June 30, 2024

Translation: Sky-Colored Crayon (Happy End)

Ohtaki/Matsumoto's Sky-Colored Crayon: a song about an angry girlfriend. Or: the plight of the art major.

Another summer song, too, I think. Takashi has said that in the days before he went pro, he could only write about the season he was actually living through. By the time he was writing albums for Seiko Matsuda, in the '80s, he could write about snow while midsummer flared in Tokyo. Whereas the Happy End ethos was radical honesty.



:::



I sketched you
with a sky-colored crayon
at the amusement park,
at midday.
Your face was turned away.

My pocket
could not hold
the floral-print dress
that suits you so well.

I am definitely going
to catch a cold.

The clouds in your eyes descend
like an avalanche.
The main thoroughfare shakes
like a swing set.

You look exceedingly beautiful
on the drawing paper.
What a pity that I need to return
to see-through winter.

I am definitely going
to catch a cold.


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