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In the short Nero in a Santa outfit sings a "Jingle Bells" with some rather casual lyrics.

Hashire sori yo, kaze no you ni, tsukimihara wo, padoru padoru

The lyric is a song of this clip (for the full clip, click here). The song sounds like a "Jingle Bells", but the subs don't seem to match up with the spoken dialogue ("Laughing all the way" as a translation for "padoru padoru").

I have searched on Know Your Meme, but I couldn't get the meaning of "padoru" from the lyrics. I have also tried google translate, and this is what I got:

Peeling as Tsukurei Sled Like a cold

What is the meaning of "padoru" in the context the short or song?

Gagantous
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  • That is complete and utter gibberish in the tune of Jingle Bells. Its about roses, the sea/beach, with weird emphasis on PADOru... Whatever that is. – кяαzєя Dec 23 '17 at 11:50
  • @кяαzєя, any reason why you deleted your answer ? i think it's a nice answer and i accept it, it's answered my question tho... – Gagantous Jan 03 '18 at 02:21
  • It doesn't adequately explain the 'padoru' part. Purely translational question are technically off-topic I'm looking for canonical sources to make my answer a less speculative one. – кяαzєя Jan 03 '18 at 14:55
  • Related on Japanese.SE: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/73631/5464 – Aki Tanaka Dec 27 '19 at 05:47

4 Answers4

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I've actually questioned this myself in the past, here's what I've basically found so far

After digging for a while on Japanese Q&A sites and forums, most people seemed to have concluded that it's referring to a "Paddle", as in an implement to whip the reindeer with.

However like the Western community, they have about as much of an idea as we do on what it's actually supposed to mean as I don't think there's even been an official comment on its meaning, there's even a difference between how people think it's supposed to be written, as パドル or パドる, the difference being the later is a verb and the former being just a noun.

Either way, this song is completely made up, it's just for TYPE-MOON ACE, so it could just as easily be utter nonsense gibberish to fill in the tune.


To add more context, here's a thread about this: http://フェイト-fate-grandorder攻略速報.com/lite/archives/50387834/comments/5642764/

The OP opens up asking what the Padoru (パドル) part means and some correct him that it's normally パドる, some say otherwise, however as far as I can see, パドる is more a widely accepted way of writing it, with pixiv dic and many YouTube videos seeming to have this spelling.

Post #5 on the thread sums it up kinda well:

「パドル」ではなくて「パドる」であって、パドる=パドリング するってことなんだろうと解釈してた

It's not the noun "Paddle", it's the verb "Paddle", as in the act of Paddling, or at least that's how I interpreted it.

Sn0wCrack
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    パドる is the canonical spelling according to [FGO](https://i.stack.imgur.com/XmQJN.jpg). This may just be Nero's ad-libbing rubbing off on Alter. We see Nero use padoru with the above spelling in the Summer Dead Heat Race event in FGO where both are part of the same team. It may just be Nero doing things on a whim, as Nero mising "rose" into the otherwise Jingle Bells style lyrics makes even less sense in the given context. – кяαzєя Aug 27 '18 at 04:43
  • Furthermore, the comments mention another possible interpretation of 進む進む or "advancing forward". See [comment 7](http://xn---fate-grandorder-794ovb07b7ht176ef78bjy3dxb0g.com/article/460847887.html) – кяαzєя Aug 27 '18 at 04:56
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This all probably bogs down to Nero's whimsical nature and "padoru" is just some mumble jumbo that took on a life of its own as a meme. As some may not be aware the Saber-class servant Nero Claudius is a bad, off-key singer, much like the Lancer-class Elisabeth Bathory.

Nero herself has no particular skills or feats that would qualify her to be a Saber class servant and only has any sword skills as a direct result of her Imperial Privilege skill.

Nero's feats in bad singing is derived from historical fact. Nero's off-key singing in the Type Moon Ace Fate/Extra short is a direct play off of this.

The so-called original wording of the "Jingle Bells" lyrics go something like:

走れそりよ 風のように 雪の中を 軽く早く (かるくはやく, karuku hayaku, more or less with gentle swiftness)

No official explaination has been provided in canonical material, but a certain FGO Summer racing even, Nero is seen and heard singing a similar song, but with roses (bara/バラ/ばら) in place of certain words for no explained reason. "Bara" and the "Pado" in "padoru/パドる" use katakana, normally used for foreign (loan) words, instead of hiragana, normally used for standard Japanese words.

Rose in Japanese is written as 薔薇 (ばら), which is notorious for how hard it is to remember, so it is typically spelled out using kana as バラ.

A characteristic in Japanese that is not well understood or articulated is how the Japanese use katakana and hiragana as a literary device. It's not easy to articulate the nuisance if something such as an foreign accent or emphasis on certain words in Japanese writing as there are set pronunciations for each character. The nuisance of using katakana for a name can express the foreignness of the name or boldness) harshness of it's pronunciation or tone, akin to using UPPERCASE vs. lowercase can put emphasis or create the nuisance of shouting in written dialog. The lack of kanji in written text can also convert the simplicity of one's character or dialog. For an example, to convey the nuance ifca child talking vs that of an adult, a child speaking might only use hiragana, while a adult mixes hiragana and kanji when talking.

A simple example can be seen in the Yotsuba: yotsuba and her father

The use of different fonts also helps add emphasis to the nuance between how they speak.

While there are no lyrics for context in the Type Moon Ace short, the FGO Summer event provides some context that we can infer thru how it is written and the literary intend from whomever authored or oversaw the dialogue.

bara bara

Roses and padding make very little sense in this context, especially is land racing.

Once interpretation can be that what is likely being conveyed is the whimsical and child-ish tone of Nero's bad singing and the fact that she doesn't remember or intentionally ignores the proper lyrics and (indirectly on the audience) asserts her Imperial Privilege to insert whatever she fancies into the lyrics, and establishing them as the proper lyrics as no one bothers correcting her.

In essence "padoru" has no real meaning us is just a bit if a filler that the off-key Nero probably misheard and went along with.

кяαzєя
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  • Maybe this is a manifestation of Nero's Imperial Privlege but it's worthnoting, if anyone is wondering, the typical onomatopoeia sound of hooves against the ground is かっぽかっぽ (kappokappo) and not "padoru". No clue where this originated from. – кяαzєя Mar 22 '20 at 23:55
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This is, I think, the actual meaning of the first two verses

This is, I think, the actual meaning of the first two verses. "Padoru padoru" could well be onomatopoeic if (if she is running) or considering these are the actual two verses of the Japanese adaptation from the "jingle bells" song about the travel of Santa on his sled, it could be also Nero singing about paddling on a sled while moving like the wind

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    Herman's comment about onomatopoeia got me thinking and now I suspect it might be a Japanese pronunciation of "pitter patter" which Google defines as "a sound as of quick light steps or taps." It makes sense in the context of the rest of the song. – Lewdite Dec 19 '18 at 00:36
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According to this official translation "padoru" means "wading".

Dashing through the snow, 
in a one horse open sleigh, 
together we wade through, 
Tsukimihara U.!

"Paddle paddle" could refer to using hagoita paddles in hanetsuki (Japanese badminton), a traditional Japanese New Year's game often played by girls.

Cees Timmerman
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  • The NA FGO localization has taken many liberties in the past, so even if they are "official" the semantic meaning and nuicance of padoru remains undisseminated, due to the fact that without context it's just a made up word that sounds like a parody to an older, more widely known version. No real deep meaning there besides typical fandom memeing – кяαzєя Mar 23 '20 at 00:02