This one was tricky. I’ve taken editorial liberties with the editing again (mea culpa), but I really like @Arzar33 's choice of the word “fib” rather than “lie”.
The trickiest grammar point was だまされてやるinstead of だまされる. They’re purposefully falling for his fibs.
I think it’s more likely うちじゅう rather than いえじゅう (or even かちゅう) but who knows?
Current senryu challenge
Volume: husbands
俺の方ばかり見て言う注意事項
No hints again. Again I’m not confident in my translation yet.
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!
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.
Well, I certainly blew this 川柳.I didn’t know the flipping function of やる - I am now properly edified. I asked around and apparently やる is the informal version of ふり・ぶり (pretending to…).
At some point my family is going to tire of me asking for help with these, but it’s almost every day we are discovering something like this.
There’s no way I’ll remember it all, but I do feel like I’m learning more every day.
Like many, one of my goals has been to read Murakami in his native language. This project, though, has made me realize how much more I want to be able to follow every detail of sketch comedy (old Downtown bits, etc.).
5-7-5 contortion:
おれのほうばかりみていうちゅういじこう
For my sake alone / were the cautionary notes / pointedly stated
Straight-ahead translation:
Addressed to me alone, / as it were, / the cautionary notes.
My impression is that the author was picked on for sins of his past, although I don’t see why it is solely a husbands’ predicament. Happens often enough in a corporate/project environment too. Then again, I may have misunderstood it.
I believe the context is someone announcing warnings like “lately we’ve had several staplers go missing” or “we’ve had complaints of people not parking in designated spaces”
I think these are challenging enough for natives even. I got enthusiastic support when I asked for an explanation.
Oh, brother! That’s a receding objective on the horizon for me… I was hoping to read Kawabata when I started down the path of learning Japanese. In my despair, I feel as if: “apresドン・キホーテ, c’est moi.”
Ok, I see where you’re coming from… but what’s the 言う’s function here?
I thought it would mean someone has to say something in this case… I guess it would be something like 俺の方ばかり見て「と」言う「人は」注意事項 if it was not a senryu but a regular sentence.
Or is it something other than this? Can it be ommited in this case?
No translation attempt, because I can’t find a fun way to translate 注意事項.
At first I was baffled by the て-form + 言う, but after looking at your daughter hint, I think I got the meaning.
I think 俺の方ばかり見て qualify 言う, it’s the manner of how the 言う is done.
A 注意事項 that {someone} say looking straight at me.
Who is {someone} ? Volume is “husbands”, so the stereotypical complainer would be the wife. I guess the joke is that a 注意事項 is normally a generic warning, not addressed to someone in particular?
I’m completely relying on my daughter here, but it’s implied that there are other people receiving the warnings/getting scolded, but that the author is the only one getting looked at.
The 言う means they are verbal warnings here I believe. It “belongs” to the second half, not the first if that makes sense. (That’s my understanding - I’m 100% confident in my daughter’s translation, but I didn’t ask her about 言う here specifically).
Unsure why this is in the husbands volume — other than we are always getting in trouble.
From the website of the Hawaii branch of Don Quijote:
“Our company stores were named after the hero in Miguel de Cervantes novel, whose style corresponds to ourselves defying unfair restrictions and regularity, bravely and aggressively offering challenges to the conventional retail industry.”
“Challenging the conventional retail industry” seems to include late hours, discount prices, and amusement. I must admit, “We deeply identify with this addled and deluded old man character” is a bold business ethos.
俺の方ばかり見て言う注意事項
おれのほう・ばかりみていう・ちゅういじこう
Verbal warnings / while only looking at me
Notes:
@LaVieQ and @Arzar33 were closest to understanding, I think.
This one was difficult I think because of the 5-7-5 (err 5-7-6) constraints put on the author. Japanese grammar is tricky since entire clauses can modify other clauses, but I think this one was basically two halves: “(someone) was looking at me alone” and “spoken/verbal warnings”.
Current senryu challenge
Volume: Children
パトカーが付いて来るよと子ははしゃぎ
Hints:
This one should be pretty easy.
パトカー means “patrol car”. I learned this many, many years ago rather comically when I was a passenger in a car and someone said something like そこにパトカーがあるよ. It might even have been the exact phrasing above. As is often the case with 外来語, I just assumed it was yet another Japanese word I didn’t know. I’m looking out the window trying to figure out what on earth they were pointing at while saying in ever louder voices パトカー、パトカー、英語だよ! English?!! I was completely mystified. Eventually my wife took pity and said ぱ と ろ る か あ — “patrol car”.
燥ぎ doesn’t appear until level 51. Nice to get a jump on it!
Don’t let the よ throw you. Remember the function of と.
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!
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.
“Ooo! A police car
is following us!” exclaims
my child, gleefully.
I feel you there.
Tangential personal anecdote
英語だよ!is a familiar phrase from my time in Japan. This has happened with (among others)
シトラス - citrus
ウルフ - wolf
ツイスト - twist,
and my personal favorite, ホン コール - えぇ? 本凍る???..oh, a PHONE CALL, Jesus,
and my confusion was always met with an insistent “英語だよ! 英語!”
I wonder if it was a child that announce the following or the spouse? I interpreted it as the spouse or other passenger saying it, and the child/children getting excited, but it totally works (probably better) with the children saying it, too.
ぱとかーがついてくるよとこははしゃぎ
“Wow! A police car / just to escort us!” squeals / my excited kid
Maybe the choice of the word “squeals” is overwrought, but it fits with the mood of 燥ぐ to get me to the all consuming 5-7-5 objective. Well, that’s my excuse…
A classic attack of カタンギリス (Katakana English), wherein the English word is written down in kana and then pronounced in kana, causing the English speaking listener much consternation. The worst such confusion I had was with 「シドニー」 when I heard it the first time. After a couple of attempts at getting through to me verbally, the speaker wrote it down in English and I was like, “She-doe-knee= Sydney? なるほどね!!” I was pushed into a deep meditative state as my mind went blank before he wrote it down. A very powerful koan, it was.
The Japanese can sometimes seem so mysterious in their choice of words and names. Who else would think of saying「サボ」 for skipping classes? Not to mention the kind of nonsense phrases that adorn t-shirts… But, I suppose that’s also the charm of Japan…