that foreign music blog🌎

About a month ago, I decided to sit through a Youtube AD advertising Masaki Suda’s new album “PLAY”. I didn’t know the guy, but—perhaps by accident—I found my cursor hovering over the “Skip Ad” button, only not to push it. In fact, I ended up pressing the actual ad to watch the full four-minute trailer of his album. Naturally, I bought it the following weekend and listen to it pretty frequently. Although I admit, likely due to my current mood, I’ve been disproportionately jamming to the hit “さよならエレジー”, or “Goodbye Elegy”. Once my energy returns, I hope to make time to give more details on the album itself, but for now, I wanted to focus on the titled grammar that the song “さよならエレジー” uses: “ほど“, or “ho-do”.

愛が僕に噛みついて 離さないと言うけれど

さみしさのカタチは変わらないみたいだ

舞い上がって行け いつか夜の向こう側

うんざりするほど光れ君の歌

Now, before you read any further, acknowledge that I learned this grammar while using an intermediate-level textbook. If you’re just starting Japanese, don’t feel bad if you don’t understand this right away. It took me A LOT OF TRIES to understand how to use this grammar.

“ほど” can be translated as “so….that” or “enough”. What makes it difficult for English speakers is that the result is put at the beginning. Let me give you an example.

泣いたほど走らされた

ないたほどはしらされた

naita hodo hashirasareta

I was forced to run enough to cry/ I was forced to run so much that I cried

The grammar “くらい/ぐらい” or “koo/goo-rai” is used in the same way. In this situation, the two can be used interchangeably and I’ve learned that, while this is true, it seems that there are certain verbs that “take” くらい or some that “take” ほど. That is to say, that some combinations sound “better”. I’ve been corrected by friends, for example, when saying “泣いたくらい” instead of “泣いたほど”. I asked my teacher what the difference was and she said that I wasn’t incorrect, but that using “ぐらい” might’ve sounded awkward to my friends. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you what these verbs are, as I’m learning by trial and error.

NOW, why did I choose such a hard grammar? Well, first of all, I love the song. Secondly, I wanted to push myself. Masaki Suda’s album is just what I need to really advance my Japanese. I understand less than half of the lyrics, but that’s still more than I understand of Mrs. Green Apple or Yutaro Furutachi—-ESPECIALLY YUTARO FURUTACHI. So, I decided to take this chance to try something out of my comfort zone. I was also encouraged by the fact that I could manage this song in karaoke, though I butchered several of the words in front of my very cute Japanese friend. *sigh*

Anyway, let’s get started. So the grammar only comes up at the end of the chorus, but because I recently learned うんざりする, I thought it’d be a good opportunity to try the chorus together.

So, how to make a sentence with ほど is pretty easy; simply put the dictionary form in front of “ほど” and then finish the sentence. Like I mentioned before, the trick of this grammar is using this grammar correctly. How I do it is by inverting the English. For example, if I want to say “It was so gross I wanted to puke”, the ほど version would sound something like “I wanted to puke it was so gross”.

Let’s try more Japanese examples:

死ぬほど疲れてる

I’m tired enough to die

吐きたいぐらいまずかった

It was gross enough that I want to puke

Now that we have the structure, let’s learn some kanji:

愛が僕に噛みついて 離さないと言うけれど

さみしさのカタチは変わらないみたいだ

舞い上がって行け いつか夜の向こう側

うんざりするほど光れ君の歌

愛 あい love

ah-ee

噛み かみ  chew/bite

kah-mee

離さない はなさない do not/ will not let go

ha-nah-sah-nah-ee

変わらない かわらない will not/ do not change

kah-wah-rah-nah-ee

舞い上がって まいあがって soar

ma-ee-ah-gah-tte

夜 よる night

yo-roo

向こう側 向こう がわ the other side

moo-koh gah-wah

うんざりする to be fed up

un-zah-ri soo-roo

光れ ひかれ light

hee-kah-rei

君 きみ you

kee-mee

歌 うた song

oo-tah

Now, let’s try the chorus itself. Since this song is just above my level, the translation will be quite awkward. It shouldn’t be one-hundred-percent off—you should be able to get the gist—but this is probably way too direct and may not fully make sense.

愛が僕に噛みついて離さないと言うけれど

あいがぼくにかみついてはなさないといいうけれど

Love’s bite won’t let go but

さみしさのカタチは変わらないみたいだ

さみしさのかたちはかわらないみたいだ

It seems that the shape of loneliness won’t change

舞い上がって行け いつか夜の向こう側

まいあがっていけいつかよるのむこうがわ

Someday I’ll soar up to the other side of the night

うんざりするほど光れ君の歌

うんざりするほどひかれきみのうた

Your song’s shine is enough to make me sick

Actually, I have very little confidence in this translation, but it was an interesting challenge. Given that these are lyrics, I’m not sure how literal some of these phrases are, but I tried to imagine them as English lyrics. In any case, I hope you’re able to get a feeling for this song as a whole, or simply enjoy the melody.

Until next song!