Translation: The Silk Road (Haruomi Hosono)

Given the title of the album, as well as its Procol Harum-tribute cover art (compare A Salty Dog), it's easy to forget that Tropical Dandy is made up of both tropical and Chinese exotica. The Silk Road is effectively fanfiction for Journey to the West, one of the four classic Chinese novels, beloved of Hosono. 

It's a song particularly dear to my heart for many reasons, one of them being precisely its fanfictive nature, since fanfiction is the mode my own songwriting seems to thrive in.

This was one of the hardest translations I've done to date. That narrative voice! I needed to take into account both the words and the badass way Hosono sings them.

:::

I'm swaggering 

through the ominous wastes.

Low-grade demons, get the fuck out of my way

if you don't want me beating the shit out of you.

As I go, I shout to the clouds

and cross a million leagues in one leap.

The Silk Road will take you anywhere you want to go,

even as far as the markets of Persia.

Piece of shit, 

I'll knock you flying!

One taste of my karate chop

and you'll be fleeing

with your tail between your legs.

As I go, I shout to the clouds

and cross a million leagues in one leap.

The Silk Road will take you anywhere you want to go,

even as far as the markets of Persia.

The road leads ahead

to the great cities of the west.

But I'm going to find you

and I'm going to fight you

even if it kills me!

As I go, I shout to the clouds

and cross a million leagues in one leap.

The Silk Road will take you anywhere you want to go,

even as far as the markets of Persia.

(Back to: List of Translations)