"Shimijimi drinking, Shimijimily"

演歌 Enka is a Japanese pop ballad. A lot of them sing about love and lost love, looking back at the past in a nostalgic way.

One popular Enka called 舟歌 "Funauta" is translated and sung in English. It sings about a man drinking alone in a lonely bar near a port, fondly remembering the woman he loved in the past.

The translation of the lyric is very literal and not so refined, but I feel it sensitively tells the nostalgic feeling particularly often sung in Japanese Enka. There are three Japanese onomatopoeia words that are converted into English adverbs, and they do a hell of a good job in expressing this Japanese peculiar feel.

しみじみ (shimi jimi)
It means to do something from the heart, sometimes remembering the past with a little pain.

ほろほろ (horo horo)
It is usually used when describing the manner of crying, to sob quietly, shedding little tear.

ぽつぽつ (potsu potsu)
This is usually used when describing the manner of talking, like when usually quiet person talking about his or her past or feeling hesitantly, a bit by bit.

And these Japanese words are used as is with -ly suffix to make them adverbs.

①Shimijimi drinking, shimijimily
②Horo horo drinking, horo horoly
③Potsu potsu drinking, potsu potsuly

The man at the bar ①remembers the past with his lady with a little pain, ②sobbing a little, maybe ③talking to the bar master a little about the memory of his lost love.

If you are a non-Japanese and can grasp the feel of theses Japanese-born adjectives, Japan is no mystery to you any more.

I think these adjectives speak a lot about the feelings characteristic of Japan, and I wish that they, someday, will be new entries in the English dictionaries.