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I am watching けいおん！ and in the Episode 17 「部室がない！」the club is trying to find a room for rehearsals. After not finding a suitable room Yui says:

「軽音部{けいおんぶ}とかけて双六{すごろく}と解{と}く」

In response she is asked what she means, so I gather that she is talking in an abstract way. My problems are that:

  • すごろく is obviously a kind of a board game, but to play it would be 双六をする
  • instead 双六と解く is used, but even if by thinking about a game as a kind of puzzle you could "solve/untangle a game" I would expect 解く to use the を-Particle instead of と
  • かける can have so many different meanings. I found that the combination of とかける is found often in "multiply x with y". But I don't think this meaning is correct here as "双六 multiplied with the Light Music Club" because IMO that would need to be 軽音部とかけ た 双六 or 軽音部とかけ て(い)た 双六

So what does the sentence literally mean? Thanks a lot!

Quit007
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1 Answers1

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Okay. It should be a word play called なぞかけ.

The structure should be「AとかけてBと解{と}く」and you may be replying「その心{こころ}は」after you have heard.「その心は」is bit hard to translate, but it normally implies "What does it mean?" or alike.

There should be some relationships between A and B. The response should explains similarities or points in common or whatever which is related.

I think 「軽音部{けいおんぶ}とかけて双六{すごろく}と解{と}く」is saying the both are "just a hobby" and it is not treated as seriously as brass band club because the rockband does not seem as beautiful as brass bands. And 双六 also sounds gambling and you play the game relying on luck, so it can not be as serious as chess or shogi or alike.

My answer should be "a hobby" or "an entertainment" or "killing time" compared to other club activities which leads to Inter-High School Championships. Therefore they can not find a rehearsal room. I hope it fits the context of the manga:「けいおん」.

kimi Tanaka
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    How would you translate AとかけてBと解く? – user3856370 Oct 02 '20 at 12:57
  • @kimi Tanaka: Yes indeed, Mio asks right away「その心は？」and Yui 　replies「振り袖に戻ってしまいました！」(but actually meant to say 「振り出し」instead of 振り袖). I wasn't aware of the existence of なぞかけ, thanks a lot. But I still do not understand the construction AとかけてBと解く? as user3856370 pointed out. – Quit007 Oct 02 '20 at 13:11
  • @user3856370 hmm. It's difficult for me to translate it.. Do you need to understand "apples and pears" which means "stairs" with any logic? If I hear AとかけてBと解く?, I recognize it is a word association and I am going to wonder what the relationship between A and B is. – kimi Tanaka Oct 02 '20 at 13:14
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    So basically the meaning of AとかけてBと解く? is "what does A and B have in common" – Quit007 Oct 02 '20 at 13:17
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    @Quit007 I think so. I have found similar Q&A and they explain : "A riddle, a riddle.(なぞなぞだよ｡) A and B those have a common ground.(AとB､これらには共通点があるんだ｡) Do you find it?(それは何か分かるかな?). " from the link 英語でなぞかけがしたいです. – kimi Tanaka Oct 02 '20 at 13:27
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    From the additional context Quit007 has now supplied, it appears that what this club and 双六 have in common isn't actually that they are "just a hobby." Rather, this club is like 双六 because, not having found a room to practice in, the club members "have to start all over again" (振り出しに戻ってしまいました), just like a 双六 player must sometimes go back to the starting point. It's very similar to the English expression "we're right back at square one," meaning "we're right back where we started." – Nanigashi Oct 02 '20 at 18:29
  • @Nanigashi I didn’t know the context. I think trying to use your own creativity is what you should do in the game.Thanks for the explanation. – kimi Tanaka Oct 02 '20 at 22:35
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    Yes, of course – without that additional context, you could only guess what the point of the comparison was, and your guess was perfectly reasonable! – Nanigashi Oct 02 '20 at 22:46