Translation: Tales of First Love (Norihiko Hashida & Endless)

1972 was the year of the epic Hiro Yanagida collaborations and, of course, the final (and still my favorite) Happy End album. By 1974, Takashi Matsumoto was establishing himself as a professional lyricist. Inbetween was 1973, which is when most of the work (if not actual releases) of Takashi's great Production Year was getting done. Lyrics were on the backburner.

Among the few he did write in '73 is Tales of First Love (Hashida/Matsumoto), recorded by Norihiko Hashida & Endless. A great overview of Takashi's work in the early '70s points out that his lyrics here are "not particularly virtuosic." Right: they're too general and abstracted, and on the sappy side (althoooough Takashi may not be fully to blame for that; consider the title of the non-Matsumoto B-side, "Youth is a Journey of Tears", and you can see the vibe Hashida, or Hashida's label, was going for). 

But one does not leave the best band in the world and go straight to writing trash. The second verse, for instance ("we were tickling..."), is pretty great — there's an element of startled wonder in the Japanese that I couldn't figure out a way to get across in English. And the chorus, while labored, and unnecessarily dense, says something real and disquieting.

Call it growing pains, maybe. Speaking with Shigeru Suzuki about Heroine of the Skyscraper (Matsumoto's contribution to the Happy End era's begun/then scrapped/but ultimately transfigured "four solo albums" project), Takashi laughed and said, "Happy End would have instantly rejected a song titled Heroine of the Skyscraper." They would have rejected Tales of First Love too, on artistic rather than thematic grounds. But the thing is, if you're trying to move your art somewhere new, you're bound to take some wrong turns here and there; and without those wrong turns, you wouldn't know which way you should actually go.

Besides, it's a good song. The melodicism and drive of Hashida's tune shore up the places where Takashi fumbles, while the slightly askew manner in which Takashi goes about writing a conventional love song / youth anthem does the same for the unadventurous early-'70s folk-pop arrangement.

Plus, it's addictive: I've played it thirty times today alone.



:::



We were busy

with our bittersweet kisses.

Our fingers intertwined,

we smiled and daydreamed

about love.

A first love is like the wind —

transparent, lemon-yellow wind

that blows and blows among the seasons

we've forgotten.

And time keeps flowing 

ever forward.

All this happened

long ago.

We were busy

tickling each other's ears

with our whispers.

We were spilling

radiant love 

over our hands.

A first love is like the wind —

transparent, lemon-yellow wind

that blows and blows among the seasons

we've forgotten.

But you are someone

I remember:

a girl I knew once,

long ago.

A first love is like the wind —

transparent, lemon-yellow wind

that blows and blows among the seasons

we've forgotten.

But you are someone

I remember:

a girl I knew once,

long ago.

(Back to: List of Translations)

Translation: The Door of the Heart (Agnes Chan)

I'm finishing up my work at the university I've been teaching at for eight years, preparing to move south and inland, and juggling a whole variety of time commitments related to not especially interesting things. In this way, I make no progress transcribing the Zipangu Boy lyric sheet, let alone translating it. 

But as I find myself slipping back into Takashi Matsumoto obsession (is it the season? his stuff feels so right in summertime... will my life henceforth be a series of Summers of Matsumoto?! maybe it wasn't just a beautiful one-off!?), I've uncovered several part-finished Matsumoto translations among my notes, some of which I forgot ever starting. I can work on them in two or three minutes installments, and it makes me happy, so here's The Door of the Heart (Masaaki Hirao/Matsumoto) from 1975.

Exquisite high harmonies — a glorious, tremendously sweet refrain — unexpected, forthright, and pure lyrics that call the word "crystalline" to mind — sure enough, it's Takashi writing for Agnes Chan. 

How long will their collaboration be this great? Always? All twenty-eight of Takashi's songs for Agnes could rule, couldn't they? Why not? Ah, the heart is a hopeful machine.

Also: I perk up every time Takashi uses "wind" as an image. You should too. It's his favorite image, after all, and not one he uses lightly.



