# Help with a Japanese figure of speech (?) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 3, 2006, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038 "2006-04-03T06:43:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/1 "2006-04-03T06:43:58Z")
Actually, I’m not sure if this is a figure of speech or not. It’s a line from the song “Hanabi” by Japanese pop singer, Aiko, who I love so very very much. Partial lyrics, for context: In that instant in bed, between sleeping and waking I always think of you But a dream’s just a dream and when I wake I’m so sad There won’t be fireworks today The words I’ve sworn in my heart so many times come to mind **“Remember, it’ll be about 1mm”** I can’t trust everything to that which is shapeless, surrounded in fog The bolded line is the phrase in question. I can clearly hear her sing the word “millimeter”, so I don’t think it’s a mistranslation. The translator was Japanese himself, but it’s obviously a literal translation, so it doesn’t convey the meaning. My best guess is that it’s a figure of speech that means something like “Remember, it’s not a big thing” or “no big deal”. For more context, the song seems to be about being in love with someone who doesn’t love her back, but she’s still happy being in love and wouldn’t give it up. I know there are some Japanese Dopers here, so domo arigato in advance for any help you can offer (^\_^) ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/2 "2006-04-03T06:50:59Z")
He has a tiny penis? [sub]I’m sorry.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/3 "2006-04-03T07:26:50Z")
I’m not familiar with any such expression. Here’s the original lyrics, if any other Dopers want to take a look: 眠りにつくかつかないか　ｼｰﾂの中の瞬間はいつも あなたの事　考えてて 夢は夢で目が覚めればひどく悲しいものです 花火は今日もあがらない 胸ん中で何度も誓ってきた言葉がうわっと飛んでく 「1mmだって忘れない」と・・・ もやがかかった影のある形ないものに全て あずけることは出来ない ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/4 "2006-04-03T08:19:15Z")
[QUOTE=Garfield226] He has a tiny penis? [sub]I’m sorry.[/sub] [/QUOTE] Don’t feel bad, that’s the first thing I thought, too 😉 However, I don’t think such a line would fit Aiko’s character, at least not what I’ve seen of her so far. She seems like a wholesome young lady. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/5 "2006-04-03T08:47:56Z")
I’m also drawing a blank. Are those the entire lyrics, or is there maybe something in a larger context that the quote could be referring to? ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/6 "2006-04-03T09:06:37Z")
[QUOTE=Sublight] I’m also drawing a blank. Are those the entire lyrics, or is there maybe something in a larger context that the quote could be referring to? [/QUOTE] It’s just the first verse. [Here](http://pinkheart.jp/i/hanabi.html)’s the complete lyrics in Japanese. [Here](http://www.amake.us/documents/translations/?artist=aiko&song=hanabi) seem to be the translation of the lyrics that the OP was looking at. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/7 "2006-04-03T10:16:21Z")
[QUOTE=cckerberos] I’m not familiar with any such expression. Here’s the original lyrics, if any other Dopers want to take a look: 眠りにつくかつかないか　ｼｰﾂの中の瞬間はいつも あなたの事　考えてて 夢は夢で目が覚めればひどく悲しいものです 花火は今日もあがらない 胸ん中で何度も誓ってきた言葉がうわっと飛んでく 「1mmだって忘れない」と・・・ もやがかかった影のある形ないものに全て あずけることは出来ない [/QUOTE] On the verge of sleep, the moment I am in bed always I think of you Dreams are dreams, painful when they disappear as you wake But no fireworks today And in my heart I continue to make that same promise “I won’t forget you be even a milimeter” Most likely the guy got “remember” and “forget” confused and it threw him off. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/8 "2006-04-03T10:17:39Z")
[QUOTE=Sage Rat] “I won’t forget you be even a milimeter” [/QUOTE] **by** even a millimeter… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/9 "2006-04-03T10:31:38Z")
I’m going to pull a guess out of my ass that’s completely unsupported by any evidence whatsoever, but it’s what popped into my head after reading the lyrics because there’s such a strong summer/fireworks motif running through them. Here goes: Fireworks are popular in Japan, mainly in summertime (either lighting them yourself or watching professional displays). One traditional activity is lighting a type of slow-burning sparkler and holding it upside-down to see how long the spark lasts. IIRC, according to tradition, if a couple does this together, the duration of the flame relates to the strength of and duration of their love. So… she’s depressed that her summer romance is over, even though he told her from the start that it was never going to be more than a brief fling (their spark only burned 1mm). Alternately, they could have thought their romance was going to last, but when they parted (for whatever reason), he lamented that their spark was so short. What do you think, sirs? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/10 "2006-04-03T10:46:10Z")
I think you pulled that out of yo’ ass. The translation, “I won’t forget a bit (one millimeter) of you.” is accurate. So she isn’t referring to the length her firework lasted. I would agree that she is using the fireworks as a stand-in for showing the impermanence of what was supposed to be love. But that is a fairly common symbolism here (along with sakura blossoms and such.) However, I don’t see any references to holding the fireworks and paired with all the talk of the stars and the fireworks and angels looking down on her to say, “It’s over honey.” I’m guessing that she is referring to normal, shoot them in the sky type fireworks. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/11 "2006-04-03T10:50:45Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > I’m going to pull a guess out of my ass [QUOTE=Sage Rat] I think you pulled that out of yo’ ass. [/QUOTE] What makes you say that? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/12 "2006-04-03T14:07:24Z")
