TIL! “Apparently, women with an elder brother are desirable to Japanese men.”
This is why I enjoy these so much. It’s as much about learning cultural things as linguistic things. I am enormously entertained when I learn the relationship between watermelons and sumo, or that women with older brothers are considered attractive/desirable in Japan. That we uncover these things in just 17 mora amazes me. (By “we” I mostly mean @LaVieQ, @Myria, etc. — folks who clearly know what they are about! )
Current senryu challenge
Volume: Ladies
スカートのホックつかんでくしゃみする
I think this our first one without any kanji.
No hints because the two katakana words are in most JE dictionaries.
Once again I feel confident that there is no hidden meaning and this is an easy one to translate. Once again, I expect to be proven 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.
So, it won’t come undone? pop off? leave an imprint on the skin? All of these seem unlikely… Not sure what it is trying to say, except for capturing an odd gesture.
That association, made all the more memorable with your picture of Chiyonofuji with a watermelon hovering between his legs, is something that I’ll remember forever. 夏の綱
Googling around I found a web page that classified this one under the category of ダイエット which suggests maybe deliberately sneezing is a trick to do up a dress you’re just slightly too big for ?
Since to my surprise the meaning wasn’t obvious: The implication is that the author is a little overweight and afraid of the hook/clasp breaking or the skirt ripping.
Current senryu challenge
Volume: Various Settings
看板にシーフードとあるタコ焼き屋
This makes me hungry (I spent a lot of time in the Osaka area and absolutely love those delicious little balls of molten, doughy goo). Nice to see a level 29 vocabulary word turn up in context (看板).
I’m wondering if the humor is having to clarify that the shop’s octopus is real seafood or if it’s the incongruity (snack stand vs. fishmonger).
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.
Poking fun at the pretentiousness of the signboard?
That’s quite imaginative. I tried a couple of pretend sneezes, and the stomach doth recede momentarily. I need to try the trick on the jeans from my 20’s that I still have. Hope springs eternal and all that.
I bet you think I’ll give up tinkering with these some day, don’t you? In this case, I just couldn’t deal with translating takoyaki as “octopus dumplings”. Dough balls maybe, but to me dumplings imply a soup or stew. Also, Coq au Vin could correctly be called “chicken with wine” but to me at least it doesn’t conjure up the same imagery.
Current senryu challenge
Volume: School
平均点下げるのいつも僕の役
Once again, I’m happy to report I could read this without a dictionary and I even think I understand the meaning. At least I don’t think there’s anything beyond the literal meaning.
Hoping to see more attempts a this one! I’ll award more points if you somehow use the word “responsibility” instead of “role” for the last word (six syllables!).
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.
5-7-5
The average grade.
My responsibility:
Lower it. Always.
I thought of using takoyaki as such, but it is an obscure word for English speakers who’ve not been to Japan. Not that “octopus dumpling” immediately helps visualize the thing…
Extra points and a relaxation on syllable counts for working in “responsibility”
Current senryu challenge
Volume: Intense
戦争は行かない人がやりたがり
Yikes.
I’m pretty certain there are similar expressions in English, but I’m failing to come up with one. I never served, but grew up a military brat and know many that have.
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.
The literal meaning, of course, is that “those that don’t go to war, are eager to have them” but I like this more poetic interpretation.
I corrected a small typo in the reading.
I just noticed that I’m a few days behind on updating the spreadsheet. Will take care of it now.
Current senryu challenge
Volume: Various settings
ゲイバーで妻とそっくり酔いがさめ
Well, that’s a setting.
I’m going to need to research 酔いがさめ.
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.
Looking up 酔いがさめ its full version is 酔いが覚める which means “to sober up”.
DeepL translates the last part to mean “sobering up like a drunkard” which is quite an analogy that I had a hard time understanding, but further looking into it apparently there is a place just before blacking out or being so completely drunk that you become serene? so with that in mind my translation is ,
I think the joke is they didn’t realize it was a gay bar when they first went in.
Current senryu challenge
Volume: Salaryman
レントゲン 今年の思い出 これ一枚
Another easy one to read, yet I’m still puzzling out the meaning. Maybe the joke is an x-ray image itself as a keepsake/rememberance? Or possibly the ticket with your place in line to get scanned.
Like all large companies in Japan, Mitsubishi Electric in Kitaitami (KMELCO) had to provide free annual health exams to their employees. Rather than letting the employees schedule on their own, they had a health day (usually in June, IIRC) where they brought in a small army of healthcare workers and trucks with X-ray machines, etc. Every employee queued up to get their exams. The logistics were impressive stereotypes of Japanese orderliness: blood & urine samples, weight/height checks, blood pressure checks, chest x-ray, etc. IIRC, they eventually realized that forcing everyone to get a chest X-ray once per year just in case they found something was was unwise.
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.
Late submission, but since I toiled over it, it has to be inflicted on y’all…
ゲイバーで つまとそっくり よいがさめ
3-5-3
Wife and I,
sobered up quick! In
a gay bar!!
Did the realization that they were the only hetero couple in the bar sober them up そっくり?
「ショックだったですよぉぉぉ!!」
(I felt that “quick” conveys the feeling better than a literal translation of そっくり…)
COMMENT: Hard to believe that being in a gay bar would sober one up, all the more since LGBTQ relationship have a long history in Japan and is legal, even if not vested with all the rights due a man-woman relationship. Maybe because it was just an unusual venue for the couple?
NOTE: Didn’t know that 妻 can be pronounced つま or さい. However, the latter is only used in compounds: 夫妻 (ふさい married couple - sames as ふうふ), 多妻 (たさい polygamy), 良妻 (りょうさい good wife), 悪妻 (あくさい bad wife), and other such words….
Agreed, I don’t think it implies any sort of outrage or shock, just surprise that they didn’t realize that it was a gay bar when they walked in (likely because they’d already had a few too many).
I think it’s poking fun at having no pictures of friends or family or fun things you did, just having the x-ray being the only picture you have from this year.
I took これ一枚 to mean “this one picture/photo/x-ray.”
The implication seems to be that the x-ray had quite important ramifications for the writer. So much so that all other 枚 type of objects (writings/pictures/et) are deemed not as memorable.
If my reading is correct, it is quite a poignant 川柳, which is unusual (at least in terms of what I’ve seen so far).
I decided to go with as word-for-word of a translation as possible to let the reader interpret the meaning.
I’m an optimist. I prefer superelf’s slight less poignant interpretation, and refuse to consider the possibility that the image actually showed anything scary.
Current senryu challenge
Volume: Husbands
評判の愛妻弁当自作です
I love this one! I don’t think any hints are necessary, but an image search for 愛妻弁当 might be informative.
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.
to @LaVieQ
)
Not sure what it is trying to say, except for capturing an odd gesture.
I need to try the trick on the jeans from my 20’s that I still have. Hope springs eternal and all that. 
