Translation
Title: Last Rain/Last Train*
A non-stop early summer rain falls down,
and the freshness** of the coming month of June is quickly gone
without waiting for the season to change.
Swallowed by the last train,
you and me are fixed in the memories of that day,
with an end like an happy ending of a film
let’s say our goodbye now.
You, who used to hate crowds,
hide your face with your red umbrella…
I have a feeling that you want to tell me something,
I’m scared and I can’t really laugh.
While I even tried not to sleep,
the lyrics I scribbled will be of some comfort for my soul?
I link dot to lines***,
and the melody on whom I put and sing on knocks on the window.
Since I have to go home with the Yamanote line****,
I’ll take you to the express for Oda****,
even tonight there’s this hateful rain.
Under the same umbrella, in the night tainted of the same colour,
I wish you hugged me.
A rhapsody in blue*****
would really fit us who had an incredible first meeting, don’t you think?
You try to look more adult and being more mature than me
you say a kind lie: “See you again”…
Memories pile up, Shinjuku Station, at the east exit a crowd of people,
the umbrellas bloom vividly, they look like hydrangea flowers, isn’t it a beautiful scene?
Even though I look for someone who looked like you,
as if the cold rain choose me,
every single drop, icily, resounds like an instrument.
A lonely Fender, I can’t give up on this love
I want to compose a song about it!
Swallowed by the last train,
you and me are fixed in the memories of that day,
with an end like an happy ending of a film,
when we’ll wave our hands it will be the end.
A rain of spilled tears falls…
Your goodbye taught me
what is really important…
Notes and Other
*=The title is a pun: it says “last rain” but sounds like “last train”.
**= the word itself refers to the colour blue, however the same colour is often used as a symbol for manother things, like freshness, youth and much more: it’s likely that the singers is implying many other meanings other than the one I chose.
***=It refers to “writing musical notes” (because the musical notes are dots with a line) but also to “go from a train station to another” (because in Japan train stations are referred with “dot” and the railways that connect them are called “lines”): extremely clever lyric trick.
****=All of these are real name of train station or trains.
*****=Rapsody in Blue is a famous song in which many different genres are mixed together creating a very harmonious symphony: I’m not sure but it may be a paragon with the date of which the song talks about (like they are so different but they work so good together).
After many years I felt like I managed to translate this song in a proper manner: my previous attempt was not incorrect, but it failed to convey the general images of the song.
The song revolves around the image of the tipical rainfalls of the rainy season in Japan (end of May, June), linked with many other tropes of the season, like hydrangeas (the flower assigned to June in classical Japanese literature) and the people flooding through Shinjuku Station with their colorful umbrellas that recall the many small flowers of the hydrangea. In this gloomy yet colorful scenario, the main character sees from afar a previous love interest, but, unable to reach her, remembers the way they parted, pretending they would meet again. A true feels trap for Japanese and me as well: I feel like this is one of the song that has been on my playlist since the dawn of my musical tastes.
If you liked the article you might consider tipping me a coffee on my ko-fi page. It’s a cheap and effective way to support the blog and the work I put in it without being forced to any monthly subscription of sort. You can also attach a message to your donation!
Zuihitsu 