Welcome back to StudyOke! This week, we'll be looking at
Kawashima Eigo's Sake to Namida to Otoko to Onna (Alcohol and Tears and Man and
Woman) and the ~Te Shimau verb form!
About the Song
Kawashima Eigo's songs are the pure distillation of Japanese
manliness. I realize that this may sound like a contradiction at first (see:
side picture), but Kawashima was exactly the sort of old-fashioned,
hard-drinking, hard-living son of a gun that contemporary Japan sorely needs.
But be warned: his songs are not to be tampered with by
lumbersexuals or any others who know only ironic manliness. When you sing
this song, you need to commit.
Long ago, I went to a snack bar on the blue-collar side
of town with some friends. The karaoke microphone came around the room, and I
put on Sake to Namida for shits and giggles. It was a foolish mistake, but I
was still young and foolish.
Fortunately, there was a man there that night.
My friends and I giggled over our drinks and chatted for a
while, when the opening strains of Sake to Namida came drifting through the air
again. A man sitting at the bar, the sort of unassuming salaryman you might see
in any snack bar across Japan, began singing it with all of the gravity and
emotion that I had lacked.
He absolutely killed it. He channeled the alcohol-soaked
sadness and loneliness of every Japanese man to ever lift up a beer and a
karaoke microphone. It was utterly emotionally devastating, and not just
because it was extremely embarrassing.
I've never forgotten that nameless man or the lesson he
imparted to me. When you sing this song, you must reach down into the depths of
your soul. You must channel the spirit of the drunken, bitter salaryman; the
spirit of the weeping, lonely housewife.
Don't just study the lyrics, study how Kawashima sings it.
Note when he holds back the emotion and when he lets it strain his voice.
A final note: this is primarily a song for men, but women
can absolutely kill it too.
Today's Grammar - ~Te Shimau and ~Te Shimau
~Te Shimau is a bugger of a verb form. On the surface, it
looks fairly simple: just stick a ~te form verb in front of shimau and you're
done!
So what's so hard? Shimau conjugates like any other U verb!
Shimau is easy to conjugate, but it also has two completely
different potential meanings. For example, the ~te shimau form shows up three
times in Sake to Namida:
忘れてしまいたい事や (Verse 1, Line 1)
忘れてしまいたい事や (Verse 2, Line 1)
今夜も酒を煽って寝むってしまうのさ (Verse 3, Line 4)
Let's look at the two potential meanings of these verbs:
#2 To forget completely
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#2 To sleep completely
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As you may have guessed, shimau doesn't literally mean
"darn it!" It can, however, express an action that you view in a
negative light. It conveys a sense of regret, frustration, or that a mistake
has been made:
The second potential meaning has very little to do with the
"darn it!" meaning. In its second meaning, ~te shimau simply means
that the preceding verb has been completely, thoroughly done. It cannot be more
completely done. You think it could get more done? I pity you.
Of course, because all of the above six examples are all
grammatically identical (ie, they are all ~te shimatta), each sentence could
have the other meaning. It all depends on the context:
I forgot my wallet, and it could not be more forgotten.
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I dated the crap out of my ex-boyfriend.
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I stepped in every iota of that dog poo.
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Worst of all, without context, some of them could easily go
either way. "I completely ate the cake (and I'm proud of it)" is just
as valid as "I ate cake (darn it! I have a gluten allergy)."
Fortunately, the more context you have, the easier it is to
tell which of the two meanings is being used. For example, Sake to Namida's
opening line goes:
忘れてしまいたい事や
Which of the two following translations do you think makes
more sense?
Hmm...the first one looks more correct, but maybe that's
because it sounds better in English? Let's expand the context a little bit
more:
忘れてしまいたい事や どうしようもない寂しさに 包まれた時に男は酒を飲むのでしょう
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Wasurete shimaitai koto ya Dou shiyou mo nai sabishisa ni Tsutsumareta toki ni otoko wa sake wo nomu no deshou
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When wrapped up in things he wants to forget and a loneliness he can do nothing about, a man will probably drink
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When wrapped up in things he wants to unfortunately forget and a loneliness he can do nothing about, a man will probably drink
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This broader context makes it even clearer that translation
#2 is incorrect. There is no sense that the forgetting would be unfortunate or
accidental; instead, it is a consciously chosen ~tai verb that leads the man to a blessed sleep:
This sense of alcohol giving a blessed relief is repeated in
the song's other ~te shimau line:
Sake to Namida uses the ~te shimau form, not to express the
singer's regrets, but to express a sense of totality. The memories must be
completely forgotten so that the deep, complete sleep can come. It's a stark,
emotionally draining song, and one of my personal favorites. Try breaking it
out towards the end of the karaoke night, when everyone is nice and
alcoholically sentimental.
That's all for now. Thanks, and keep StudyOking!
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