Song lyrics with missing case particles


I sometimes find that songs liberally omit noun particles. As Japanese word
order is somewhat free, this causes me to severely scratch my head. Song in
question: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU4DkH77alw>

For example, the first line:

> 色 あせた 青ににじむ 白い雲 遠い あの日 のいろ

(with spaces where the singer pauses).

There seems to be a huge amount of ways to parse this:

> 色があせて、青に滲む。白い雲が遠い。あの日の色。
>
> 色のあせた青に滲む。白い雲。遠いあの日の色。

etc, etc. How would a Japanese person read this at first glance? Is there some
normative way to read case-unmarked Japanese?




A native speaker here. Between the two ways you parsed the line, the second
one is much better though still not perfect. The first period placed after the
にじむ in your second attempt is unnecessary.

Nearly all native speaers would consider 色あせる or 色あせた as one word, therefore;
we would not even think that a が or の is being omitted. All of 色あせた、青ににじむ and
白い modify the 雲.

What is 遠い is the 日, not the 雲, which makes your first parsing attempt
incorrect. 「遠い日」 is a very common collocation. The あの serves to emphasize and
specify the 遠い日.

