Japanese Language Stack Exchange
Japanese Language Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [song-lyrics]

歌詞. Lyrics of Japanese songs.

Songwriters tend to use more poetic language then is used on a day-to-day basis, and this can be more difficult to understand fully by a learner. Questions with this tag should deal with these difficult-to-understand words, phrases, or grammar patterns.

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Why are some lyrics' words written in kanji whose usual reading is not how it is sung?

Some song lyrics in the official lyric book that accompanies the CD is sung as another word. Usually, the way it is sung is given as a furigana on the kanji: Written: 君が希望に変わってゆく 　　　　 　　　　(pardon the quality I took it using iPhone) Sung:…
Lukman
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Colloquial Contraction Confusion

This is taken from one of the mindless pop songs I shouldn't even be listening to: なんてったって　ラッキー！ I know what なんて and ラッキー mean, of course, but I can't figure out in a way that makes sense to me what the contracted forms after なんて are. Any help?
Oren Ronen
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What grammatical function is や performing here?

それで何だっけ? 昨日の夜の話 全然覚えてないや 「電話が鳴って君からだってわかったら 急に変な気分になったんだ。」 This is an excerpt of lyrics from Indigo la End's song 彼女の相談. I can't figure out what function the や in line 3 performs. Does anyone have any input?
Daphne
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~たいだとか why is there a だ here?

軽々しく死にたいだとか 愛を伝えたいだとか I found these from some songs. If たい is considered an I-adj then I wonder why it's だとか instead of とか.
Dekiru
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How is 何者にもなれない translated?

何者にもなれない Let's break it down... *何も here means nothing (with negatives) *者 means people *に is the target particle *なる means to become *なれない is the negative potential of なる How in the world does this translate as "Unable to accomplish anything?".…
Dekiru
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Can もの be used to imply the value of something that is a こと?

I thought of this question and quickly realized that I already knew a possible example. Japanese band ZONE's most popular song is called 「secret base～君【きみ】がくれたもの～」. The lyrics can be read here or at another lyrics site of your choice. There is also…
atlantiza
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Do song lyrics in Japanese typically rhyme?

I've been listening to Japanese music a bit lately and, while I do not understand any of it and even have trouble even making out what syllables are being used, I sometimes get the impression, that it doesn't really rhyme all that much. Is that…
Minix
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Is there a difference between この小さな街で and 小さなこの街で?

I noticed in songs, there are lyric lines that push the demonstrative adjective (*) この, その etc to the middle of sentences by switching it with an adjective/verb that describe the subsequent nouns. For example: この小さな 街{まち}で becomes 小さなこの街で あの…
Lukman
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Producing なる adjectives

I found this adjective from 7!!'s song 「ラヴァーズ」(Lovers): 無邪気なる Dictionary entries categorises 無邪気 as a noun and な-adjective. For reference, I shall extract parts from two different stanzas in the song. They share the same rhythmic structure and…
Flaw
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Do you need a question mark to indicate a question in Japanese?

I was listening to a song and decided to check the lyrics to it. http://www.kasi-time.com/item-74499.html 夜風に吹かれ　考える 好き　嫌い　嫌い　好き　繰り返す Since there were no question marks, so it made me doubt if it was a question being asked in the lyrics. Also, when…
Joe
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What does 今日という日 mean?

I'm trying to translate a song lyric that says 今日という日は 過去 前例のない 僕たちの誓い日和だよ And I get a dictionary result at Jisho for 今日という日 as something like every day; all day but that doesn't make any sense to me. I can't muddle thru it on my own and I'm…
Jasmine
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止める vs 止める(とめる and やめる) + 息

A very nice vocaloid song called "Rolling Girl" has a very strong sense of lyrics. As I know, both やめる and とめる mean "to stop/to quit". However there are 2 sentences in the lyric that offers completely different meaning from each other. 息をとめるの…
Dekiru
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Repeating the vowel sound of the mora that precedes gemination in songs

I noticed that in songs, the vowel sounds of the morae that come before geminations are sometimes repeated. For example, the first lyric line of “マジカルちょーだいっ” is sung as しらんぷりをしたあって where the line is actually しらんぷりをしたって. Another example: in the…
Lukman
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Syntax of 私たちのこれが〜

In one song (lyrics link) the line "Watashitachi no kore ga precious heartbeat" ("It's our precious heartbeat") appears, and I'm not sure how best to analyze it due to one particular grammatical structure. "kore ga precious heartbeat" is clearly a…
Justin Olbrantz
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Parsing ふりする in song lyrics

I recently started watching 宇宙よりも遠く場所 on Netflix and there's a catchy reoccurring insert song that gets stuck in my head. Looking at the lyrics, I'm confused by the second to last line: 波に揺られてかたふりして進んでゆくよ To parse it, I tried adding some particles…
SpiritTamer
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