”日本語のうたが聞きたいんですけど...何を聞くか分かりません！”...と思っている人に:

みなさんこんばんは！今日私がよく聞く日本語のうたについて書きます。

みなさんに教えたいおんがくがたくさんありますが、今日は一つだけしょうかいします。

これは私の聞く宿題だから、ちょっと英語でも書くつもりです。

では、はじめます！

Official髭男dism - Pretender

そのうたのかしはとてもかなしくてきれいだと思います。メロディーは明るいですが、かしをかんこく語で読んだ後ちょっとかなしいと思っています。恋人とのかんけいがちょっとむずかしくて大変な時について話しているかしです。

In particular, these are the parts of the lyrics that I thought was a bit sad, but also really poetic and well-written:

"ひこうきのまどから見下ろした知らないまちのやけいみたいだ”

The context of this lyric is when the writer talks about being clueless about the logic of relationships that some people talk about as if they know it all. The part I quoted is how he describes the feeling and I thought it was interesting that he made a comparison to a night view of an unfamiliar city from the window of an airplane. It is so poetic and vivid.

”えいえんもやくそくもないけれどとてもきれいだ”

This is almost towards the end of the song, and I think this was a little sad. The protagonist knows that there is no such thing as 'forever' or 'promise', but still wants to tell the girl that she is beautiful. It was sad to see that this relationship probably won't work out, but the protagonist cannot move on from it because he loves her so much. It really contrasts with the bright, uplifting mood of the song.

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I listened to this song a long time ago when I was still in Elementary Japanese. Now that I have learned a lot more about the grammar rules and commonly used expressions, I noticed that I pick up more words from the lyrics.

 For instance, I used to have no idea about expressions like "答えは分からない分かりたくもないのさ”. I still am unsure about the "-のさ” ending, which is a casual speech. However, I definitely picked up 答え and the difference between 分からない and 分かりたくもない. I used to think it is difficult to even sing along this part, but now I not only understand the nuance and emotion in this sentence but also can sing along with no problem.

Lyrics are also repetitive to create rhythm and add poetic beauty to the song. This helped me pick up some words like "もっと” and "違う” before getting formally introduced to them in class. 

I also thought it was interesting that they used the い-adjectives and their negative forms to create interesting lyrics when the song goes, "いたいやいやでもあまいないやいや”. Back when I could not pick up much from the lyrics other than "いたい” and "あまい”, I thought it just meant it hurts, but it is also sweet. However, by saying  でも -> 甘い -> ない he actually says it is actually NOT sweet. This was an interesting surprise when I listened to it more closely and found out the real meaning of the words.