1

So I was translating this song (full lyrics: https://www5.atwiki.jp/hmiku/pages/25196.html) and I came across this phrase:

まるがなまな

I doesn't seem to be connected to anything around it, and I'm having trouble making sense of it. The best I got was "Being correct is only natural," then with the masculine な particle after (though this doesn't fit with the rest of the song). A friend of mine suggested that perhaps まる was being used as a placeholder, as in○○, so ○○がな would be referring to katakana and hiragana, and then まな would just be kanji, so the translation of the line would be something like, "Kanji and kana." This seems the most accurate to me, but I wasn't sure and wanted to get another opinion since this line is odd.

Is the kanji and kana translation correct, or is this something else entirely?

Thank you!

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Perhaps this is an anagram of なるがままな, where 成る【なる】が儘【まま】 roughly means "as it is", "let it be", "let it go", etc. あるがまま is a similar set phrase. Of course this could be a random phrase which has no particular meaning (like Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo).

Improve this answer
2
  • Okay, thanks! It does have a rhythmic sort of sound to it. Do you think that it's most likely it's just there for how it sounds, like a Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo? I've been agonizing over its translation, but perhaps it's not meant to be translated(?).
    – Smoothie
    Commented Apr 3, 2018 at 22:42
  • @Smoothie Somewhere between meaningful and meaningless... This phrase instantly reminded me of なるがまま, but it sounds like a meaningless magical phrase, too.
    – naruto
    Commented Apr 4, 2018 at 3:24

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .