黄金の月 (Ougon no Tsuki)¹
Golden Moon By Suga Shikao²

Link to video
Quick & easy pronunciation guide³

ぼくの情熱はいまや流したはずの涙より
Boku no jounetsu wa ima ya nagashita namida yori

冷たくなってしまった
Tsumetaku natte shimatta

どんな人よりもうまく自分のことを偽れる
Donna hito yori mo umaku jibun no koto o itsuwareru

力を持ってしまった
Chikara wo motte shimatta

My passion has become colder
Than the tears I’ve cried
More than anyone,
I’ve learned to put on a false face

大事な言葉を何度も言おうとして
Daiji na kotoba wo nando mo iou to shite

すいこむ息はムネの途中でつかえた
Suikomu iki wa mune no tochu de tsukaeta

どんな言葉で君に伝えればいい
Donna kotoba de kimi ni tsutaereba ii

吐き出す声はいつも途中で途切れた
Haki dasu koe wa itsumo tochu de togireta

Many times have I tried to say the words you needed to hear
But my breath gets stuck in the middle of my chest
How do I say what you need to hear
My voice always catches in the middle of my throat

知らない間にぼくらは真夏の午後を通りすぎ
Shiranai aida ni bokura wa manatsu no gogo o tohrisugi

闇を背負ってしまった
Yami o seotte shimatta

そのうす明かりのなかで 手さぐりだけで
Sono usu akari no naka de te saguri dake de

なにもかもうまくやろうとしてきた
Nanimo kamo umaku yarou to shitekita

Without realizing it we've passed by the mid-summer afternoon
And have shouldered the darkness
Flailing around in the twilight
We tried to make it work

君の願いとぼくのウソをあわせて
Kimi no negai to boku no uso wo awasete

6月の夜永遠をちかうキスをしよう
Roku gatsu yoru eien o chikau kisu o shiyou

そして夜空に黄金の月をえがこう
Soshite yozora ni ougon no tsuki o egakou

ぼくにできるだけの光をあつめて
Boku ni dekiru dake no hikari o atsumete

光をあつめて・・・
Hikari o atsumete

With your hopes and my lies
Under a June night let’s kiss and promise each other an eternity
Let’s draw a golden moon in the night’s sky
Gather as much light to me as you can
As much light as you can

ぼくの未来に光などなくても
Boku no mirai ni hikari nado nakutemo

誰かがぼくのことをどこかでわらっていても
Dare ka ga boku no koto o doko ka de waratteitemo

君のあしたが みにくくゆがんでも
Kimi no ashita ga minikuku yugandemo

ぼくらが二度と純粋を手に入れられなくても
Bokura ga nido to junsui o te ni irerare nakutemo

Even if my future has no light
Even if someone somewhere is laughing at me
Even if your future becomes ugly and distorted
Even if we never grasp innocence again

夜空に光る黄金の月などなくても
Yozora ni hikaru ougon no tsuki nado nakutemo

Even if there is no golden moon shining in the night sky

1. A favorite from my international student days at Kobe University. ↩︎
2. Funky Japanese pop artist with a cool raspy voice and great lyrics.
   Our friend Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikao_Suga ↩︎
3. If you speak Spanish, pronounce the vowels as you would in Spanish or other Romance languages and you should be OK. If you’re silly a monoglot like many Americans and native English-speakers, follow the guide below. (North American English pronunciation. Sorry, Brits, Aussies, etc.)
   
   A = ah (pawn)
   E = eh (egg)
   I = ee (geek)
   O = oh (Oklahoma)
   U = oo (zoo)↩︎

The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country.

The line and the book is beautifully translated by the master Edward G. Seidensticker⁴. A more literal, and far less elegant, translation might go:

The train passed through the long border tunnel and entered the snow country.

The Japanese goes:

Kokkyo no nagai tonneru wo nukeru to yukiguni de atta.

