Hotaru no hikari (Japanese)

Subject: Hotaru no hikari
From: GUEST,Haruo
Date: 19 Mar 24 - 12:04 AM

"Hotaru no hikari" ("Light (or Glow) of the Fireflies") is a Japanese song, first published in 1881, sung to the tune generally thought of nowadays as "Auld Lang Syne" (though we shapenote folks call it "Plenary" and it had other names before Robbie Burns wrote "Should auld acquaintance be forgot". Anyhow, I'm interested in knowing if there's a singing translation in English (or Lowland Scots, or any other language for that matter). Wikipedia gives a literal translation, but it's not really singable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotaru_no_Hikari

There's a 7-shape shapenote setting of it at https://rosharuo.neocities.org/Sankta%20Harmonio/inbound/PLENARY%20Hotaru%20no%20hikari.jpg if you'd like to look at it.

Subject: RE: Hotaru no hikari (Japanese)
From: cnd
Date: 21 Mar 24 - 01:59 PM

Man, poetry translation is tough, striking the balance between poetry, prose, and meaning... you have to be really familiar with both languages to get it right.

Pardon my ignorance, but I had no idea there was Sacred Harp singing in Japan. Cool stuff, and thanks for sharing Haruo.

Subject: RE: Hotaru no hikari (Japanese)
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Mar 24 - 08:47 AM

This doesn't look at all like a topic any Scottish songwriter would do.