In search of DARAKE and MARUDE

Today's blog makes me happy because it taught me that I completely misinterpreted the use of a grammar point two years ago. I'm a little embarrassed that I got it wrong, but I'm more than glad that I figured out how to use to properly. Nice. Now I get to tell you about it!

Yet again, we have a lucky day here at JLPT Blues, because we have a song with two grammar points! Yes! And it's by one of my favorite singers, Okuda Tamio. (I also maintain a Okuda Tamio Livejournal Community if you are interested.)

I'd love to tell you that Okuda Tamio is beyond cool, but the truth of the matter is that he used up his cool in the 80s when he was doing things like this with the band UNICORN:

Isn't he awesome? No? Well... whatever. I love it.

Of course, the people that listen to him nowadays seem to be mostly mothers who used to listen to him when they weren't mothers. Such is the downward spiral of fame, I guess.

So, let's get to today's grammar points, shall we? The song is 674 of his 29 album:

茜の空がまるで　お部屋を血に染めるのよ

枕はヨダレまみれ　背広はとてもキレイよ

あぁいっそ　地球も　大予言どうりに
たらだらだらけの　ばか野郎　だけどムナシさは知ってる

あぁいっそ　このまま　心臓も　動く
反則男だ　ばか野郎　とても　自らを知ってる

• Grammar Point #1 MARUDE

First, I feel like I should explain the kanji that MARUDE is derived from:　丸で. You may, or may not recognize this to be the same kanji that typically means "round". Now, I will come back to this in a moment to reveal why that's important (well, not really, but it's helpful in remembering the grammar point).

MARUDE is sort of like saying "as if" or "like" (but not like a Valley Girl... as if!). I have not yet discovered whether or not it's appreciably different from YOU NI or YOU NA so expect to hear about that at a later date.

In my favorite MONGOL800 song, Hunky-dory, he sings

• まるで Fairy tail.

And yes... Fairy tale is misspelled in the original song lyrics =_= I hope that it was on purpose, but who knows? In any case, this translates as:

• It's like a fairy tale.

Easy, right?

So let's look at the lyric above then, shall we?

• 茜の空がまるで　お部屋を血に染めるのよ
• Akane no sora ga marude Oheya wo chi ni someru no yo

Sadly, the word akane is a little hard to translate. Most people would probably know this as a name, like:

Yeah. Ranma 1/2. I'm old school. Reeeeealllly old school...

In any case, akane is this red color, which is supposedly called madder in English. I'm told it's a color used often in acrylics by my friends who are actually artists. I am not sure. But I'm rambling, so let's get back to the point at hand.

Translation: Like the madder sky, the room is the color of blood.

Interesting side note: If you want to say something is turned a different color than what it naturally is, like a room during the twilight hours goes pink, or man beneath a streetlight goes yellow, you use someru, which actually means "to dye".

Ok, so let's move on. The reason I say the kanji for MARU is important is because you can sort of think of it as "all around", like whatever you're describing is really like the other thing. I originally thought that MONGOL800 lyric above translated as "It's an all around Fairy-tale" which is sort of similar to "like". Well, if you're me, anyway. As I said, it's really not that important, but I hoped that it may help you remember the grammar point.

• Grammar Point #2: DARAKE

DARAKE means "to be full of". I don't think it's supposed to be negative sounding, but since the lyric has a bit of a negative context, as well as the example sentences in my Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar, I wonder if perhaps there is something there that a non-native speaker doesn't really pick up.

I'm going to share with you my favorite example sentence, because... well... it's probably about me, and I love it when people to talk about me.

• この作文が間違いだらけです。
• Kono sakubun ga machigai dareke des.
• This composition is full of mistakes.

Yup! That's me! There goes your faith, right? Well, fortunately I have a book to look at and make sure I got it right. Nice.

How to compose a sentence with DARAKE:

1. Noun A + DARAKE NO + Noun B

Ex: 間違いだれけの作文

2. Subject + HA or GA + Adjective+ DAREKE DESU

Ex: Above example sentence.

Ok, so the lyric, which is very useful for remembering this grammar point is:

だらだらだらけの　ばか野郎　だけどムナシさは知ってる

Daradara darake no Bakayarou Dakedo MUNISHIsa ha shitteiru.

I think because of the repetitive daradara plus the DARAKE, it makes it an easy grammar point  to remember. If only the word daradara was easy to translate! Oh well, I did my best with the translation:

I'm an idiot filled with sluggishness, but I do know what futility is.

It took me a while to figure out how to translate this, because I really would just say "I'm freaking lazy, but I know what futility is" but that really doesn't help us much does it? Translating Japanese into English is annoying, isn't it?

Well, there you go! This took forever to write, so I need to go recuperate a little... by studying more. Great.