Translation: A Battle without Honor or Humanity (Hiroshi Kamayatsu)

Hiroshi Kamayatsu, whose 1975 album opens with A Battle without Honor or Humanity (Hosono/Matsumoto) (and follows up with another Matsumoto song, but without Hosono involvement) (and Side B opens with an Eiichi Ohtaki song) was a Group Sounds figure, ten years older than the Happy End guys. He emceed the final Happy End concert in late 1973, but the audience gave him a reception so cold that the band had to switch emcees halfway through. Happy End fans were a morose bunch.

You might know this song as Track 3 of the 20th Century Pops. I've spent all year going nuts for it, not suspecting the lyrics were awesome too.

The title is probably a reference to a 1973 movie of the same name, about yakuza in postwar Hiroshima. Leave it to Takashi to relocate the battleground to a relationship. ("Why don't you come on back to the war?")

:::

Lately, my girlfriend and I have been fighting —

you know, the kind where nobody's talking:

exchanging glares and ignoring one another.

Sparks are flying all over.

It's the calm before the storm.

Ah, but my girlfriend's so attractive

even when she's mad.

Crying is her last resort.

No giving up! I can make it!

Tears are formidable.

It's a battle without honor or humanity.

Misunderstandings. Jealousy. False charges. Suspicion.

Complexities, profundities,

too much for me to handle.

She's keeping silent, turned away:

a volcano on the verge of erupting.

A single touch and she'll blow up.

Just wait and see.

Her secret weapon 

is her sharp, sharp claws.

No giving up! I can make it!

No letting my guard down.

No weakening. 

Crying is her last resort.

No giving up! I can make it!

Crying is her last resort.

No giving up! I can make it!

Crying is her last resort.

No giving up! I can make it!

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