Japanese songs

岡本敦郎 ～白い花の咲く頃

This song appears briefly in the film From up on poppy hills. The students sing it when holding their meeting. I think that it is a very beautiful song with a simple but moving text. It reminds me of the classical Chinese poems I used to read years ago. Feelings are described through landscape and natural elements. The text doesn’t say much but the sadness of the farewell is well conveyed.

It was first sung by 岡本敦郎・おかもとあつお in 1950. Since then, it has been covered many times.

This is one of those many covers:

白い花が　咲いてた・しろいはなが　さいてた
故郷の　遠い夢の日・ふるさとの　とおいゆめのひ
さよならと　云ったら・さよならと　いったら
黙って　うつむいてたお下げ髪・だまって　うつむいてたおさげがみ
悲しかった　あの時の・かなしかった　あのときの
あの　白い花だよ・あの　しろいはなだよ

  • 咲く・さく　to bloom (contraction of: 咲いていた)
  • 故郷・ふるさと home town, native place
  • 云う・いう　to say (other way to write 言う)
  • 黙る・だまる　to be silent
  • うつむく　to bend, to look downward (contraction of うつむいていた)
  • 下げ髪・さげがみ　ponytail

白い雲が　浮いてた・しろいくもが　ういてた
故郷の　高いあの峰・ふるさとの　たかいあのみね
さよならと　云ったら・さよならと　いったら
こだまが　さよならと呼んでいた・こだまが　さよならとよんでいた
淋しかった　あの時の・さびしかった　あのときの
あの　白い雲だよ・あの　しろいくもだよ

  • 浮く・うく to float
  • 峰・みね　peak
  • こだま　echo
  • 淋しい・さびしい　lonely, can also be written: 寂しい

白い月が　ないてた・しろいつきが　ないてた
故郷の　丘の木立ちに・ふるさとの　おかのこだちに
さよならと　云ったら・さよならと　いったら
涙の　眸でじっとみつめてた・なみだの　ひとみでじっとみつめてた
悲しかった　あの時の・かなしかった　あのときの
あの　白い月だよ・あの　しろいつきだよ

  • 丘・おか　hill
  • 木立・こだち　grove of trees
  • 眸・ひとみ　pupil of eye, eye
  • じっと  fixedly (of staring), steadily
  • みつめる to stare at, to watch intently, to fix one’s eyes on

About

I’m learning Japanese, Korean and Chinese to read mystery novels and play video games in these languages.

Learning languages has always been one of my favourite hobbies, but I’m not a social person, I don’t like to meet new people and make friends, this is just not me. I keep hearing that languages are meant for communication, that we have to actively use them, talk to people, etc. and for a long time, I thought I was weird to learn languages just for me, just to enjoy media, culture and entertainment in a foreign language, with absolutely zero interest in communicating with natives.

Now I don’t really care what people think, and this blog helped me a lot to stop doubting myself and just do what I enjoy doing.