Kagome, Kagome...
かごめかごめ 篭の中の鳥は | Kagome Kagome, Kago no naka no Tori wa |
いついつ出やる 夜明けの晩に | Itsu Itsu deyaru? Yoake no ban ni |
鶴と亀が滑った | Tsuru to kame ga subetta. |
後ろの正面だあれ。 | Ushiro no shoumen daare ? |
A translation of the song goes as follows:
Kagome, Kagome, the bird in the cagewhen, oh when will you get out?In the evening of the dawn,when the crane and turtle slipped.Who stands behind you right now?
This is a Japanese children's song that accompanies a game, one that's like a cross between Duck Duck Goose, Red Rover, and Musical Chairs. A child sits in the center, blindfolded, and the other children form a circle around the center child and rotate around them, singing this song. When the song ends, the person in the center tries to guess who's standing behind them...without looking. If they get it right, they swap with the person standing behind them, and the game goes on. Now, I've heard a version of the song sung by children before where the lyrics are shortened to the first line, the first half of the second line, and then the last line; essentially making it "Kagome Kagome/The bird in the cage/when will you get out?/who stands behind you now?" but for the sake of splitting hairs we'll stick to the above lyrics.
When you look at the full song, though, it's pretty...sinister. The crane and the turtle are both signs of prosperity, longevity, innocence, and prudence. The English translation doesn't quite do this justice, but in Japanese, this song identifies the "who" in "who's behind you now" as being responsible for the crane and turtle's accident...essentially toying with the song's subject, and eerily so, as it asks them to identify someone that could be interpreted as their backstabber. It goes even further with the "evening of the dawn" phrasing, suggesting that the subject's attacker will most likely do it when you're most vulnerable: asleep, at the final moments of the first light of dawn. (This is even further emphasized by the kid in the middle being blindfolded.)
When taken to extremes (or in a much more sinister context and removed from the common children's game) this is a pretty creepy song, one that teaches caution, vigilance, and awareness for any potential traitors looking to knife you when you're most vulnerable. Sleep with one eye open, all that jazz. Creepy, but hey, we English-speakers have our "Pocket Full of Posies" children's song: it's about the Black Plague in England. Look it up sometime. We aren't without our morbidly entertaining children's games.
This is all shamelessly stolen from the Wikipedia article and to my credit I knew a good bit of this beforehand. Hit the link for (bad) audio of the song and more analysis. Just thought you'd like to know~ :)
