Nagayama Youko - Jon kara Onna Bushi

It's been forever since I posted here but it's about time that I started again. After about 5 months of my new life in Japan I think I've settled in pretty well. Here's one of my favorite enka songs.

雪は下から 舞い上がり 赤い裳裾に まといつく太棹三味線 女の旅路 燃えるくすぶる はじける愚図る 離れられない 男(ひと)がいる じょんからじょんから わかって欲しい バチの乱れは 気の乱れ別れ言葉は 言わせない 深みにはまった 女の弱み 男ごころは 風より軽い 月にかくれて されるまま じょんからじょんから 哭かせて欲しい 鉛色した 空の色春は私にゃ 遠すぎる 太棹たたけば 糸さえ切れる 憎いいとしい せつない辛い指にからまる 女節 じょんからじょんから あんたが欲しい

Snow dances up around me Clinging to my the red hem of my skirt A shamisen, a woman's journey I burn and smolder, I split and fume There's a man I can't let go of I want to make you understand with the sound of my strings The chaos of my pick is the chaos of my heart I won't let you say goodbye This is the weakness of woman who fell too hard The heart of a man is more fickle than the wind Now, as I'm hidden by the moon I want to make you cry with the sound of my strings The sky is the colour of metal Spring is too far from me When I pluck the shamisen its strings snap Hateful, dear, heartrending, painful -- the song that twines around my fingers I want to keep you with the sound of my strings

Words Without Borders: New Writing from Japan

Haven't posted in a while so here's something I'm currently checking out at Words Without Borders:

"This month and next we're showcasing writing from Japan. In the wake of the events of March 11, 2011, the boundaries between real and unreal, solid and fluid, seem to have shifted; guest editor Michael Emmerich has selected pieces that resonate with the country's new mood. The pieces in this first part have the texture of a dream, unstable, fleeting, fantastic. In tales of shape-shifting, Jin Keita finds new life in a different form, and Kawakami Hiromi pursues a girl who turns into a pearl. Kurahashi Yumiko takes flower arranging to a new level. Akutagawa Prize winner EnJoe Toh spins a yarn about an oddly familiar galaxy. Nakai Hideo follows an illusionist and finds himself part of the act.  Medoruma Shun receives voice mail from the beyond. Poet Yotsumoto Yasuhiro plays with rhyme and rhythm. And Furukawa Hideo's young office worker stumbles upon a new world only steps away. The issue is produced in partnership with the British Centre for Literary Translation. We thank the BCLT, and David Karashima and the Nippon Foundation, for their generous support. Elsewhere, we present three views of the current Greek crisis from Amanda Michalopoulou, Petros Markaris, and Auguste Corteau."

LOLcats... en español y 日本語！

So the Spanish learning site Zambombazo has some "Miáucoles" or Lolcats for your enjoyment. Despite the very little Spanish that remains in my head, I still managed to find them hilarious.

Miáucoles: Lolcats en español: qrs hcr algo?
"Wanna do smthg?" "No." "Me nthr."

Miáucoles: Lolcats en español: Gatiposa
"Look, I'm a Catterfly'

So I got to wondering if they have LOLcats in Japanese, too. I didn't look that hard - I just typed LOLcatって何？ and LOLcat日本語で into Google and found "LOLCATS IN JAPANESE". The images are in English with a translation below.

美しさは罪

I was interested to see how they would translate the "I iz, I can haz" bits, but the translation is pretty straight-forward. In one of the Spanish examples above they use a distorted/abbreviated version of Spanish ("Todos los miáucoles publicamos un lolcat con un texto escrito intencionalmente con una ortografía y sintaxis fuera del español estándar, con verbos extrañamente conjugados y también con abreviaturas SMS en español”), but I don't think any of the Japanese translations are purposefully distorted like LolCat(ese?) is. Actually, they usually have the proper English version along with the Japanese, as you can see above.

I do remember having a なめんなよ免許書 when I was in high school though. It had a yankee-looking cat and his girlfriend with his bike, if I remember correctly. It probably looked a lot like this one:

なめんなよ　免許証2

I couldn't understand much Japanese back then, but it reminds me a little of LOLcats. I wonder what happened to it...