Translation: I Passed through Your Town (Hiro Yanagida)

The bittersweet vibe continues in I Passed through Your Town. I love Hiro's bright arrangement, all ska horns and infectious group vocals. [Edit, a couple months later: "bright" severely understates the case. This song is joy incarnate!!] At "but I heard," the backing vocals disappear and it's just beautiful, frail Hiro singing alone.

Instead of adding a final verse, Hiro lops off the last two lines of Takashi's lyrics, which I've restored in this translation. I'm not sure the grammar makes sense with the lines gone; if it does, I think it turns the narrator instead of the town, which goes unmentioned, into the one "smothered in autumn light."

:::



Twilight is passing by.
A town the color of dead leaves
is reflected in the window of the train.

The wind that blows in through the window
smells of memories.
I close my eyes and hear your voice.

But I heard someone say
you don't live in this town anymore.
Even if that's true, though, it doesn't matter.
You know I can see you regardless.

On each and every street corner,
I could find the shadows
you left behind —
and with that conviction in my heart,
I turn around.

The town goes flying by
smothered in autumn light.
...and nighttime steals up 

on my eyes.



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