I’ve been learning the song なんでもないや by the Radwimps, and I understand (at least I’m pretty sure I do) every line in the song now except one. I’ve tried different tools, I’ve found various translations online, but I cannot figure out, what はぐれっこ means in the following line.
僕らタイムフライヤー 時を駆け上がるクライマー
時のかくれんぼ はぐれっこはもういやなんだ
Can anyone tell me what the はぐれっこ part means and explain what’s happening in that line? thanks!
I know かくれんぼ means hide n’ seek usually (at least that’s what it means when the kids at the park ask me to play with them), and もう嫌なんだ seems easy enough
Both replies are super helpful! Thanks guys!
Those were the missing pieces for me.
Still, I’m honestly a little confused.
is all of かくれんぼはぐれっこ genitive to 時?
like is it referring to time’s “lose sight of like hide n’ seek” nature that the writer “doesn’t like”?
I think it’s separate pieces - like “in time’s hide and seek - I don’t want to be left behind” that kind of thing.
Like comparing the passage of time (and people departing from your life because of it) to when all your friends run away and hide in hide-and-seek, I think. - or to be hiding and have the other kids not find you and forget about you - I searched google images for はぐれっこ and the statue that comes up looks like that’s what’s happening rather than being the searcher in hide and seek (but I’m not positive).
Hmm… so you’d say はぐれっこ is describing the writer (or how they don’t want to be). That makes a good bit of sense. I initially thought it was personifying time, that is, the years would disappear, and never be found again.
Your interpretation seems more consistent linguistically, but I’m more confused about the overall context now. Losing track of or sight of time makes poetic sense to me. I don’t understand what it means to be left behind by time. I can take some guesses, but I’m not sure.
Lost to posterity?
Thanks for the input! I’m really impressed with everyone’s abilities to figure this out!
I’m still not a 100% I get it, but I think you’re right that はぐれっこ more likely refers to the author.
When everything and everyone around you changes, but you find you’re still the same? I’m not sure how that fits the rest of the song, but I noticed that it was made for a movie (Your Name, which I still haven’t watched), so maybe the rest of the puzzle pieces are there.
It’s a song, so I mean, I could always be wrong on both a technical level and a purely subjective emotional level!
The imagery’s going to be pretty airy and up to interpretation no matter what.
For what it’s worth though, I listened to the song and read over the lyrics for a while, and my take is that it’s about the singer coming to understand someone who’s more dynamic and in the moment than the singer, via their departure or some distance between the two. So it’s sad that they’re gone, but also bittersweet because the reason for the distance makes sense to the singer now.
To me, the 時のかくれんぼ はぐれっこはもういやなんだ part plays into that because it’s like - do you want to sit around and hide, or do you want to run around and play?
Like, the difference between opportunity finding you, and getting up to go find it yourself. That’s, as best I can tell, what being a “time flyer” is. Someone who knows when to move on and capital-L live versus someone who has found a perfect hiding spot, so to speak, and just wants to stay there forever, even after everyone’s moved on.
So the chorus to me is what the singer is learning from the other person - that we’re here to climb and fly and run on the currents of time, not sit and wait to be found.
The singer can’t imagine a world without the other, and statically can’t do anything but wish for one more day, to stop time and just keep what they have, but by the end
君の心が 君を追い越したんだよ becomes 僕の心が 僕を追い越したんだよ, showing they’ve been one over to the other’s perspective.
I also feel like the later 時のかくれんぼ はぐれっこ はもういいよ has a stronger “and I’m doing something to no longer be this way / enough is enough” vibe than the original もういやなんだ to go along with that.
So now the singer has fully accepted that we are time flyers and we’ve got to work to make and seek out new situations for ourselves instead of just being sad the old one can’t last forever.
That’s what I get from it anyway! At some level it’s less grammar and more discussing poetry!
Does that jibe with what you get from it?
