On Wednesday, March 7, 2001 at 6:26:02 PM UTC-8, Bart Mathias wrote:
> I. Bet B. Ito will be interested in this, if no one else is.
> One of the first things I ever learned in Japanese was the song
> "Shina-no yoru" (followed closely by "Nagasaki-no ochoosan"). At
> that stage of my studies, I couldn't hope to get more than a vague
> understanding of it.
> I haven't thought about the song in decades. I got some e-mail today
> that included the song and an English translation that seemed wrong
> to me in some particulars. But more than anything else, it made me
> realize that I still don't understand the song, some 45+ years later.
> Shina no yoru, Shina no yoru yo Minato no akari murasaki no yo
> ni Noboru janku no, yume no fune ah ah... ah ah... wasurarenu
> kokyuu no ne
> Shina no yoru, yume no yoru.
> Is that a "purple night"? I know it's night-time, but I sort of
> thought it was a "purple world."
>
> Shina no yoru, Shino yoru yo
> Yanagi no mado ni rantan yurete Akai torikago Shina musume ah
> ah... ah ah... Yarusenai ai no uta
> Shina no yoru, yume no yoru.
> What's a "yanagi-no mado"? It never bothered me before--I could
> accept "willow window" in a song in English without batting an eye,
> until someone asked me how to say it in Japanese and I realized I
> didn't know what it meant.
> The translation I got in the mail made it "window near the bamboos."
> I can't get that...
> How many lanterns? I've always pictured a Chinese girl looking out a
> window, one lantern swaying in the wind, and a red bird cage
> alongside. The translation has "lanterns" (not a big deal, though),
> and the girl holding the bird cage (why?). Is she singing (or
> humming, as the translation has it) the love song? I guess I always
> took it that "Shina-no yoru" was a yarusenai ai-no uta.
> "mado-ni torikago," "mado-ni musume" are both OK. What about
> "mado-ni rantan yurete"? I'd be tempted to put a "-de" there. Or is
> it like "hana-ga sono-NI saku" and "kigi-NI kotori-ga saezuru"?
> Shina no yoru, Shina no yoru yo Kimi matsu yoi wa obashima no
> ame ni Hana mo chiru chiru beni mo chiru ah ah... ah ah...
> Wakarete mo wasuraryo ka
> Shina no yoru, yume no yoru.
> I have heard and used the word "obashima" many, many times, but every
> time was listening to, or singing, this song. I take it to refer,
> here, to the windowsill of the previous stanza.
> "Kimi matsu yoi-wa" bothers me two ways. It sounds generic to me:
> "NightS when ... wait for ...," but the following lines seem
> particular to one night. Finally, who is speaking? Who is waiting
> for whom?
> One more last, extra question: Is Japanese hard?
> Bart

English translation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-76rnfsuLs