:::



I knock,

but your gentle voice doesn't answer.

You invited me to come,

and that's why I came,

but now look, I'm heading back alone,

and it's already Sunday.

I strain my ears

but hear nothing beyond

the anxious pounding

of my heart.

I wonder where you are

and who you're with.

The door to your heart

is firmly shut.

I want my love

to turn into

the key that will unlock it.

I wonder how

you feel about me.

I wish I could turn into wind,

slip through the keyhole

and find out.

And I wonder what is written

in the diary you keep 

inside your room.

I wish I could turn into wind

and take a peek

as I ruffle the diary's pages.

The door to your heart

is firmly shut.

I want my love

to turn into

the key that will unlock it.

The door to your heart

is firmly shut.

I want my love

to turn into

the key that will unlock it.

(Back to: List of Translations)

Translation: Schooldays Spent Daydreaming (Part 2) (Morio Agata)

One of the audacious things about Morio Agata is that he'll fill his albums with reprises... no I know, that in itself is not audacious, lots of artists do that (not, however, enough artists). But you know how standard procedure is to put space between repeating motifs? The Band on the Run chorus bookends its album; Mrs. Vandebilt's reappears only towards the end of Side B; there are several minutes of music between You Never Give Me Your Money and Carry That Weight; The Happiest Days of Our Lives divides Another Brick in the Wall 1 and 2; etc. That's standard procedure. 

But Agata's never bothered much with standard. 

His 1985 psych-folk triple-album masterpiece 永遠の遠国 (That Everlasting, Far-Off Land) is a wonderful extreme, with Side A basically being different arrangements of the same song all lined up in a row, and Side E doing the same thing again (even more transparently) for a different song. And those two songs still get reprised in a more ordinary way on Sides D and F.

And so, directly after Schooldays Spent Daydreaming (Part 1) comes Schooldays Spent Daydreaming (Part 2) (Agata/Agata, arr. Keiichi Suzuki). Honestly, listening to the album straight through, you wouldn't necessarily realize that Parts 1 and 2 are different tracks. It transitions so smoothly.

The arranger is Keiichi Suzuki of Moonriders, later of The Beatniks (with Yukihiro Takahashi), and later still of Mother/Earthbound OSV fame. Keiichi, who produced That Everlasting, Far-Off Land, learned the trade by observing Haruomi Hosono work on Zipangu Boy. As the double album took shape, Suzuki found himself wishing that Hosono would just fall asleep already, so that he (Suzuki) would have a chance to take over for half a track or two. No words were spoken about this burning desire but Hosono must have noticed, because here and there pockets were suddenly left open, as if on purpose, for Suzuki to take the lead on — Schooldays 2 being one of them.

Haruomi and Keiichi were old friends by then. Keiichi was already hovering around in the Happy End days (he and Agata, who were in a band called Hachimitsu Pie together, got Hosono to play bass on Agata's home-recorded 1970 debut album, 蓄音盤 / The Gramophone). He played piano with them at their farewell concert in autumn 1973, and liked to daydream of the band continuing with him in it full-time.

Postscript: there aren't many things better than being so moved by a song that I cry while I'm translating it. I wonder if Zipangu Boy will have moments like that. I did tear up a little bit, working on this one. But what I really want is to weep like a baby.

:::

The distant silver sea...

Schooldays spent daydreaming.

All of us enjoying

summer break together...

Schooldays spent daydreaming.

I'll be a good boy, and wait...

And where are those terraced fields

swimming off to now?

Ever closer to the sea.

Ding-dong... dreaming days.

The distant silver country...

Schooldays spent daydreaming.

And all along, the summer break...

Schooldays spent daydreaming.

I'll be a good boy, and wait

for my ear infection to get better.

It's not like I've never swum before.

We'll all go swimming,

and we'll swim fast.

Ding-dong... dreaming days.

.

And so the boy dozes, and dreams, and finds himself embarking on a journey to the Pure Land.

(Back to: List of Translations)