What does やれ{HL}やれ{HL} "yare yare" mean?


I would like to know what the meaning of the expression やれ{HL}やれ{HL} Yare Yare
is? I hear it often said in anime.

  * some people said "that yare yare is another japanese onomatopoeia. Kind of like pera pera, gira gira, goro goro, etc. 
  * some others think "it has to do with the sound a person make when he/she is tired, you know that sound when you are taking a break and you hear yourself breathe heavily. Yare yare doesn't have a direct translation... it is just an onomatopoeia that describes the sound of being relaxed. Japanese just hear that sound differently, they hear "yare yare"." 
  * [crunchyroll](http://www.crunchyroll.com/) [funimation](http://www.funimation.com/) [hulu](http://www.hulu.com) [theanimenetwork](https://www.theanimenetwork.com/) [nicovideo](http://www.nicovideo.jp) [daisuki](http://www.daisuki.net/) translated as boy oh boy or my oh my

  * Is that true?




No, やれ{HL}やれ{HL} is not an onomatopoeia but an **interjection**. It doesn't
symbolize any sound or state, and cannot used like other onomatopoeiae:

> × やれやれという音を立てて  
>  × やれやれした様子で

But as you said, it's true that this word has no fixed translation in English.

For example, Haruki Murakami is known to use this expression repeatedly as one
of his signature style, and his translators have taken several ways to
transfer it to English. According to [this
page](http://englishmaxims.seesaa.net/article/378175340.html), 7 out of 8
appearances of it in _A Wild Sheep Chase_ was translated (by Alfred Birnbaum)
as:

> Just great.

while the last one as:

> Give me a break.

Further, in newer _1Q84_ tr. by Jay Rubin & J. Philip Gabriel it's like:

> **Damn**. What was the point of locking the place so securely?  
>  **Oh, great**. Things really are not going to go smoothly. I knew it.  
>  After the Queen video ended, ABBA came on. **Oh, no**.  
>  “ **Oh, man** ,” Aomame sighed, pressing her temples.

* * *

**PS**

For its descriptive meaning, I think [this
answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/9563/7810) would suffice. Note
again that we certainly use this expression when English speakers likely to
say _*sigh*_ , but it's not a sound of sighing neither.

