guessed the reading of 渋茶 correctly (the meaning was obvious).
I’m pretty sure that this one will remain mysterious in English, though. The winner will likely hinge on which specific English word is chosen for 不思議.
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.
Another good day means writing another poem with you all I think this one has a complex feeling that’s hard to capture in English…. but I like what I’ve come up with!
このひとと / しぶちゃすすっている / ふしぎ
with this person
sipping bitter tea
is something else
NOTES:
Is this about the charm of someone’s company, so much so that the tea pot sits forgotten to the side, making the tea go bitter? The translation doesn’t quite catch the mood, though.
I searched for 渋茶をすする as an idiomatic expression, but found nothing. So, I guess the meaning is literal. However, I discovered the interesting expression 茶々を入れる, which means to interrupt (presumably by pouring tea often, distracting the interaction). Which makes me wonder if the bitter tea is a reference to being so engrossed in whatever is going on with the 相手 that the tea sits neglected and goes bitter.
The website for proverbs ＆ expressions is also handy. See their explanation for 欲の皮が突っ張る。
Another to @LaVieQ for a late entry. I’m unsure, of course, but I still don’t think 不思議 has positive connotations here. I think it’s an unusual word choice for explaining being engrossed/distracted .
Current senryu challenge
Volume: Heartfelt (しみじみ編)
「その夢にあんたもいたと妻が泣く」
This is becoming a pattern! Once again, I can read the words without assistance. Still wondering about the meaning, though.
Hints/musings:
あんた (you) implies either rudeness or extreme familiarity
Does the と mean “if”? Or is it setting up a scenario (like quoting)?
My initial interpretation (likely wrong as usual) is something like, “If you were also in that dream, my wife would cry”.
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.
I’ve changed the order of the OP to put today’s assignment (and the prior translations) at the very top instead of the bottom.
This makes it slightly easier for me to edit every day (I might also start marking the current assignment as the solution every day, but since I want to include prior translations it won’t really save me much work).
Hopefully this makes the top post more useful to others, too, but don’t hesitate to let me know if you don’t like the change.
Sorry, left town before I could respond to your message.
I was in Hillsborough, near SFO for the last 3 days visiting friends. It was indeed a fun long weekend filled with wine, movies and all sorts of conversations.
Just noticed that you are also based in the Bay area… I live in San Diego, btw. It’ll be nice to do a 川柳 meet up up there (or down here). Wonder if there’s anyone else here from the West Coast…
I’m not going to submit an official entry, but my thought on this was You should also go after that dream, my wife cries. The meaning is the wife is tearfully telling the person to follow their dreams?
That could be way off base, I think the different ideas come from different interpretations of いた, and I’m not totally sure which is right. I thought maybe it could be shoot for (射る) because being in a dream didn’t make much sense to me, but honestly who knows.
I wondered for a second about this too… but I don’t think literally translated “shoot for” your dreams is an expression used in Japanese. It’s usually 夢を追い(かける) or 夢を叶える.
Using と like this is a grammar point that means “whenever x occurs, y also happens” So I think “if” is totally fine, along with “when” or “whenever”.Grammar point here!
I have the same interpretation! So here goes my attempt:
—————————-
そのゆめに / あんたもいた / とつまがなく
in that dream
if you’re there with her
my wife cries
I‘m not gonna submit a translation either, but と is definitely a quotation here, such as と言う, just with 泣く as the verb in question.
I don’t think a past tense verb is logically possible before a conditional と, so it must be quotational. The verb fits as well.
The use of あんた also sounds like spoken language → it’s a quotation of something the wife said.
夢に出る should mean „to appear in a dream“. I don’t think there’s an alternate interpretation.
My first thought was something like: my wife crying „you were there in my dream, too!“
Context being maybe a nightmare, and something bad happened to people in her dream, including her husband? (also based on the fact that it’s the しみじみ category so I suppose it’s about something rather cute and innocent)
Another (more likely and research-based) interpretation: Googling 夢に出る 夫 sent me down the path of 夢占い and that apparently your husband appearing in your dream means that the opposite of the dream will happen in real life (逆夢). Maybe this is why the wife is crying; she had a happy dream, but her husband appeared in it as well and now she fears that the dream won’t come true and something bad will happen.
Your googling seems really important here, I think that gives some much needed context. I thought いた couldn’t possible be existence because why on earth would that matter? But with that cultural context, it makes so much more sense!
This is really well stated and helped me understand. Initially, I thought there were three people involved, the author, maybe a girlfriend, and the wife. But as a quotation, あんた now makes much more sense: “you were in my dream” is what the wife was crying. “My wife cried, ‘you were in my dream’!” This makes much more sense than “if you were in her dream, she would cry”.
あんた is often used between husband and wife, but is weird/rude with others, which is why I was so confused trying to make it work with three people!
to @superelf94
My previous comment with the other interpretation (that I was not certain of) was just my initial thought.
I think this one has a complex feeling that’s hard to capture in English…. but I like what I’ve come up with!
to 
