Japanese songs

ひょっこりひょうたん島

ひょっこりひょうたん島～じま is a television program for kids broadcasted by NHK every evening from 1964 to 1969. In the film Only Yesterday, we can see the protagonist watching this TV show at home. Later, she starts singing in the street the TV program’s song that she knows well. She puts her frustration in this performance after having suffered an injustice and I really like this scene as much as I like this song, even if it’s a song for children 😁

 

波を ちゃぷちゃぷ
ちゃぷちゃぷ かきわけて
(ちゃぷ ちゃぷ ちゃぷ)

  • 波・なみ wave
  • ちゃぷちゃぷ splish-splash
  • かきわける to push one’s way through

雲を すいすい
すいすい 追い抜いて
(すい すい すい)

  • 雲・くも cloud
  • すいすい smoothly, unhindered
  • 追い抜く・おいぬく to pass

ひょうたん島は どこへ行く
ぼくらを乗せて どこへ行く
ウーー ウーー

  • ひょうたん島・ひょうたんじま is the name of the island where the character of the program evolves
  • ぼくら means “we”, used by men.
  • 乗せる・のせる to pick up, to help on board, to take on board
  • 行く is pronounced ゆく as in most songs.

丸い地球の 水平線に
何かがきっと 待っている

  • 丸い・まるい round, circular
  • 地球・ちきゅう the earth, the globe
  • 水平線・すいへいせん Horizon
  • きっと surely, undoubtedly, almost certainly
  • 待つ・まつ to wait

苦しいことも あるだろさ
悲しいことも あるだろさ

  • 苦しい・くるしい painful, difficult
  • ～だろさ expresses the probability, possibility that something occurs. “There is/will be probably painful moments…” This grammar is usually written “だろう”
  • 悲しい・かなしい sad

だけど ぼくらは くじけない
泣くのはいやだ 笑っちゃおう
進め

  • だけど but, however
  • くじける to be crushed, to be broken
  • 泣く・なく to cry
  • いやだ means “detestable” and is used to say that you hate doing something
  • 笑う・わらう to laugh. It is used with the grammar ～てしまう：わらってしまう which is contracted into わらっちゃう and means “doing something completely”. The ending is “おう” which means “let’s do…”. The formal way of writing this verb would be: 笑ってしまおう but the contraction form is 笑っちゃおう.
  • 進める・すすめる means “to advance” and is used here in the imperative form.

ひょっこりひょうたん島
ひょっこりひょうたん島
ひょっこりひょうたん島

 

関連画像
ひょっこりひょうたん島

 

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 with natives, etc. and for a long time, I thought it was weird to learn languages just to read books, with zero interest in communication.

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.