Don’t think I’ve posted this one here yet?
メシ食うな
Stop Eating!
Text by Kou Machida
Translation by Klara
Erase my entire existence
Negate my entire existence
And that of those fucking daft bourgeois kids
Because they beat me up
In town, colourful blooms in hand
National railway passengers wear the look of poverty
A sea of people; humanity
You all fucking stuff your faces because you just can’t take it anymore
Inside that void you call ‘self’
Stop eating!
電動コケシ
Vibrator
Lyrics by Michiro Endo
Translation by Klara
The vibrator ate up
The skyline of hollow buildings
It thrust head on
Into their hopeless lust
When the vibrator shakes its head
Buildings all across Tokyo
Wish they were the one
In the dead of the night they shake their heads
When they shake their heads all together
They suddenly all get kind of wet
And at any moment the city could melt
Even God took his pants off!
The night the vibrator schemed
Mankind became the toy
The night the vibrator schemed
Mankind became the toy
So the first one who looked like he would
Proclaim that he welcomed it
Found himself with an unbearable 4.5V
Shoved deep down his throat
It shook and shook its head, made his body shake
And as he cried and shook his head in protest
I watched, until morning came
Until morning came…
The vibrator ate up
The skyline of hollow buildings
It thrust head on
Into their hopeless lust
Japanese lyrics, in a slightly different format than mine: Niku
I’ll leave you with this one quote from Endo (taken from the Doll magazine):
“There’s one side to music that makes me the most miserable. And those are the times when I have no choice but to make a living from it, in the same way that ordinary people have to make money to support themselves. It makes me feel weak.”
nopperabou.net: hide vs Kenji Ohtsuki
[…]
Ohtsuki: Wasn’t Saver Tiger punk?
hide: No. It really was regular hard rock. Only sometimes I’d spit up blood, or smash some stuff up. One time I went out and bought some meat–remember the band WASP? So they had this performance where they bit into raw meat, to go with the image of the song….
サル
The Monkey
Lyrics by Michiro Endo
Monkey! Monkey!
The emperor learned to masturbate, the emperor learned to masturbate
In the zoo he learned to masturbate
Once he starts going at it, he doesn’t stop!
Once he starts going at it, he doesn’t stop!
The emperor learned all on his own; to masturbate, the emperor learned
The emperor learned to masturbate
Once he starts going at it, he doesn’t stop!
Once he starts going at it, he doesn’t stop!
The emperor learned to masturbate; he turned off all the lights
The emperor learned to masturbate; in the pitch dark he learned to masturbate
Once he starts going at it, he doesn’t stop!
Once he starts going at it, he doesn’t stop!
He won’t stop, the monkey!
Notes: a few lines have been cut due to repetition. This version of the song is from Stalinism but a Japanese fan wrote the lyrics out by ear since they apparently aren’t printed in the booklet.
Japanese lyrics: http://tuneari.fc2web.com/musik/stalinism.html
(I’ll admit it, I’m sticking to easy lyrics cause homework has my translation brain fried.)
The King
かくれんぼ
Hide and Seek
Lyrics by Kiyoshiro Imawano and Char
Translation by Klara
Are you ready? No, not yet!
Are you ready? No, not yet!
Even though the sun is sinking
Alone, I play hide and seek
I search for her
Tag, I’m it
Are you ready? No, not yet!
Even though the moon is shining
I can’t play hide and seek alone
I can’t search for her
Tag, I’m it
I’m still it
Japanese lyrics: http://www.utamap.com/showkasi.php?surl=E08537
vinylpanx replied to your post: Happy Fucking 2013!
omggggggg so weird D:
I get a feeling it’s a twisted game of ‘spot the real life reference’. Anyone up for the challenge? Hah. :/
Happy Fucking 2013!
おかあさん、いい加減あなたの顔は忘れてしまいました
Mother, I Can Barely Remember Your Face Now
Lyrics by Michiro Endo
Translation by Klara
Mother, I remember the rainy traffic lights and how beside each pedestrian crossing
this ovary of yours, with his mouth gaping open,
pulled out from the trash bin mementos of a sun swollen crimson;
how then a single insect would try to sneak out of there
while going in circles through 285,120 hours of darkness.
I long for those happy memories of being soaked to the skin
after I had poured over my head the miso soup that had just been served at the dinner table.
I had wished to share with someone the embarrassment I’d felt at writing all by myself
to the Autistic Children’s Letters to the Editor section that my father is a civil servant,
and unable to wait it out until the end of school I had bolted from the classroom
and ran home as fast as I could,
but though I tried to hold my pee and wait for the green light before crossing
as you had taught me,
by the time I noticed that the traffic light was actually broken it was already too late, I was done.
Are you well?
Mother, I can’t help it if I’m smart.
Every time I assert myself she is instantly cured of her morbid fear of a phantom miscarriage.
Women’s underwear is always stained yellow,
and I will declare without hesitation that racial discrimination is the root of sexual desire.
Refreshed by my morning erection, just as if I had swallowed whole an American politician’s speech,
I decided to take a look at a sacrificial sale of Vietnamese bananas,
when I recalled a story about an old geezer from the agricultural coop;
with a freedom goddess vibrator in one hand and a red viper drink in the other,
he bought trendy jeans in Ueno’s Ameyoko as a souvenir for his cute grand-daughter,
spat some rash, old-fashioned remarks about all penniless families sharing a common destiny,
then later he became a vagrant and eventually got himself killed; it’s a sad story I’ve been trying to remember.
