"no rain can't get the rainbow" - does this sentence annoy you?
 

I always kind of pretended it was "no rain can get the rainbow" as you can't really hear the "t" - although I think it is stated in official lyrics it is indeed "can't". Which to me, doesn't make sense...

"No rain can't get the rainbow" implies that all rain can get the rainbow, so it's not a very hopeful sentence. Perhaps it is meant to be read as "No, rain can't get the rainbow" as in "No, rain cannot get the rainbow".

What do you all think?

I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be like, without rain, rainbows wouldn't exist. In other words, without darkness and pain there can be no light and beauty. Something like that. I think it's a very powerful sentence and says a lot with just a few simple words.

It makes more sense if you read it as "no rain, can't get the rainbow"

Without rain...you can't get the rainbow~

Without pain, you can't get happiness.

YESSSSS. Explained it perfectly. What a great line, huh?

Wow thanks so much for this thread! It all makes sense now!
You can't understand the worth of true happiness without feeling true pain.

In other words, accept the bad times because good can flow out of them.... I guess! I never got it til you asked the question lol, so thanks!

I always thought that it meant happiness can't be touched by sadness.

like no rain can get the rainbow.

the rainbow can't be touched by the rain.

Exactly - I would like it if this was what was trying to be said and I feel that part of the song where it changes from a somber progressing song into a glimmer of hope "feeling" - that those lyrics fit the song well at that point. How then she goes "lalalala" like everything is ok because as you said "happiness can't be touched by sadness".
I understand what you are saying but the sentence "no rain can't get the rainbow" really does not come across that way. I'm getting a brain ache trying to read it and comprehend it that way. Lol.

After checking my A BALLADS copy, I just realised that "no rain can't get the rainbow" isn't in the official lyrics of RAINBOW. Hmm. From the way she sang it though, with the pause after "no rain", I've always assumed there would be a comma after it so it would read as "no rain, can't get the rainbow". Still an open possibility though since there's no official lyrics for that part and we might have been muddled by the translation over the years. D:

Ayu's English wasn't perfect that time, she was only starting to venture into the language, I assume. It relates to the rest of the lyrics as well.

The way that Ayu sings it in the song sounds like there's a tiny pause between "rain" and "can't"

And if you look at the lyrics

"If you have a pain hard to get over
Shall we share it and walk on?
Gathering pleasure too big for each of us
Shall we share them and walk on?"

It would work better with the "no rain, can't get the rainbow" idea because you can only experience happiness after you experience sadness/pain.

I could have sworn somewhere it officially is "can't" ??
Ok makes a little more sense. Like she's saying "no rain, (you) can't get the rainbow" (you can't bring me down), etc.

But I am still curious, I could swear that somehow there was some kind of documentation that it was "can't" vs. "can"

But even with the pause, you could say she pauses after can't get as well. Doesn't make it "no rain, can't get, the rainbow"

I find it awkward to the proper form be "no rain," with the comma after the rain because then it's like all of a sudden she is speaking to the rain/bad time directly. It would make more sense for her to be making a statement like "no, rain cannot get the rainbow" (so don't worry, keep your chin up) as in speaking to the listener.

It always made sense to me, since I always thought of it the way pommy explained :shrug

I love it, to me it's one of the most inspirational phrases from ayu.

I think it's just annoying to me as "no rain can get the rainbow" is much more inspirational as "no rain can't get the rainbow" - it's like "there is no sorrow that cannot tear apart your happiness" - it was like a double negative. But I guess if you improvise a comma somewhere it helps. Still wish it was "no rain can get the rainbow"

I have always read it as "no rain, can't/can get the rainbow" [I think they even have a little pause in there? : o] in that way, it makes lot of sense, at least to me.
And this sentence is one of my favorite ones from ayu's english ones~<3

I can't possibly argue, but I also remember it was said that 'no rain can't get the rainbow' was officially how Ayu really put it - as it is indeed difficult to figure out if she's singing 'can' or 'can't' (while it actually sounds more like 'can' than 'can't' if you ask me)... nevertheless 'no rain can get the rainbow' doesn't make much sense to me, even in the 'no rain can touch the rainbow' interpretation - after all you need rain to get the rainbow!

It doesn't really annoy me at all and it does makes sense.

No rain can't get a rainbow = there's always a rainbow after the rain.

Zeke I think you and Jackie got it the wrong way. If it doesn't rain we could hardly see a rainbow :P

Really? The very first thing I thought when I heard it was that it's a quite beautiful(and very true) metaphor on happiness and sadness. Even if it's phrased awkwardly it's one of my favorite Ayu quotes. (And I'd actually hate it if it was "can", it would seem like a line people interpret too much into then while with "can't" the meaning is quite obvious)

That's exactly what it means though and it's actually quite a common saying. Without experiencing pain and sadness, you can never actually understand and appreciate what the meaning of happiness is so therefore both experiences are equally vital in a persons life. "No rain, can't get the rainbow."

wow, thanks for this topic, it used to make me headache to think of the meaning too and I decided to ignore it. This topic really makes me understand a bit more. Both " no rain, cant get the rainbow" (no happiness comes without sadness in advance) and " no rain can get the rainbow" ( no sadness can touch hapiness) make sense, but I think the first one is more common to interpret. However, at first, I hear " can" and get stuck too ^^ because I think how come rainbow without rain, what does she mean, lol...

