Friday, April 22, 2022
Previous senryu
- グーを出す孫の癖知りチョキを出す
グーをだす・まごのくせしり・チョキをだす
Knowing my grandchild’s / habit of throwing rocks / I show “scissors”
Notes:
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to the first 3-way tie: @Hubbit200, @Gorbit99, and @GearAid -
I would also tend to use the word “throw” with this game, but “throwing rocks” makes me think of a different kid’s activity. I made a unilateral decision to split the difference and explicitly encourage that connotation in the middle stanza, but make the ending more of a surprise by forcing the other.
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Don’t hate me
Current senryu challenge
This time from the “Ladies” volume (女性編):
- 目は一重アゴ二重に腹は三重
めはひとえ・アゴにじゅうに・はらはさんじゅう
I don’t begin to understand this one yet. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m missing a word connotation, a poetic piece of wordplay, Japanese culture, of if I just don’t understand women! Most likely a combination of all the above.
The blurred reading above may also be completely wrong (please correct me if so)!
Two hints (though I could be completely off base):
- I think this primarily refers to お重, the multi-tiered lacquerware stacking boxes used during fancy Japanese meals. I’m pretty sure it’s also using at least one of the other connotations as well, but I’m not sure exactly how.
- I know about 40% of the people in Japan have a double (or folded) eyelid. I forget which is considered more beautiful for women. Typical oblivious guy here, I’ve certainly never noticed the difference! I do think the first stanza uses this connotation, though.
Good luck! Remember to please use the spoiler tag with your translation attempts.
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.
Here’s the link to the spreadsheet with all the upcoming senryu as well as the translations to date.