Why are Japanese song lyrics often so seemingly ungrammatical?


For example, Natsukawa Rimi's 島唄 has this has most of the verbs in plain 連用形
with no apparent reason:

> でいごの花が咲き 風を呼び 嵐が来た
>
> でいごが咲き乱れ 風を呼び 嵐が来た
>
> くり返す悲しみは 島渡る波のよう
>
> ウージの森であなたと出会い
>
> ウージの下で千代にさよなら
>
> 島唄よ 風に乗り 鳥とともに 海を渡れ
>
> 島唄よ 風に乗り 届けておくれ 私の涙 etc etc

君をのせて from Castle in the Sky has English word order:

> 父さんが残した 熱い想い / 母さんがくれた あのまなざし

The way I understood that line it is equivalent to

> 父さんが熱い思いを残した / 母さんがあのまなざしをくれた

though I might be wrong and this is just two noun phrases standing by
themselves.

The most weird song that I often listen to is いつも何度でも from 千と千尋の神隠し. The first
stanza:

> 呼んでいる 胸のどこか奥で / いつも心踊る 夢を見たい

I understand it as follows:

> 胸のどこか奥から よんでいる。いつも心が踊ってる。夢を見たい。

Though I might be wrong.

Some of the lines are half-grammatical but have weird meanings (Words I filled
in to understand in brackets):

> 繰り返すあやまちの そのたび（だ。）ひとは
>
> ただ青い空の 青さを知る

(Yeah right, knowing that blue sky is blue.)

> 果てしなく（い？） 道は続いて見えるけれど
>
> この両手は 光を抱ける
>
> さよならのときの 静かな胸（がある）
>
> ゼロになるからだが 耳をすませる

(Why would a "body tending to zero" "fill up ears"? I'm reminded of
<http://what-if.xkcd.com/50/> ...)




First example: Your misunderstanding as Earthling points out

Second example: Ending a sentence with a noun or noun phrase, which is very
common in Japanese poetry or lyrics

Third example: Grammatically correct, though it uses the techniques like
inversion of the word order and ending a sentence with a noun

I think, generally speaking, Japanese language, or we Japanese people, don't
value logic or gramatical rules.

We value the feeling and the beauty in each words, especially in poems or
songs.

That's why you feel weird for such a beautiful Japanese lyrics.




First example: Your misunderstanding as Earthling points out

Second example: Ending a sentence with a noun or noun phrase, which is very
common in Japanese poetry or lyrics

Third example: Grammatically correct, though it uses the techniques like
inversion of the word order and ending a sentence with a noun

I think, generally speaking, Japanese language, or we Japanese people, don't
value logic or gramatical rules.

We value the feeling and the beauty in each words, especially in poems or
songs.

That's why you feel weird for such a beautiful Japanese lyrics.

