Lyrics
In Japanese, the song has different lyrics depending on the region, but the most commonly known version is:
| Japanese characters | English transliteration (Romaji) |
| かごめかごめ 籠の中の鳥は | 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 |
The most common interpretation is:
Kagome kagome / The bird in the basket/cage,
When, oh when will it come out
In the night of dawn
The crane and turtle slipped
Who is it in front of behind
As the song is typically written in a single line without any punctuation, in addition to the odd phrasing and ambiguous words, it is also unclear which phrases are connected to which (For example, "In the night of dawn" could be an answer to "when oh when will it come out", or could be a setting for "the crane and turtle slipped").
Common variations in the song include replacing "夜明けの晩に" ("in the evening of the dawn") with "夜明けの番人" ("the guard at/of dawn"), and "後ろの正面" ("in front of behind") with "後ろの少年" ("the boy behind").
Read more about this topic: Kagome Kagome
Famous quotes containing the word lyrics:
“Chad and I always look for deeper meanings; we can analyze Beastie Boys lyrics for hours.”
—Amy Stewart (b. 1975)