ほお やれ ほ - perplexing Kill Bill grammar

Japanese
#1

Hi all,

I like studying grammar by listening to japanese songs, because of that I sometimes come upon strange or archaic grammar/vocabulary.

Today’s mystery comes from the song ほお やれほ… (Hoo Yare Ho… / The most Do…) by Meiko Kaji.
It is the B track of 修羅の花 (Shura no Hana / Flower of Carnage) that you may know from the Kill Bill OST!

Being still quite new at Japanese study in general, I am perplexed by the grammar used in this title and the translation “The most do”.
Is it litteral with the やれほ being a form of 遣る or is it more of an expression like よいしょ that got lost in translation?
Even ほお is quite obscure to me in this context (pretty sure the song isn’t about cheeks or magnolias).

Any insight would be appreciated, and be sure to give the song a listen as it’s quite good :wink:

More info here: MeikoKaji.net - Shura No Hana / Hoo Yare Ho...
Lyrics here: ほお やれほ…… / 梶芽衣子 の歌詞 (2558117) - プチリリ

NB: I don’t think this is a mispelling of ほう やれほ which is another song altogether.

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#2

To borrow from this, they discussed the word here on that particular song saying this:

「ほうやれほ」は、不思議な言葉ですね。

これは、日本の童話「安寿と厨子王」の中で厨子王が歌った歌に出てきます。

「ほうやれほ」自体は意味のある言葉というのではなく、歌の合間の掛け声（あ～それそれのような感じ）や合いの手のようなものです。

And followed the fairy tale they mentioned and found this Yahoo entry: of basically saying the same thing like ‘あーそれそれみたいなもの’

From the lyrics I read, sounds like that kind of meaning could fit for ほお やれほ, because it seems like more of an interjection than a word-phrase like they said so maybe spelling could vary (or even use ほー or something. Also maybe a singing-friendly phonetical phrase too. :man_shrugging:

Just my best guess, maybe I’m wrong.

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#3

Thanks for your reply!

I think you’re right and it was just wishfull thinking on my part that it wouldn’t just be nonsense given that the song title actually had a translation haha :slight_smile:

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#4

I’ve always enjoyed the song since Kill Bill along with Urami Bushi song in the vol2. Looking more into it, her movies were the inspiration for QT which I didn’t know…but never seen any of the 70s films though, quite the vixen of her day :eyes:

#5

That she was :slight_smile:

The 70s movies have lots of blood splatter and power-ranger like acrobatics, highly recommend! ;p

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