English first, Japanese below (英語が上で、その下に日本語)
INTRODUCTION
While also an actor, Nagira Ken’ichi (b. 1952) is primarily a singer-songwriter. He came to public attention through performances at the 1970 and 1971 Nakatsugawa Folk Jamborees and released his first album “Mannendoko” (The Never-Made Bed) in 1972. He has some hilariously funny songs: “Kyōkun II” (Lesson Two), where he turns Kagawa Ryō’s anti-war anthem “Kyōkun” (Lesson One) into a warning about drinking too much, and “Hisan na tatakai” (A Disastrous Battle), in which a sumo wrestler gets fully exposed.
This song has a poor folksinger (Nagira himself?) meeting an old friend who has clearly ridden the wave of Japan’s economic success to big bonuses, a condo, and a car. The folksinger consoles himself with how the slower pace of his life allows him to appreciate little things of nature. What we have is an encounter between two very different value systems at this turning point in modern Japan.
紹介
俳優でもあるなぎら健壱（1952年生まれ）はシンガーソングライターとしてよく知られています。1970年、1971年の中津川フォークジャンボリーで注目を浴び始め、翌年の1972年に「万年床」というアルバムをリリース。笑える歌も何曲あり、その中に加川良の反戦歌の「教訓 I」を酒の飲み過ぎ注意の替え歌の「教訓 II」もあり、力士がスッポンポンになる「悲惨の戦い」という歌もあります。
自叙伝的とも受けとれるこの曲では貧乏なフォークシンガー（なぎら自身？）が高度経済成長の波に乗った友達と久しぶりに偶然に会うという設定となっています。マンションも車も持っているその友達に嫉妬しながら、フォークシンガーは自分の置かれた環境（葛飾区柴又）にはまだ残っている自然が楽しめるという思いで自分を慰めます。歴史的分岐点で遭遇する全く共通点のない二つの世界観、人生観がこの曲の魅力的なところの一つです。
TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION NOTES
There are many factors to be considered when producing bilingual music videos. First one must understand and appreciate the original Japanese lyrics. Then decide how to divide up the lyrics and and English so that they stay on the same slide.This results sometimes in tortured English syntax, I realize.
Some notes on decisions made for this music video.
• The narrator of the song is from the Shibamata area of Katsushika Ward in Tokyo. This area maintained an old downtown (shitamachi) air while the rest of Tokyo wildly Westernized/modernized. It is no coincidence that Tora-san, the traveling salesman of the eponymous long-running movie series, makes Shibamata his home. There is just no way to convey in English the warm, nostalgic feeling that the place name evokes.
• お前. The friend uses this second person pronoun (“omae”) to address the narrator of the song. While young-ish men use it all the time, it is a bit arrogant. It reflects the attitude of the friend as he flaunts his financial success over the narrator. In English “you” is all we’ve got.
• The narrator is bombarded by use of the passive voice: “kikareta” (“I was asked”) and “iwareta” (“I was told”). Passive verb forms indicate that being on the receiving end of these actions is unpleasant. Why unpleasant? Because the narrator feels self-conscious about not climbing the corporate ladder as a salaried worker like his friend.
• 「青山のマンション」. I translate it as “a fancy condo in Aoyama,” trying to convey something of the associations of Aoyama with wealth and privilege.
• 「車で迎えに行ってやる」. The English reads “I’ll pick you up in my car.” The original Japanese uses the auxiliary verb “yaru.” It indicates an act of giving to someone who is somehow inferior. A few lines later the friend says 「飯でもおごってやる」, using the same auxiliary verb. This word usage points to the arrogance of the friend.
• 「ホンダのカブのバイク」. I translate it as “a Honda scooter,” but it’s not quite that. The iconic Honda Cub is what they call a “step-through” motorcycle—one without the gas tank in the usual place. With small displacement engines and cheap price tags, these things are used for deliveries (newspapers, noodles). Anyway, not nearly as cool as the friend’s car.
• 「あのフォークとナイフって奴の使い方」. “How to use those things called a knife and fork.” The use of “. . . tte yatsu” is interesting here. The narrator could have said simply 「フォークとナイフの使い方」, but the addition of the “ . . . tte yatsu” sort of anthropomorphizes the cutlery and indicates an even greater distance between him and the implements.
• 「XXX 恐れが . . . ある」. The phrase means “there is a possibility that XXX,” but suggests that the possibility is an undesirable one. Hence the sort of quirky English “a very real but dreadful possibility.”
• 僕は顔でただ笑っているだけだった as “all I did was paste a smile on my face.” The narrator’s smile is not a heartfelt one but rather a sort of insincere pose. It goes no deeper than the surface, his face.
• 「それじゃまたな」と一人でしゃべり. The key here is the “hitori de,” which literally means “alone.” But he’s clearly in conversation with the narrator and NOT alone. The phrase suggests that while he is talking to the narrator, he is not really connecting with him. Hence the word “clueless” in the English.
• 「空はうそみたいにきれいだった」. Literally something like “The sky was pretty like a lie,” but that doesn’t work. Hence: “The sky was too beautiful to believe.”
• 「ほら」. More of a sound than a word, this is what one says when drawing people’s attention to something. I go with “and what do you know,” but I guess “well, would you look at that” would work, too.