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Deep Readings: Warabe Uta – The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

July 1, 2025 Deep Readings No Comments

The Fragment

まわれ まわれ まわれよ
水車 まわれ
まわって お日さん 呼んで来い
まわって お日さん 呼んで来い

English rendering

Spin, spin, spin around,
Water wheel, spin.
Turn and call the sun to come,
Turn and call the sun to come.

Listen → “Warabe Uta” from The Tale of the Princess Kaguya on YouTube

• Male voice
• Female voices

Contextual Glimpse
Maware maware was newly composed for The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013). Yet it feels ancient, because director Isao Takahata wanted a song that embodied the eternal rhythms of life. With repetitive phrases and nature imagery, it echoes traditional warabe uta (children’s songs) while pointing beyond them to the cosmic. The water wheel becomes a central image: a simple rural tool that turns endlessly, driven by water, mirroring the ceaseless cycles of seasons, growth, and rebirth.

Resonance
The fragment radiates calm universality. What turns here is not only a wheel, but the great circle of life. Birds, insects, beasts, grass, trees, flowers — all are called to join in the spinning. The refrain “call the sun to come” feels like both a prayer and a celebration. In its simplicity, the song resonates with an ancient truth: life is not linear, but circular. We live, bloom, fall, and return, like water endlessly flowing through the wheel.

It resonates because we, too, live by cycles: of breath, of days and nights, of beginnings and endings. The water wheel reminds us that we are not separate from nature’s rhythm.

Why this may also be about you
This is not only about a wheel turning in a film. Each of us is a water wheel, moved by forces beyond us, yet part of a larger cycle that renews itself through us.

Lisa’s inspired, original idea about this fragment
Perhaps the water wheel is also the heart. Its turning is invisible, yet it sustains everything. The song, then, is a quiet call to feel the inner wheel of our own being — spinning, spinning, in rhythm with the seasons of life.

Inner Invitation
Close your eyes and imagine a wheel turning in water. Hear the steady creak, feel the flow that keeps it moving. With each breath, let your own chest become that wheel: turning with air, with life, with time. Imagine the seasons passing through you — spring, summer, autumn, winter — and returning again. Let yourself rest in this endless rhythm.

Closing Note
A song written to sound timeless becomes exactly that: timeless. “Maware maware” turns like the wheel itself, reminding us that our lives, too, move in cycles of loss and renewal.

Keywords
cycle, wheel, nature, rhythm, seasons, renewal, sun, water, life, return, Takahata, Kaguya

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English rendering by Lisa

“Maware Maware” (Spinning, Spinning)

[Chorus]
Spin, spin, spin around,
Water wheel, spin.
Turn and call the sun to come,
Turn and call the sun to come.

Birds, insects, beasts,
Grass, trees, flowers —
Bring along spring, summer, autumn, winter,
Bring along spring, summer, autumn, winter.

Spin, spin, spin around,
Water wheel, spin.
Turn and call the sun to come,
Turn and call the sun to come.

Birds, insects, beasts,
Grass, trees, flowers —
Bring along spring, summer, autumn, winter,
Bring along spring, summer, autumn, winter.

[Bridge]
Spin, revolve, circle on,
O distant time.
Circle round and call back the heart,
Circle round and call back the heart.

Birds, insects, beasts,
Grass, trees, flowers —
Nurturing the compassion of humankind.

When the seasons end,
At last returning home.

[Chorus]
Spin, spin, spin around,
Water wheel, spin.
Turn and call the sun to come,
Turn and call the sun to come.

Birds, insects, beasts,
Grass, trees, flowers —
Bloom and ripen,
Scatter and fall,
Be born, grow, and die.

The wind blows, the rain falls,
The water wheel spins —
A thousand lives are reborn,
A thousand lives are reborn.