“The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?” Could Mean “I love You” in Japanese

Meaning of “The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?” in Japanese

月が綺麗ですね (つきがきれいですね, tsuki ga kirei desu ne) literarily means “The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?” in Japanese. Surprisingly, however, it could also contain the hidden meaning — “I love you”. It is believed that this meaning was coined by Sōseki Natsume (夏目漱石), a renowned Japanese novelist in the 19-20th century who was portrayed on the former 1000 yen banknote. Its origin traces back to when he worked as an English teacher: when he saw his student directly translating “I love you” in Japanese, he supposedly said, “Japanese people never say things like that shamelessly. You’d better translate it as 月が綺麗ですね (The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?) or something”. Note that, however, you should take this story with a grain of salt, as there is no record left that validates it. In fact, this Japanese website (which I’ll also cite in the next section as a reference) scrupulously searched for its authoritative source, to no avail, and found out that Sōseki’s story was told a little differently in some old publications from the 1970s — according to them, what Soseki had said was NOT 月が綺麗ですね (“the moon is beautiful, isn’t it”), but “月がとっても青いなあ”, meaning “The moon is very blue”.

Another thing you should keep in mind is that the ulterior meaning of this phrase is recognised only amongst those who love Japanese slang or trivia. Therefore, even if you act as a romanticist and confess your love to a Japanese person using this phrase, he/she is unlikely to fathom your intention, unfortunately.

Misinformation on “Correct Response” to “The moon is beautiful, isn’t it”?

(TL;DR) There is no such a thing as a “correct” or “appropriate” response to “The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?”, no matter how many people/websites elaborate and insist on its existence. 

If you google (either in Japanese or English) how to respond to “The moon is beautiful, isn’t it” in Japanese, you’ll find a plethora of websites spreading the wrong information that the “correct” or “appropriate” response that means “I love you, too” is “死んでもいいわ (shindemo ii wa)”, meaning “I could die (for you)”.

First and foremost, it is NOT Sōseki Natsume who came up with the translation “死んでもいいわ”; it is Futabatei Shimei (二葉亭四迷), another renowned Japanese novelist/translator who lived in the same period as Sōseki (and thus it ended up being confused with Sōseki story). Secondly, “死んでもいいわ” is NOT the translation of the English phrase “I love you, too”; it is of the Russian term “Ваша”, which means “yours” in English in the following context:

Я забыл все, я потянул ее к себе – покорно повиновалась ее рука, все тело ее повлеклось вслед за рукою, шаль покатилась с плеч, и голова ее тихо легла на мою грудь, легла под мои загоревшиеся губы…

– Ваша… – прошептала она чуть слышно.

(English)

I forgot everything, I drew her to me, her hand yielded unresistingly, her whole body followed her hand, the shawl fell from her shoulders, and her head lay softly on my breast, lay under my burning lips.

“Yours“. . .  she murmured, hardly above a breath.

This is an excerpt of the Russian book “Ася” (and its English translation), written by the Russian novelist Ивáн Серге́евич (Ivan Turgenev). Although this woman shows her deep affection for the man by saying “Ваша (Yours)”, it does not explicitly mean “I love you, too”; nor does it mean 死んでもいいわ (“I could die for you”), of course. Therefore, this translation made by Futabatei Shimei is actually very controversial, to the extent that one could say it’s a wrong translation. Refer to this Japanese website for more details.

In conclusion, the statement that “I could die for you” is the “right” answer to “The moon is beautiful, isn’t it” is doubly wrong: 死んでもいいわ (“I could die for you”) has nothing to do with the (unverified) origin of 月が綺麗ですね (“The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?”), and it is not even the translation of “I love you, too”. Clearly, this misinformation has been spread by a myriad of websites and social media posts that blindly copy and paste the contents of the other websites without fact-checking, which tells us how important it is to always take information available online with a grain of salt.

Response Examples

Although there is no “correct” response to “The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?”, here I provide a couple of witty and funny replies which I found on the internet, as well as a realistic one.

あなた: 月が綺麗ですね
You: The moon is beautiful, isn’t it’? [“I love you.”]

Response-1 [a witty and unrealistic response meaning “I love you, too”]
そうですね、あなたと永遠えいえんに眺ながめていたいです。
Yes, I wish I could watch it with you for good.

Response-2 [a witty and unrealistic response meaning “I’m sorry”]
手てが届とどかないから、そう感かんじるのかもしれませんね。
(You) may think so because (you) cannot touch it.

Response-3 [a realistic response]
そうだね〜。ところで大事だいじな話はなしがあるって言いってなかった？何なに？
Yep. By the way, you said you had something important to tell me, right? What is it?

You may also like: Meaning of the Japanese idiom “The Moon and Soft-shell Turtle”

月とスッポン (tsuki to suppon): “The Moon and Soft-Shell Turtle”

How to Translate “I love you” in Japanese

Reading this post, now you may wonder what is a more natural translation of “I love you” in Japanese. Probably, the most common and direct one is “私わたしはあなたを愛あいしています”. However, it does not sound natural, as we usually omit a subject and/or object of a sentence whenever they are obvious. It is also unlikely that we use a polite form (desu/masu form) when talking with our partner, so the more natural translations would be “愛してる/愛しているよ”, or alternatively “大好きだよ”, which means ‘(I) like (you) so much’.

Having said that, there is no exactly equivalent phrase to “I love you” in Japanese. First of all, 愛してる is used only among couples, and the tone of 大好き can be much lighter than “I love you”. Also, as Sōseki supposedly mentioned, some Japanese people may feel too shy to say such a line directly to their partner.

On the other hand, you might be baffled to hear some Japanese people saying “I love you” very casually in English. In fact, some Japanese people misinterpret the tone of “I love you” as much lighter than it actually is. This is largely because the English phrase is used ubiquitously in Japanese music lyrics, and they don’t think that its tone can be very heavy/serious. Therefore, don’t be surprised if your Japanese friends or partner say “I love you” to you at an early stage.

See Also: Essential Japanese Words About Love

Essential Japanese Words and Idioms about Love/Romance

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