Word by word, the sentence roughly goes:

Border’s/long/tunnel/passed/through/the/snow/country/it/was

Yoda, anyone? Japanese grammar structure is subject (often dropped or implied, as train is in this case) followed by object and then verb, making the syntax strange in English. Of course this is to be expected of any two languages, especially those that are distant to each other.

The reason I point this out is to introduce the line that follows, one of my favorite sentences in literature. In English (once again courtesy of Mr. Seidensticker) the line goes:

The earth lay white under the night sky.

It is lyrical and appropriate to the English language. Seidensticker tunes the sentence for the English, while keeping the spirit of the Japanese. Even so, I can’t help but feel it is more than adequate but less than special. The Japanese sentence, along with the other sentences, combine to create a beautiful staccato rhythm that is one of the reasons the book was lauded as part of the “new impressions” or shinkankakuha⁵ literary movement. That’s why the original Japanese sentence is one of my favorites in literature.

Yoru no soko ga shiroku natta.

Word by word:

Night’s bottom, white it had become.

Done this way, elegant it is not. A still literal but more literary translation might be:

The bottom of the night had became white.

Doesn’t really work in English, does it. How about:

The bottom edge of the night merged into the white of the snow.

Perhaps with more liberties taken:

The darkness of the night melted into whiteness of the snow.

Or something and so on. All of the above are terrible. And I am definitely not daring to best Seidensticker’s translation. It is the right translation. I just can’t help but feel the sentence, and the book as a whole, loses something in translation. It is the Japanese language’s ability, in this case, to make me feel deep in the pit of my stomach that the very bottom of the night itself, the part that touches the earth, has actually been swallowed by the snow and turned white.

Snow Country is one of my favorite books, of English or Japanese. It is a languid piece of literature, not exciting. Nor is it an easy read. Japanese can be a vague language and Snow Country can be infuriating in its fuzzy handling of time, space, and character perspective. But it is achingly beautiful and whenever I read it, I know I’m in the warm yet simultaneously unforgiving hands of a master writer. I can count on one hand how many books I’ve reread even just once. Snow Country I’ve read four times and will read many times more.

1. Japanese names are in Japanese order, surname first. ↩︎
2. Wikipedia is our friend:
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Country ↩︎
3. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
   
   Amazing but long. ↩︎
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Seidensticker ↩︎
5. Still a friend:
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinkankakuha ↩︎

THE HIDDEN FORTRESS

It is a period of warring states. The Akizuki clan, defeated in battle, have their lands seized by rival Yamana clan.

In the aftermath, Akizuki Princess, Yuki managed to survive and take refuge in a hidden fortress with a handful of loyal servants and what remains of her family’s gold.

Led by the courageous General Makabe, Princess Yuki journeys through enemy territory, her only hope to reach allied lands, gather an army, and restore her family’s rightful place. . .

That is the crawl¹ to THE HIDDEN FORTRESS, the first Star Wars movie.

What the fuck?

Yes, that’s right. Directed by Akira Kurosawa, THE HIDDEN FORTRESS came out in 1958, almost two decades before A NEW HOPE. Kakushi Toride no San Akunin (in a Japanese mouthful that translates as The Three Villains of the Hidden Fortress), THE HIDDEN FORTRESS is a samurai adventure film set in a fictional Japan mirroring the 16th century Warring States period. Lucas has admitted he was heavily influenced by the film’s plot structure, storytelling elements, and cinematic style.

Lucas stole² a lot from THE HIDDEN FORTRESS including telling the story from the perspective of the lowliest characters, in this case two gold-digging bickering peasants, whose love-hate relationship provide much of the movie’s comic relief. Like two droids we know, the peasants are not as hapless as they seem at first. And even in times of trouble, fortune seems to eventually shine their way. Unlike the two droids, however, they are greedy and their behavior is sometimes less than honorable³.

