Translation: Fairy of Winter (Seiko Matsuda)

And here I thought I would avoid tears by getting back into Kaze Tachinu translations. I should have known better. Goddam Takashi and his album openers.

Matsuda + Ohtaki + Matsumoto was some team. Those tinkling piano notes in the verses — those husky, quavering vocals — and these words!!! Takashi understands how to inhabit a character.

Knowing how opposed Matsumoto was to Happy End's break-up, and listening to Side A of Kaze Tachinu, and knowing that even as mad a genius as Eiichi Ohtaki was about to be cast aside by the Muses (the backstory of Each Time is crazy, and would seem unbelievable to me, if it hadn't really happened), the poignancy levels of a song like Fairy of Winter go right through the roof. It may be that, for much of his artistic life, all Takashi ever wanted was to be able to write new lyrics and then weigh them out: "This one for Hosono. This one for Ohtaki. This one for Shigeru..."

In that sense, the Seiko era in the 1980s was a dream that Takashi made come true, and could be considered the second part of Happy End's saga.

The back half of the second verse (from "If I wrapped..." to "second glance") stumped me. There are no pronouns or subject markers, so I'm not sure of the association between actors and actions. I'll give it another go in six months.

:::

I'll give you a rose

that has blossomed in winter —

blossomed right by the window

this morning.

When a person's in love,

it calls miracles forth —

that's why

I don't think I'd get cold

even on a street

frigid in the winter wind.

Now show me your ten-karat smile

and soon you might even have me saying

that I love you.

You're always walking so quickly.

I'm tired of trying to keep up.

If I wrapped your face up in a long, long scarf,

the people passing us in the street

wouldn't give you a second glance.

I'm on edge.

It's really troublesome.

And soon you might even have me saying

that I love you.

The snow is so soft and strange

and I am the fairy of winter.

When I wore a frilly coat,

you laughed and said:

"Alice in Wonderland, I take it?"

If you make fun of me,

I'll never forgive you.

Seriously, soon you might even have me saying

that I love you.

I'll attach a note to this white winter rose.

I'll scribble down exactly what I'm thinking.

Now please breathe on 

the cold palms of my hands

until they are thoroughly warmed up.

I need your kindness.

Show me your ten-karat smile

and soon you might even have me saying

that I love you,

that I love you,

that I love you...

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