Back when I was translating a Matsumoto song or two a day, 1983 felt like a wasteland, and wound up making me feel pretty discouraged. "Is this all he amounted to in the '80s...?" It felt so thin and obvious by comparison with the mystical masterpieces of the early '70s (and I was immersed in them just then, listening to the Sons of Sun record several times a day, etc).
And okay, sure, Takashi's later work doesn't have much in common with Dusk or Suburban Train. But yesterday I found myself rereading those '83 translations (so far: My Heart Goes "Kyun" for You, It's Springtime Mon Amour, and Morocco) in the midst of a Fleetwood Mac bender. The Mac's lyrics tend to peak at serviceable — though some lines are touching or inspiring, and there are a few songs that, as a whole, hit hard (looking at you, Beautiful Child) and of course the words feel wonderful to sing. But all in all, they tend toward the plain. Fleetwood Mac were never about the lyrics.
Takashi lyrics, by comparison — even in 1983 — are surprising, full of detail, and clearly differentiated from each other. You'd never confuse the narrative voices in those three songs, or the circumstances of their respective stories. Even in 1983. And so, suddenly heartened, I revisited another '83 song, which I'd finished but hadn't posted. And it turns out that, yeah, this one is good too.
The Kittens of the Apple Forest (Tsutsumi/Matsumoto) is the ending song of the anime adaptation of Alf Prøysen's Mrs. Pepperpot stories. As is typical of the era, the anime is better than its source material.
The singer is Mari Iijima. The anime's OP/ED duo was her first single. Her debut album, Rosé, was produced and arranged by Ryuichi Sakamoto, but from that album onwards, the songwriting was her own.
:::
The kittens of the apple forest
invited me to a super fun party,
full of the clip-clop of the creatures
who tap-dance in wooden clogs
and the chorus of a band
of little birds up in the boughs.
I love you, dear Aunt Spoon!
Now come on, let's dance together.
I love you, dear Aunt Spoon!
Come on, let's go — it's Shape Up time.
Look here!
Maybe we can't see happiness directly,
but we can join hands with it
and spin, spin, spin.
The duck in a silk hat dances
to the beat of the bear drummer's drum.
Everyone's smiles look like they'll
split right off their faces.
But what else would you expect?
It's Auntie's birthday!
I love you, dear Aunt Spoon!
Your bashful eyes are beautiful.
I love you, dear Aunt Spoon!
I want my life to be like yours.
Look here!
We're spinning,
spinning in a circle
at the tippity top of the world.
The kittens of the apple forest
invited me to a super fun party,
full of the clip-clop of the creatures
who tap-dance in wooden clogs
and the chorus of a band
of little birds up in the boughs.
The kittens of the apple forest
invited me to a super fun party,
full of the clip-clop of the creatures
who tap-dance in wooden clogs
and the chorus of a band
of little birds up in the boughs,
and the chorus of a band
of little birds up in the boughs.
