Translation: Country Roads (Chu Kosaka)

Country Roads, the last song on Arigatou.

Kosaka's words (indeed simple and straightforward, here) are pure fantasy. He was a city boy, born in Tokyo. But the simplicity and, shall I say, naivety of the lyrics belie the power of the music. All those wistful outros, man! So moving! The tune and arrangement lift the words straight up. 

The Happy End guys clearly loved the song too — Eiichi Ohtaki reworked it into Kazemachi Roman's Spring in Full Bloom, making no attempt to cover his traces.

:::

Hello, everybody.

It's been a while since I last wrote.

How've you all been? Much the same?

I'm doing alright myself.

— now I'm sending this letter back home...

It's so far away,

so impossibly far away,

and I'm feeling lonely,

so lonely.

The old country roads

of my home, sweet home,

are on my mind.

The paths between rice fields,

overgrown with horsetail stems.

The woodpeckers in the mountains,

greedy eaters.

I'm doing alright myself.

— now I'm sending this letter to all my friends back home...

It's so far away,

so impossibly far away,

and I'm feeling lonely,

so lonely.

The old country roads

of my faraway home

are on my mind.

It's so far away,

so impossibly far away,

and I'm feeling lonely,

so lonely.

The old country roads

of my home, sweet home,

are on my mind.

Hello, everybody.

It's been a while since I last wrote.

How've you all been? Much the same?

I'm doing alright myself.

— now I'm sending this letter back home...

It's so far away...

It's so far away...

It's so far away...

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