Paul Tanenbaum <pjt@BRL-VOC.ARPA> (01/04/85)
The latest in the series of "Could anybody tell me what this means?"... On King Crimson's album 'Discipline' there is a song entitled 'matte kudasai'. Is there anyone out there who speaks Japanese and could provide an English translation? My cursory lingual snooping indicates that 'kudasai' is a sort of all-purpose word for making polite statements. Am I on the right track? +++paul <pjt@BRL-VOC.ARPA>
brad@esc-bb.UUCP (Brad Benton) (01/06/85)
> On King Crimson's album 'Discipline' there is a song entitled 'matte kudasai'. > Is there anyone out there who speaks Japanese and could provide an English > translation? My cursory lingual snooping indicates that 'kudasai' is a sort > of all-purpose word for making polite statements. Am I on the right track? Yes, you are correct about *kudasai*; generally, it is translated as please. The other word, *matte*, is a form of the verb to wait. So, a literal translation is 'wait please'. However, the Japanese usually say 'tyotto (pronounced chiotto, and means a bit, or a little) matte, kudasai', which is colloquialy translated as 'just a minute, please.' --bb ..!ihnp4!ut-sally!cyb-eng!esc-bb!brad
mfs@mhuxr.UUCP (SIMON) (01/08/85)
> On King Crimson's album 'Discipline' there is a song entitled 'matte kudasai'. > Is there anyone out there who speaks Japanese and could provide an English > translation? My cursory lingual snooping indicates that 'kudasai' is a sort > of all-purpose word for making polite statements. Am I on the right track? > +++paul You are on the right track. "Kudasai" is for polite requests, e.g. "Please wait", which is what "matte kudasai" means. Of course, the song then makes noo sense. Oh well it sounds good. Marcel Simon.
jeff@dciem.UUCP (Jeff Richardson) (01/08/85)
> You are on the right track. "Kudasai" is for polite requests, e.g. > "Please wait", which is what "matte kudasai" means. Of course, the > song then makes noo sense. Oh well it sounds good. I don't think that the meaning of "matte kudasai" makes any difference to whether the song makes sense. The lyrics don't say a heck of a lot anyway, but "please wait" is somewhat consistent with the general theme of both the music and the lyrics, which is relaxing, waiting, sleeping, etc. -- Jeff Richardson, DCIEM, Toronto (416) 635-2073 {linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd}!utcsrgv!dciem!jeff {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!dciem!jeff