Submitted by Maiko Heller on Mo, 12/26/2011 - 14:48
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Hanao okurô
Let’s send out flowers

fûsen minnade tobasô

chiisai fukuroni irete

musunda hanano tane

rinron yasashii hitoni

rinron todokuto iina

 

fûsen tôkue kieta

chiisai dokokano niwade

kawaii anohanaga

rinron yasashii kazeni

rinron kaoruto iina

Let’s float balloons,

to which we hang little bags

with seeds of flowers!

Rin-ron, at nice people –

rin-ron – I wish they will arrive!

 

The balloons are gone, far away.

If they had landed somewhere in a small garden,

and, maybe, beautiful flowers had grown already,

rin-ron, that sway in the mild wind –

rin-ron – und smell, that would be great!

 

In Japan, people play a game called “shiri-tori” which means: to grap by the bottom. One player says a word, and the last syllable of this word has to be the first syllable of the next player’s word. In the past, lyrics were also written according to this principle, and this song had such lyrics as well. Nowadays, these childlike lyrics are sung at school.