To answer the OP, this is not a normal Japanese expression. I did a quick Google search and the only reference was to Aiko’s song. I did find a Japanese [commentary](http://www.aurora.dti.ne.jp/~takuma/essay/aiko.html) on the song who very helpfully pointed out that the expression is difficult to understand. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/13 "2006-04-03T14:38:13Z")
They seem to be debating more of what is intended by the lyrics themselves than the meaning of the one line. The commentary seems to be saying that they were really just friends, which seems a reasonable reading. And now she has to calm her pit-pattering little heart! ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/14 "2006-04-03T20:26:19Z")
So, basically, a summer romance that she thought was true love, but turned out to be just a brief fling. That makes sense. Thank you all for your help! I was beginning to think that perhaps the song was originally written in a different language, and that the original translation _into_ Japanese was faulty, making the further translation into English very awkward. But it looks like Aiko wrote this herself. Actually, I’ve gotten the impression that Aiko writes most of her own songs. Is this correct? (I know I’m wandering into Cafe Society territory, so I’ll be brief with this.) Is this as uncommon in Japanese pop as it is with American female pop singers? I found a whole bunch of her music videos on [YouTube.com](http://YouTube.com), and I see the same musicians backing her up in most of the videos, spanning more than five years. This tells me she has her own band, which lends credence to the idea that she and the band write their own material. [QUOTE=cckerberos] It’s just the first verse. [Here](http://pinkheart.jp/i/hanabi.html)’s the complete lyrics in Japanese. [Here](http://www.amake.us/documents/translations/?artist=aiko&song=hanabi) seem to be the translation of the lyrics that the OP was looking at. [/QUOTE] Actually, I was looking at a fan-subtitled music video, but the translation is the same. I’ve been a big fan of Aiko since about 2001, when I accidentally discovered her while doing a Google search for photos of a Japanese actress named Aiko Somethingorother. I liked her stuff enough to buy her CDs through [YesAsia.com](http://YesAsia.com) rather than just download the songs 🙂 Thank you for the link to that site, though. They also have a translation for Kabutomushi, which I think is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. I put the kanji of the title into my translation software and was a bit alarmed to discover that the song is called “Helmet Insect”. Darn literal translations are not very helpful sometimes! But now that I see the lyrics and the context, I see it means “beetle” and it fits the song nicely. ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/15 "2006-04-03T20:55:58Z")
[QUOTE=Phase42] Thank you for the link to that site, though. They also have a translation for Kabutomushi, which I think is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. I put the kanji of the title into my translation software and was a bit alarmed to discover that the song is called “Helmet Insect”. Darn literal translations are not very helpful sometimes! But now that I see the lyrics and the context, I see it means “beetle” and it fits the song nicely. [/QUOTE] A kabutomushi is specifically a [Japanese rhinoceros beetle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_rhinoceros_beetle). ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/16 "2006-04-03T22:56:33Z")
[QUOTE=Phase42] I put the kanji of the title into my translation software and was a bit alarmed to discover that the song is called “Helmet Insect”. Darn literal translations are not very helpful sometimes! But now that I see the lyrics and the context, I see it means “beetle” and it fits the song nicely. [/QUOTE] Actually, that literal translation is very helpful: as **cckerberos** has pointed out, _kabutomushi_ are rhinocerous beetles. _Kabuto_ is a traditional Japanese helmet, and _Mushi_ are bugs. _Kabutomushi_ are so called because they are bugs that look like, well, helmets. Japanese naming can be fearfully literal sometimes: I lived near a mountain named _Kabutoyama_ {Helmet Mountain} because it was shaped like a helmet. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/17 "2006-04-04T01:04:00Z")
Why not just interpret “I won’t forget you by even a millimeter” as “I won’t forget you even a little bit?” ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/18 "2006-04-04T01:22:40Z")
Because that’s not necessarily what was intended. As **Tokyo Player** said, it’s not a standard expression. She specifically created a slightly off way of saying something innocuous. This could be a bit of whimsicality to make the lyrics look “cool”, or it could mean something more. Literally, in Japanese or English it means that she “won’t forget a millimeter”, presumably of “him.” So she might be representing her memory as a line that can be shortened or lengthened, or she could mean that she’s been intimate with the guy and his body is engrained in her mind. Certainly I could make a choice and use a hackneyed expression that would cover this and make it make sense, but given that it sounds no more natural in Japanese I don’t see any reason to do so. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/19 "2006-04-04T01:40:35Z")
[QUOTE=Sage Rat] Literally, in Japanese or English it means that she “won’t forget a millimeter”, presumably of “him.” So she might be representing her memory as a line that can be shortened or lengthened, or she could mean that she’s been intimate with the guy and his body is engrained in her mind. [/QUOTE] Which brings us back to post #2. How many millimeters in 6 inches? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-japanese-figure-of-speech/351038/20 "2006-04-04T01:47:35Z")
Regardless what Cecil may have said on average length by race not varying all that much, I’m going to have to say that if the (male) porn stars are **that** unimpressive, then “unimpressive” is probably right on the mark. 4" my friend.