へいきんてん さげるのいつも ぼくのやく
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…
- 平均点下げるのいつも僕の役
へいきんてん さげるのいつも ぼくのやく
The average grade. / My responsibility: / Lower it. Always.
Notes:
to @LaVieq (shocker! 
)
Extra points and a relaxation on syllable counts for working in “responsibility”
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.
せんそうは いかないひとが やりとがり
2-3-2 (やった!)
Those who
seek wars, ain’t
seen one
Warmongers, in a nutshell.
I tried to use “warmongers” but, couldn’t get down to a 2-3-2 with it…
- 戦争は行かない人がやりたがり
せんそうは・いかないひとが・やりたがり
Those who / seek wars, ain’t / seen one
Notes:
to @LaVieQ (thank you!)
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.
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.
げいばーで つまとそっくり よいがさめ
Notes:
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 ,
Translation:
My wife drinks
to sobriety
at the gay bar
its a 4/5/4 but its an attempt!!
- ゲイバーで妻とそっくり酔いがさめ
ゲイバーで・つまとそっくり・よいがさめ
At a gay bar: / my wife and I both / sobered right up
Notes:
to @superelf94
I think the joke is they didn’t realize it was a gay bar when they first went in.
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….
Thank you!
I’m learning かな touch typing. That’s my excuse and I’m standing by it. 
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).
れんとげん ことしのおもいで これいちまい
My memory
for this whole year?
This one x-ray
Notes:
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.
レントゲン きょうねんのおもいで これいちまい
3-5-3
Memento
of this year: just this
one x-ray.
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).
- レントゲン 今年の思い出 これ一枚
レントゲン・きょうねんのおもいで・これいちまい
This one sheet, / this year’s memento: / an x-ray
Notes:
to @superelf94 and @LaVieQ
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.
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.
ひょうばんの あいさいべんとう じさくです
My famous
wife-packed lunch box
is self-made
I’m totally cool with changing “lunch box” into “bento” since many people know what a bento is and it’s become international.
This is very fun! also a big fan of the bento that’s mainly rice with くそ written in nori on top
ひょうばんの あいさいべんとう じさくです
4-5-4
Loving wife’s much
admired bento - in
fact, my handwork.
There’s a movie in there somewhere: “Psycho Bento!” Or perhaps a hit song: “Menace in a bento…” 
Didn’t know that メッセージ弁当 is a real thing!!!
- 評判の愛妻弁当自作です
ひょうばんの・あいさいべんとう・じさくです
My famous / wife-packed lunch box / is self-made
Notes:
to @superelf94
to @LaVieQ
Tough call today, but I think “handwork” emphasizes that it was made by hand rather than machine. I think the normal phrasing for “something I made” (vs. something made by another) would be “my handiwork”. Apologies, I know this is absurdly nit-picky, but I had to make a call.
The メッセージ弁当 link was great fun. I particularly like the somehow edgy and intimidating font used for this one:
Somehow I hear Bartok or the score from Psycho more than anything soft and relaxing!
Volume: Children
- 腹の子が胸なでおろす披露宴
I’m not even going to pretend I understand this one. Help!
I think なでおろす is 撫で下ろす. Relevant dictionary entry:
ほっと胸をなで下ろす give [heave] a (deep) sigh of relief; feel (greatly) relieved.
We had our 披露宴 in Japan before our formal wedding in the US. Seemed a little strange but it worked out great since we could have more people attend in total.
The etymology of 披露宴 apparently comes from 拡める and involves spreading the news of a couple’s setting out on their own.
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.
はらのこが むねなでおろす ひろうえん
My interpretation is that this is a 出来ちゃった結婚, and the idea is the unborn baby can relax now because they’ve made it to the wedding reception and the parents are thus safely married.
unborn kid can / finally relax / wedding banquet
Yes, the core of @pm215 's characterization is also what came to mind after I read the meaning of 胸を撫で下ろす…
Having read your hint and his version, I’ll pass on translating this one.
- 腹の子が胸なでおろす披露宴
はらのこが・むねなでおろす・ひろうえん
unborn kid can / finally relax / wedding banquet
to @pm215
Thanks for helping me figure this out! 腹の子 had me confused. I think @pm215 nailed it: “The idea is the unborn baby can relax now because they’ve made it to the wedding reception and the parents are thus safely married”.
Volume: Intense
- 株下がり何故かうれしいわたしたち
Hmm. I feel like I should understand this one, having worked at so many startups. I think I get it, or at least I have an interpretation from my own experience that makes sense, but I’m not 100% sure it’s what the author intended.
I’ve worked at companies where I felt the leadership was driving a company I cared about off a cliff. It was easy for them to ignore employees comments and concerns while the stock was flying high. It never ceased to amaze me how many VCs, board members, and silly-con valley executives would attribute all successes to their own genius, but negative results were, of course, inevitably due to the actions and ideas of others.
I’m embarrassed to admit I had to use a dictionary even though I ostensibly already “knew” all these characters. For some reason, 株 on it’s lonesome looked unfamiliar (I’d have recognized it instantly in 株式会社, for example).
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.