Princess Yuki is Princess Leia’s badass girl power sempai⁴. She is headstrong and listens to no one. Concerned that her willful personality and forceful way of speaking will reveal their identities to the Yamana, General Makabe convinces her to play mute as they travel through enemy territory. He is the OG Jedi knight. He is loyal and courageous in combat. In a duel scene that puts Obi-wan and Vader’s to shame, Makabe spear fights a respected rival general.

Among other “stolen” elements are scenes of the peasants traversing slanted barren landscapes, wipes for scene transitions, and a closing scene that will make you even angrier than you already are that Chewie never got his hardware at the end of A NEW HOPE.

So, if you were thrown off by some of Rian Johnson’s barn burning decisions in THE LAST JEDI and are hankering for something that feels more traditionally Star Wars, check out THE HIDDEN FORTRESS. It is one of the more mainstream of Kurosawa’s movies, but it is nonetheless a well-made entertaining romp. The samurai aspects are done with Kurosawa’s usual deft hand, while the elements that led to Lucas’ first Star Wars movie are surprising yet delightfully familiar.

P.S. Kurosawa also made the best Shakespeare adaptation, but more on that some other time.

1. Long lost to the world until recently "discovered" by an intrepid blogger (you're welcome). ↩︎
2. Good artists copy, great artists steal.
   -Maybe or maybe not Picasso via Steve Jobs ↩︎
3. They lust after the princess more than a couple of times. Fortunately, the princess is more than a match for them. ↩︎
4. Sempai is the senior to the kohai or junior in the important sempai/kohai relationship. ↩︎

Varying shots of the man drinking play across the screen. Only the sounds of rain, music, and swallowing. In a lilting Osaka dialect (think American Southern accent), the woman speaks in a voice over.

Ah. I’m parched. Can I have some JAZZINN. Come on. Give me one sip. You’re such a cheapskate.

The woman glares face forward into the camera. Her left eye-brow rises and rises.¹

The commercial closes with an announcement by a male voice in a strange faux non-Japanese accent.²

A delicious adult beverage for everyone. Now on sale.

This was from the 1990 commercial for the launch of JAZZINN, a tea soda beverage produced by Pepsi Inc. Japan for an all too brief three years. I was a teenager living on a naval base in southern Japan when I discovered it. I can’t specifically remember my first taste but I loved it right away. And I remember the adult feeling it gave me with its slightly sweet, slightly bitter flavor. I loved the off red can, the cheesy English copy (below), and the big JAZZINN and 350 (for 350ml) printed on the can. I searched for it at convenient stores, supermarkets, and in vending machines. It wasn’t a secret but it was my hidden portal into a world that was less childish than the world of cokes and juice. The copy gets it right. It had an adult taste- whatever that means. It tasted of tea but it was a soda. It was mysterious and irresistibly satisfying. If it went back on sale I’d make a mad dash to the nearest place selling it. At the same time, I’d be afraid to drink it and be disappointed. The memory is a ghost but such a delicious ghost. That’s probably how it should remain. RIP JAZZINN 1990-1993

JAZZINN: THE NEW SOFT DRINK WITH THE ADULT TASTE. YOU'LL BE SURPRISED AT THE UNIQUE COMBINATION OF BLACK TEA AND CARBONATION. AND, THE LESS SWEET, LONG-LASTING FLAVOR OF CAREFULLY SELECTED INDIAN TEA LEAVES IS IRRESISTIBLY SATISFYING. YOU ALWAYS FIND IT JUST WITH YOU. JAZZINN: IT'S THE WHOLE NEW KIND OF SOFT DRINK.

1. Natsuki Mari is a Japanese actress and singer. She voiced Yubaba in Spirited Away and played Obaba in the manga-based table tennis cult classic movie Ping Pong. Interestingly, she uses a Kansai dialect in the commercial, even though she was born and raised in the Tokyo area. I think her accent is pretty good but would have to ask a Kansai native to be sure. ↩︎
2. Japanese sometimes use a fake foreign accent to make something seem more exotic or cool, or to micro-aggressively mock foreigners speaking Japanese who often do not even realize they’re being mocked. ↩︎

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