August 24, 2024

Translation: Pocket Full of Secrets (Agnes Chan)

Not only does Pocket Full of Secrets (Hoguchi/Matsumoto) have Hosono's band Caramel Mama arranging and performing, there's a Tin Pan Alley remake of it on their second album (a very strange album; precursor to Yellow Magic Orchestra's debut, I've heard one person claim — I suppose that would be one way to understand it, but...).

When Takashi was putting his first major compilation together (1999's hundred-song Encyclopedia of the Town of Wind), he was surprised by how timeless the pop songs he'd written decades earlier felt, and named Pocket Full of Secrets as a prime example: "This song! So refreshing!"

The first verse ("you were lying in the grass...") is an acrostic in Japanese, the first syllables of each of the four lines (a / gu / ne / su) spelling out Agnes's name. The singer herself didn't realize it until the 1990s.



:::



Hey, let's make a pinky swear 
in total secrecy!
You can't tell anyone about it!
I've been keeping my secrets
in a little chest pocket
and I think they're about to overflow.

You were lying in the grass,
fast asleep.
Your face in slumber looked so sweet
that I couldn't help whispering, "I love you."

Hey, let's make a pinky swear 
in total secrecy!
You can't tell anyone about it!
I've been keeping my secrets
in a little chest pocket
and I think they're about to overflow.

You opened one eye
and burst out laughing. 
You'd been cunningly feigning sleep, that's all.
And so I found myself in a fix!

Hey, let's make a pinky swear 
in total secrecy!
You can't tell anyone about it!
I've been keeping my secrets
in a little chest pocket
and I think they're about to overflow.

I was lying in the grass too,
but my mind was moving
at a million miles an hour.
Darn! Darn! Darn! 
What should I do?
Mostly I wanted
to escape straight into the sky.

Hey, let's make a pinky swear...

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