Are you well?
Mother, I’m not allowed to wear pants in this freezing cell.
The sound of the toilet flushing is so loud that no one can sleep,
so instead the criminals are always masturbating in secret,
and when I told the detectives in the interrogation room that I only dreamt of you,
they seemed elated as they admonished me about filial piety.
They gave me katsudon for my midday meal but I’d rather have tanuki udon,
and when I said how I despised my father,
the yakuza next to me, a Self-Defence Forces maniac, turned crimson,
flew into a rage, and started antagonizing me: “Luxury is the enemy!” and the like.
That’s when I unintentionally let it slip
how I’m glad that he got what he had wanted in life then! What a fucking pauper!
Are you well?
Mother, I can barely remember your face now.
Since my bout of cystitis, I have found pleasure in cooling that part of myself with water.
I have come to hate baths; my skin will not stop peeling off in large flakes,
and I can’t stand having my subcutaneous fat constantly exposed:
that is why I cried in the purple-red entryway, all alone.
Mother, I want to taste anpan one last time.
Mother, I want to taste the kuri kinton you used to make for me during the New Year.
Mother, I would love to eat some sukiyaki stuffed with pork and full of sugar.
Mother, my tastes are a disgrace to the ordinary person.
Mother, my diarrhea hasn’t stopped since this morning.
Mother, I must have ruptured a blood vessel.
Mother, it won’t stop bleeding, it will not stop.
Mother, Mother, I hate the color red!
Notes: I tried to keep the format as close to the original as I could but I’m iffy as hell about some parts. Not adding notes either since anything I’d write would be incomplete at best.
Japanese lyrics: http://www.uta-net.com/song/105832/
イワンのばか
Ivan the Fool
Lyrics by Ohtsuki Kenji
Translation by Klara
Do you know the Sannen Goroshi? (1)
It’s a trick from the Russian Sambo martial arts
That will leave you with only three years to live!
No time even to dance the Polka
Ivan had the trick pulled on him
And to himself he muttered farewell
Since then the seasons have turned
And sure enough, yesterday the third year came
Be it in happiness or in torment
The third year’s days will go by
And it’s the former that Ivan chose
Ivan the Fool!
Since learning he had little time left
Ivan had lived in depravity
For a cheap price
He took in destitute children one by one
Gradually a procession of children formed
With Ivan at the head
On they walk, straight ahead
The Trans-Siberian Railroad runs straight ahead too
They crossed the plains and headed for an ocean of trees
A great forest beneath the tundra’s midnight sun
Ivan taught the children
About this world’s hidden side
Ivan the Fool!
Having learned of the world’s hidden side, the children
despaired of the world
They drank poison and died one by one
Except for Ivan who couldn’t die
Though he knew his time was near, Ivan could not die
Again he’s Ivan the Fool! The Fool!
As Ivan buries the children
In the tundra soil
Their corpses are
Staring at him coldly
“The tundra colors are beautiful”
Says Ivan
Ivan the Fool!
Notes:
1. The ‘sannen goroshi’ or ‘three-year death’, is a martial arts myth according to which you can strike your opponent in such a way that he will die exactly three years from the day he was struck. I’ve also come across a few mentions of a ‘five-year death’. Same concept, different time period.
Japanese lyrics: http://www.uta-net.com/song/31931/
Just Like a Boy
Lyrics by Michiro Endo
Translation by Klara
On the morning your letter came
In which you wrote you were doing great
I opened the window and conjured up your silhouette
Chasing your dreams on the sea’s distant shore (1)
And I felt a touch envious, but it’s a beautiful day today!
Oh! Just Like a Boy
Just Like a Boy
I’ll go out into town just like a boy
In the far away distance beyond is the Arizona desert
You’re standing with a guitar in one hand
Your cheeks red, made russet by the sand
I conjure up your silhouette, standing there,
And I feel a touch envious, but it’s a beautiful day today!
Oh! Just Like a Boy
Just Like a Boy
I’ll go out into town just like a boy
Oh! Just Like a Boy
Just Like a Boy
I’ll go out into town just like a boy
The morning, I’m half-asleep as usual
And even the sound of car horns seems far removed
Somehow I even feel far removed from myself
While I’m not distraught, I do find myself helpless
And feel a touch saddened, but it’s a beautiful day today!
Oh! Just Like a Boy
Just Like a Boy
I’ll go out into town just like a boy
This road runs on and on, endlessly straight ahead
Somewhere far beyond it is Paradise
I cannot wait to see what it is you have found
Your words are shining so bright
And I feel a touch envious, but today as well is a beautiful day!
Oh! Just Like a Boy
Just Like a Boy
I’ll go out into town just like a boy
Notes:
1. The verb used is 駆けずり回る. It means to rush or run around, however the emphasis seems to be on the fact that you’re making great efforts to achieve a goal, even if it means going to a million places or doing a million things. (With another possible definition being to frolic, to gambol.)
I chose to translate it as ‘chasing your dreams’ since to me that fits the lyrics best, especially since the song seems to be about emigration.
Japanese lyrics are here: http://www.uta-net.com/song/105833/
