Lamenting the present and dressing in the past That, that, that, that! (I've always interpreted the sore sore sore sore kinda like "Yeah, that's it, exactly like that!") Of the clinging, disoriented and wounded (The junction between those lines could be different, but it's definitely lovely clacking, and clinging disoriented wounded) This society's world is bitter (again, literal, but it could also mean reproachful or hateful) My friend proposed "Because fashion and waste are a world of grief and worry, I only trust in you" which would make senseĭance, make noise, drink, sing (This is literal) 憂き世 together means world of grief and worry according to jisho, and it makes much more sense. It's a metaphor that should be understandable to Westerners, even if it isn't an idiom in Western languages (or is it?)įashion, waste, I don't know what's right anymore -> Fashion and waste make for a world of grief and worry Japanese songs are terrible to translate when they are unclear about pronouns, but I think it would be better to put in a literal translation for that phrase. Either way there's something cultural here that I'm not aware of I think.Įven if that wounding voice of envy and jealousy grasps at my feet sometimes, I have just to keep on moving forward, forward -> Even if bad people are pulling at our/your hair, I/you/we must keep moving I guess then it would be "You're inviting the song of the Temari". I looked up what Temari are and they are these fancy handballs, interestingly enough they can apparently be filled with rice or something else to make sounds, so maaaybe this refers to that. The line 手毬唄歌い 君達が誘う is seriously killing me. Scared of things changing, stopping our steps forward is our worst fear -> Fearing that things change, the inevitable is unwanted I tried myself at translating this a bit, basing myself off the old fashioned lyrics so it's a bit more of a literal translation. So it's just a weird pronunciation of it from Okinawa that wouldn't show up in a dictionary I had to google it myself. but apparently "yananchu/yanacchu nin" is a word in the Okinawan dialect that means "bad person" 悪い人, in other words "悪人". Normally you're right, the only reading of 悪人 is "akunin". But it seems the transliteraton was just a teeensy bit off there: it should really be "yananchu nin". The 嫌な part is though, as an adjective that means "unpleasant". Secondly, unless I'm misreading or you possibly mistyped it, I don't think 嫌なじゅ is actually a word in and of itself. But I think the "pulls at my feet" that I got from there is a bit close to the meaning/idiom you brought up (re: reluctance) so I feel somewhat validated there, thanks! That's a choice I had to make based on my own level of Japanese and what I thought I'd be able to parse/translate, and admittedly maybe not the "ideal" solution. Yeah, thanks for the comment! So you're right in that it's an idiom as written in the sung lyrics, but as I mentioned in my author's note, I decided to base my english translation solely off of the translation into modern japanese that's already present as text in the official music video. The winning team represents a happy buyer that bought a "monme" (old measurement) of flowers for cheap, and the losing team a sad buyer that bought expensively. ・Hana-ichi-monme is a children's game in Japan which involves two teams of players that steal members from each other. The sung, old-style version of the lyrics rather than referencing the road directly instead refers to the clacking sound that geta make on cobblestones. But the name of the road also references the traditional wooden sandal-like footwear known as geta: the literal translation of "Sekidayamachi" would be "town of geta shops". ・Sekidayamachi Road was a western road in Kyoto that is now called Youbai Road. ・"Sore sore sore sore" (not the english word for an ache) is a meaningless chant that could be translated as something like "Yah yah yah yah!" ・The "Heisei" is the current era in Japan, based on the emperor in power. (Check out the other English translation on this site for someone's version directly based on the lyrics as sung!) This was a really interesting one to translate because the actual lyrics as sung are written in a very old style Japanese that's pretty difficult to understand and also references traditional writings (like the Hyakunin Isshu) and so I used the "modern" Japanese translation seen as text in the official music video that's easier to understand for this English translation.