The last two (vocal) songs on Hiro are kind of similar sonically, which makes Yanagida's gambit of sequencing them back-to-back even better: it shouldn't work, but it does. Both songs are wonderful, even if you hear one right after the other. In fact, all the Side B Takashi/Hiro co-writes are wonderful. But so are the ones on Side A. And even moreso, every last Matsumoto co-write on the Sons of Sun album.
My point is, Happy End is enough of a miracle already, but now I have this additional gladness of knowing Hiro was helping bring music to even more 1972 Matsumoto lyrics. These two Yanagida records have burst my understanding of the Happy End period wide open. The 'Town of Wind' project feels a lot wider now than when I thought it was two and a half records, and no more. These Yano albums are a key part of the Matsumoto lore, and they’re both so beautiful — how could they be this unsung!
That's what all this gushing is for, you see. I need to help restore the balance.
The first line alludes to, or prefigures, or gave inspiration to, a song Matsumoto wrote a year later: When the Sky and the Sea Blend into One, which feels like a valediction to the entire Town of Wind chapter of Matsumoto’s work. That connection casts the shadow of endings on When the Gods are Dozing as well.
:::
When the sky and the sea blend into one,
the world looks
just like an oil painting.
The gods, for their part, are dozing.
You bow down your head
and start praying.
Painted by the wind,
you're trembling,
your eyes closed,
your delicate hands stretched out.
I wonder what it is you're in search of.
Abruptly the sky
splits right apart
and light dangles down
from the crevice.
The gods, for their part, are dozing.
Placing my arm around your shoulders
I bow down my head too.
Painted by the wind,
you're trembling,
your eyes closed,
your delicate hands stretched out.
I wonder what it is you're in search of.
I wonder what it is you're in search of.
(Back to: List of Translations)
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