84256
I'm trying to understand the opening of an anime song, but I'm stumped on a
couple of parts by (I think) a similar doubt;
[this](https://www.animelyrics.com/anime/sakurasou/kimigayumeotsuretekita.jis)
is the lyrics.

Here's what I don't understand:

> 夢を持ってきた
>
> 言葉じゃ足りないユメのアリカ

While sung, the parsing seems like 夢を持ってきた言葉じゃ / 足りないユメのアリカ, with a pause
after じゃ; I understand that could just be for musical reasons, but when I
first heard this song I thought 夢を持ってきた modified 言葉, and 足りない referred to 夢,
giving something like “The words that brought dreams are the place [where]
dreams aren’t enough”, which doesn’t really seem to make sense; the
translation I found is:

> You brought a dream here,
>
> The place of dreams that can't be expressed with words alone

which makes sense, but I can't really understand how that translation comes
from the original lyrics.

I have similar doubts on 色が乗ってきた / 心を広げるイロのキセキ, which sounds to me like "The
miracle of the color expanded by the heart on which the color is", but my
doubts here could just be like those on the previous verse. Edit: I wrote
about this too not as a separate question, but because I think it's another
example of the same doubt.

It's quite a while I'm trying to understand this; if the translation parsing
is right, and 夢を持ってきた is to be translated per se as "You brought a dream",
without the lyrics I didn't understand the parsing; I also asked to a friend
of mine who is fluent in Japanese, but no luck.
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2021-02-18T09:11:35.140
84252
2021-02-18T17:54:35.973
2021-02-18T14:42:17.183
35362
35362
question
meaning translation parsing
Parsing and meaning of a song verse
Generally, Japanese song lyrics tend to be loose in grammatical integrity, and
much more for those whose lyricist is Hata Aki (I mean!).

> _While sung, the parsing seems like 夢を持ってきた言葉じゃ / 足りないユメのアリカ, with a pause
> after じゃ; I understand that could just be for musical reasons_

Regarding this, all lyrics I find make a line break between 持ってきた and 言葉, so I
think we can postulate that the gap does exist there in spite of how they
sing.

Now, grammatically unambiguous facts are that:

  * 夢を持ってきた: "[somebody] has brought a dream"  
Note that the subject is unmentioned. It is quite likely 君 from the context,
but still.

  * 言葉じゃ足りないユメのアリカ: "the location of dream(s) which words are not enough for"  
There are ambiguity on whether 言葉じゃ足りない qualifies ユメ or アリカ. Also, a relative
clause as sentence is a common rhetorical device to emphasize the predicate,
compared to "in God we trust", "little did he know" and such.

Then anything beyond those things are all matter of interpretation or
imagination. Of course, one can reasonably guess that who brought a dream is
"you", but it is not objectively guaranteed. (For the subject of 色が乗ってきた
"acquire color(s) / got colored up", I really have no idea; it could be "you",
"I", or "we".)

> _I thought 夢を持ってきた modified 言葉, and 足りない referred to 夢_

With above, whether 夢を持ってきた modifies 言葉 is grammatically unwarranted, but I'm
strongly inclined to think that the two lines are separate. Besides the
meaning, they both have 夢/ユメ, which is a point favoring the view that they are
parallel descriptions sharing the common focus on "dream" (Japanese use less
[anaphoric](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaphora_\(linguistics\)) pronouns,
and often repeat the noun itself). I do believe 言葉じゃ足りない modifies ユメ to mean
something like "dream beyond words" (rather than アリカ, which would mean "the
place untellable by words"), but it is not a most natural collocation in
Japanese either.
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2021-02-18T17:54:35.973
84256
2021-02-18T17:54:35.973
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84252
answer