JapanNewbie

Do you know the lyrics to Sakura?

Posted on 24. Dec, 2010 @ 6:41 am by harvey in Culture, Language, Music Views: 2,236

So we’ve all heard the famous Japanese tune Sakura countless times. Have you ever paid attention to the lyrics? I took some time with a Japanese friend and hacked through the lyrics a while ago. Pretty interesting epic, and not so easy, so here’s some knowledge sharing for ya!

There are actually two versions of the lyrics to Sakura. I’ve listed them below with some romaji as well. I’ve added some explanations when they would help.

Sakura Lyrics, Version 1:

さくら さくら sakura sakura
やよいの空は yayoi no sora ha
見わたす限り miwatasu kagiri
かすみか雲か kasumi ka kumo ka
匂いぞ出ずる nioi zo izuru
いざや いざや izaya izaya
見にゆかん mi ni yukan

Notes:
やよい is the month of March in old Japanese. The third month of the lunar calendar. The kanji for yayoi is 弥生. Other months also have old school names as well, for example October is 神無月. You can see a full list of the names of the months according to the old school calendar on Wikipedia here. Here is another quick reference for the old school month names.

かすみ is fog. 霧 is like mist.

いざやいざや is like, “Let’s, let’s (do something).”

見にゆかん is actually 見にゆかむ, but in verbal speech, and means “let’s go see.”

So a basic literal translation of the lyrics would be something like…

Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms…
The March sky,
as far as you can see…
Is it fog or is it clouds?
The “smell” (i hear it’s not actually smell but more like appearance) is coming out…
Let’s… let’s…
go and see…

Enka legend Misora Hibari breaks it down.

Sakura Lyrics, Version 2:

This next version is the more popular version of the lyrics that were redone in 1941 (Showa 16) and are used in most music textbooks in Japan now. (According to Japanese wiki anyway.)

さくら さくら
野山も里も noyama mo sato mo
見わたす限り
かすみか雲か
朝日ににおう asahi ni niou
さくら さくら
花ざかり hana zakari

A literal translation of the lyrics:

Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms…
The hills and fields, and the countryside…
as far as you can see…
Is it fog or is it clouds?
The smell of cherry blossoms in the morning sunshine (not so literal, heh.)
Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms…
Blooming flowers

And there you have it! Now, sing along!

If you find any other nice YouTube videos of Sakura or other useful info, please share in the comments!

- Harvey

Related Links:
Sakura on Wikipedia (Japanese)

This version has extended lyrics!

Some day I will be able to do this:

I took this photo in Osaka this year

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