Translation: Spring in Full Bloom (Happy End)

Spring in Full Bloom (Ohtaki/Matsumoto) was the last song recorded for Kazemachi Roman, and it has the sound of a leavetaking party, like Sugar Magnolia ending a Dead show. Except for the bridge and outro, which Eiichi sings alone, the band's three singers sing the whole song in three-part harmony. It's incredibly fun to sing along to.

The outro is a Buffalo Springfield Again quote... well, actually, the whole song is sort of a Chu Kosaka quote, emulating/remaking Country Road, the beautiful closer of Kosaka's first album Arigatou. Ohtaki just took the opportunity of quoting Bluebird as he quoted Country Road.

It seems that in his days as a professional lyricist, Takashi devoted himself almost exclusively to love songs, and my impression so far is that there were plenty of unusual love songs among them — detailed, idiosyncratic — so, fair enough. But then when I look at a Happy End lyric like this one, in which spring is characterized as a warrior and conqueror rather than the usual gentle lady with her pleasant breezes and garlands of flowers and stirrings of romance, I start desperately hoping that there are more non-love songs buried in that two-thousand-song catalogue somewhere. And, hey, Hard-Boiled Town is from 1975, so my hopes may not be in vain.

Again with the precision of the flowers — the winter daphnes whose scent dominates winter in parts of East Asia, the plum blossoms that characterize early spring in Japan.

For what I call a "circled dot umbrella" (蛇の目傘, technically a "circled dot oil paper umbrella," but I couldn't get that to scan), see here. 

:::

Hey, doesn't that look like spring approaching

with a heartless look in her eye?

She moves quickly forward,

pretending she doesn't notice

the scent of the winter daphnes.

And now, see!

It's going to rain.

Hey, isn't that spring approaching

with the spring rain just behind?

— they share a circled dot umbrella

with a navy-colored crown,

moving dimly through gardenia rain.

So now, see!

Won't each day from here on forward

end with a mutual draw?

Hey, isn't that spring over there

with her lovely black hair

and the pale crimson rouge on her cheeks?

The plum blossoms appear colorless

beside her.

Well now, see!

Isn't spring in full bloom?

Winter and its space heaters

depart.

Summer and its air-conditioners

approach.

Seriously, isn't it spring yet?

Must I be left waiting

again and again?

(Hey, doesn't that look like spring approaching

with a heartless look in her eye?)

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