Category Archives: Translations

KAN – Listen to the Music (English Lyrics)

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Listen to the Music

When do you listen to music?
“Never really thought about it.”
Well, of course you haven’t
Sorry for the weird question

When do you listen to music?
“When I just want to shut myself off.”
Right on, hopefully after some rest
You find the key and you make it out

You’re lonely, so lonely, but you suppress it
You’re fine, totally fine, or so you pretend to be
But even just by the way you carry yourself
People can probably tell how you truly feel

You do your best to act the fool
When really you’re so terribly lonely
No good — tears spill out on the lyric sheet

On my rare day off
This intoxicating comfort of escapism — oh yes!
While I can’t actually play it of course
Busting out a sax solo feels so good

You love them, love them so much, you yearn for them
You imitate them, chase after them, you become them
What’s wrong with that?
Reality is all jumbled anyway

One day, one day for sure, without fail
I’ll make it, if I believe I can, obstinately
As I continue my pursuit
For that amusing, first-rate music

When do you listen to music?
Seems like nobody cares about the “when”
And why would they?

But as long as I keep eagerly, selfishly playing my music
Surely, by some coincidence, you’ll find it in your hands
And if it brings you even some small comfort?
Hey, then it’s all OK

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KAN – Mayumi (English Lyrics)

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まゆみ
Mayumi

Mayumi, how are you doing as of late?
Me, I’ve been feeling a bit sulky
Mayumi, in case you ever feel down
I just kind of wrote you this song

Mayumi, you are a flower
Secretly smiling in some corner of the city
Mayumi, I am only watching
Afraid that someone might nip you off

This life neither good nor bad
Wanting to talk, wanting to express
Always unable to get the words out
“This isn’t it; that isn’t it; that’s too heavy”
Cheating each other, comforting each other…
Our hearts won’t hold

Mayumi, at times when you get sad
Where do you put the sadness?
Mayumi, you can raise your voice and cry
It’s okay to take it all out on me
Don’t ever go blaming yourself

This personality neither good nor bad
Not liking this, not minding that
Always unable to take responsibility
“I want this; I don’t want that; that’s heavy too”
Want to leave, but I can’t

Human beings, every single one of us
Dealing with our own sadnesses
All of us constantly dreaming
Until one day our tiny cries
Reach that other person

Mayumi, do you happen to know
The clearest, most beautiful water there is?
Mayumi, it’s when you’re in love and it hurts
And you keep bearing it and bearing it
Until finally the tears come falling out

Forgive me, for this is all I can say

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KAN – Happy Time Happy Song (English Lyrics)

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Happy Time Happy Song

Look and see
The blue earth continues to spin
And the stars are still shining

Come, young student
Stop worrying about the future for now
Surely a happy, happy time will come along

I am a street corner love fortune teller
Even today there’s 30-something people lining up
My duty is to give you a nudge in the back for 3,000 yen
Telling you how surely a happy, happy time will come along

So that’s right — believe in yourself
Your dream specifically is the real deal
So take the plunge and push ahead

Listen closely
Strain your ears, someone’s calling
Today it’s pa, pa, pa, pa, paa

Come, good sir
Just head back to your family for now
You’d better go back to the place you call home

So that’s right — it’s as you thought
Life presents a huge pile of problems
But one day you’ll spread your wings
As you head for the bright blue skies

My apologies
I am actually only a small-time musician
And I sing of love, love, love

But either way
My duty is to give you a nudge in the back for 3,000 yen
With a happy, happy song for your good luck

La, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la

So how about it?
Stop worrying for now and give it a go
Surely a happy, happy time will come along

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Learning by Drinking: Umezaki Haruo

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Umezaki Haruo
If you start drinking methanol
Author | 15 February 1915 – 19 July 1965

There was a time when my body would not accept sake. Whenever I drank it, I would always feel unwell the next morning. I was a big beer drinker at the time, so I figured that perhaps sake just wasn’t for me.

But as I became a working adult and got more opportunities to drink the stuff at fancier places, I realized something: what I had been drinking back then had not been the real deal. See, what with me being so broke, I would have to go out drinking in more dubious places, and I’m guessing what I had been drinking there had actually been cheap, synthetic sake.

Synthetic sake is, in a narrow sense of the word, different from actual sake. It’s an alcoholic beverage which includes amino acids and other food additives, but of course I had no clue about any of this back then. Some of you might now be scolding me. “Who cares what it is as long as it gets you drunk. Don’t be such a damn snob.”

It’s true that there are people out there who do not care what it is they’re drinking so long as it contains alcohol. Some people can drink anything and everything and still be completely fine. Be that as it may, there are plenty of examples in history of people who—because of their single-minded desire to get drunk—chose the wrong kind of alcohol to drink, and it nearly cost them their lives.

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Learning by Drinking: Fujisawa Shuko

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Fujisawa Shuko
If you have important work to do but you become an alcoholic
Go player | 14 June 1925 – 8 May 2009

“What’s more important, me or alcohol?!”

If there was a woman asking you that in tears, what would you say? “No one’s ever asked me that and no one ever will. It’d be pointless for me to even contemplate.” Now, now. You mustn’t be so uncouth. After all, it’s good to have a shelter for every storm.

I read this in some magazine over a decade ago, but apparently if one was to answer the question above with “alcohol,” that would mean they were on the verge of becoming someone with an alcohol dependency problem (hereafter referred to as “alcoholic”).

In my younger days I would have said, “I mean, okay, but be that as it may… Still it’s gotta be alcohol for me.” For better or worse, alcohol will never betray you. Although, of course, if you enter into a close relationship with alcohol, it suddenly becomes more dangerous than any woman out there.

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