Seirei no Moribito - Naaji no Uta

[cmertb]

I have a problem with a couple of lines here.

たおやめ衆がケツはみくれば
ますらお負けじと前かがみ

What exactly is ケツはみ? And what are they implying anyway? Girls' ケツ followed by men leaning forward on the next line... Umm, I'm getting interesting associations.

Full lyrics just in case:
カオカオ　ホイホイ
腰の痛さにこの田の広さ
花咲月の日の長さ
田んぼ耕せ　鍬入れろ
稲籾まけや　苗萌やせ
ナージ来い来い
黒雲になって北の山から飛んで来い

カオカオ　ホイホイ
こぼれ稲でもそれ植えておけ
秋にゃ五穀の米がなる
田んぼ潤せ　水を引け
苗を植えろや　田を染めろ
ナージ食え食え
蛙を食えばころころ肥えて元気に飛べる

カオカオ　ホイホイ
たおやめ衆がケツはみくれば
ますらお負けじと前かがみ
田んぼ見張れや　苗踏むな
土手を乗り越え　草むしれ
ナージゆけゆけ
玉さらくわえ爪の彼方に舞い上がれ

カオカオ　ホイホイ
明日は日和か吹雪か雨か
見やれ青霧うすぐもり
田んぼ枯らすな　水を呼べ
稲を育てろ　肥入れろ
ナージ飛べ飛べ
海まで飛べば雨降り稲穂はすくすく育つ

[animeyay]

たおやめ衆がケツはみくれば
ますらお負けじと前かがみ


Let's see, got some slightly archaic Japanese going on here.

たおやめ(手弱女) = gentle/good/nice girls

ケツ = butt

はみくれば, I'm not 100% sure about this one, but it's probably similar to the modern はみ出る = to stick out

ますらお(益荒男) = strong/manly men

負けじ = an alternative form of 負けず
負けじと = as though not to lose (a fight/competition)

前かがみ = to bend forward


So when you piece everything together you get:

When they see girls walking with their conspicuous behinds,
the men, as though not to lose, bend down even harder/deeper.


BUT NOW, before your mind drowns completely in the gutter, you'll see from the context that the song is talking about farm work. In other words, seeing the girls' attractive butts gives the men more energy to work in the fields.

[cmertb]

Thanks, that makes sense. That's what I thought from the context, so I はみ出る must be right.

Although I think the interpretation is not about being conspicuous, but that the girls physically stick their behinds out when they work bent over in the fields. Which causes the men to lean forward even more resolutely in the same fields. But the double entendre might be quite intentional too.

[Datenshi]

To be totally honest, I'm totally stumped on the ケツはみくれば line, and a Google search has proved rather fruitless. It might be archaic Japanese, but considering that the rest of the song is written in pretty much modern language, my strongest guess is that it is some form of rural dialect, which makes sense considering the context of the song (Google seems to suggest that 「~みくる」 is a common turn of phrase in Japanese rural dialects; ちみくる、たみくる etc.).

As for the meaning of the line itself, in my view, it depends on whether you see the line as 1) 「ケツ＋はみくれば」 or 2) 「ケツは＋みくれば」. If you take the former opinion (taking 「はみくる」 to be some archaic/rural form of 「はみでる」), then animeyay-san's translation is the most likely.

In the latter interpretation, 「みくる」=「見来る」=見て来る="come around and see" (apparently, this is actually a phrase found in an obscure rural dialect, although whether it's exactly the case here is kind of doubtful; click the link for the source). I personally find this more persuasive; "When the men come around and see the women's behinds, they [the men] bend down more vigorously so as not to lose face".

As for the rest of the line I pretty much follow animeyay-san's explanation. In any case, your guess is good as mine...

[animeyay]

Hoho! I may know some archaic forms, but I'm a total noob when it comes to dialects. XD

Actually, I should find out how the は there is pronounced in the song. (Like, is it "ha" or "wa"?) If it was "wa", then I think Datenshi-san's theory will be more likely. I think I assumed はみくれば to be the verb describing たおやめ (as opposed to having the men doing the "watching") because of the が there, which is the subject marker. However, since が can also be used to denote possession, Datenshi-san's explanation would make sense, too.

I shall give the song a listen later.

[cmertb]

The line goes "ketsu hami kureba" as far as I can hear.

[animeyay]

I say as long as we got the gist of it, we're good~ =)
We really would need either the lyricist of the song or a Japanese dialectal linguist to solve this lol