^ From my experience teaching English in Japan, the Japanese people in general have a lot of trouble with properly pronouncing a "T" sound at the end of a word for some reason. So I have no doubts that she means "can't" even though it does come out sounding like "can."

Same here, there was never any question about the meaning of those lyrics for me. I think it's one of Ayu's best English phrases. :yes

I always interpreted it as "no rain, can't get the rainbow" too. As in no true happiness comes without the cost of pain. (You can only have a rainbow if it rained beforehand.)

^Ok I see now! I was reading it as "no rain, (you) can't get the rainbow" but now I have brought my brain to interpret it as "(if there's) no rain, (you) can't get the rainbow" or "no rain? (well then there's no) rainbow". Why didn't someone just put it that way in the first place? God my brain was hurting Hella with everyone saying "you can't have happiness without sadness" and I'm thinking "how the Hell is her telling the rain it can't bring her down have anything to do with not having one without the other??"

I was wondering the same thing as Zeke, but now...wow, mind blown. 0.o I get it and it's become more profound now. I mean, I've always liked that line, but that's because I would hear it as "No rain can get the rainbow" without the pause, and i thought Ayu made a mistake with her English. Saying the words now...wow, I love this song ten times more now. XD

Odd - I was never too confused about it, but even after reading the explanations here, I still read it as "no rain, can't get the rainbow." It just makes more sense, is more logical, and to me, way more inspirational.

That's how I always got it, I never thought about it in another way.

nope, it doesn't annoy me one bit. Very easy to understand and they're my favorite lyrics from her.

there is no wrong and right way to this.

I'm still sticking to rainbow can't be touched by the rain.

Actually, I frequently say "No rain, can't see the rainbow." So I have never been bothered by it LOL

And recently, didn't she post "No rain, can't get the rainbow" on her twitter? I could've sworn I saw it before on her Twitter...

lol

"No rain can't get the rainbow" is an idiom anyway with the meaning without sadness there can be no happiness or words of a similar meaning. As in, without rain there can be no rainbow.

It makes sense... and does have a "right" way, as in the accepted meaning that it is intended to be used for, and is used for. I think in this case we can say Ayu intended to use it that way, as the accepted English meaning is supported by the rest of the lyrics. Any other meaning may be technically wrong, but you can see it that way if you want too.

I always heard it as "no rain, can't get the rainbow" as well, but I never gave the phrase much thought until now. Shame on me! It's a beautiful phrase and it makes me fall in love with the song all over again.

Not if you take it to mean "there is no rain that cannot touch the rainbow" meaning "all rain can get the rainbow" as in "there is no happiness that sadness cannot reach or destroy" - that is how I was taking it as. And when taken that way, it annoyed me.

^ But wouldn't that kind of take away from the meaning of the song? Because isn't the song about facing your problems and finally finding happiness? I don't know.

Wow I had no idea that's what it actually meant!!! I always thought it was 'no can get the rainbow'...thus I interpreted it to mean something a bit different :o.

lol same! *_*

I thought it was quite obvious, really, but if English isn't someone's first language then maybe it's harder to get??

RAINBOW is one of my fave songs, PVs and has some of the best lines. It's the perfect musical capture of the sun coming out (happiness) after the rain (trial and suffering) and a rainbow appearing in the sky. The very essence of the melody makes me think of that :luv2

tbh and repeat what many people said already, I always thought it was obvious. Even the pv's all related to specially that part of the song.

It's raining, and as the story develops, she meets "herself", and then she ends it by saying, "without rain, there couldn't be a rainbow", to put it in other words.


And didn't ayu explained the song in some interview before?? I remember when she explained every song found in RAINBOW the album, but not sure if she explained the song as well :/

I always thought she sang "no way can't get the rainbow" before I read the lyrics. lol

Exactly why I was confused! Lol.

Beautifully explained. I always took it as "no rain, can't get the rainbow." The PV supports this interpretation. Ayu meets with her dark, haunted self and eventually embraces it by the end of the clip. In doing so, she finds happiness and realizes that without experiencing pain, she wouldn't know what true happiness is like.

^^ Haha. I didn't know that meaning at first because I thought it was "no rain can get the rainbow", which didn't make sense to me. I was like rain can get the rainbow, it's how rainbows form!! :laugh

If you are annoyed by Ayu lyrics then I hope you never analyze Namie Amuro's music :innocent

It does sound like it could be in a Skittles commercial :p

Honestly though, "no rain, can't get the rainbow" is very powerful. I see it as, if you don't go through the pain/work/obstacle/etc., you won't be able to achieve what you want or what will make you happy. The metaphor is great because it has to rain for a rainbow.

it appears simple and silly, but it hides a deep and powerful meaning.
It doesn't annoy me at all