By Jasna in japanese — May 13, 2023

Translation: 恋

Attempting to translate the theme song from 逃げるは恥だが役に立つ.

恋・Koi, or "Love", is a popular song released in 2016 by 星野原・Hoshino Gen, one of my favorite music artists. It was the theme song for the TV show 逃げるは恥だが役に立つ, literally "Running away is shameful but useful"; but localized in English Netflix as The Full-Time Wife Escapist and elsewhere as "We got married as a job!" The song plays at the end of every episode, where the main characters dance in front of the camera. The dance itself became incredibly popular.

Here's my attempt at a Japanese-English translation.

Translation

営みの
町が暮れたら色めき
風たちは運ぶわ
カラスと人々の群れ

The bustling of life^[1]
The streets light up with life at night
The winds carry away
flocks of crows and people

意味なんか
ないさ暮らしがあるだけ
ただ腹を空かせて
君の元へ帰るんだ

What's the meaning of this?
Is there only this life of nothingness?
I just crave for something more^[2]
so I come back to you^[3]

物心ついたらふと
見上げて思うことが
この世にいる誰も
二人から

When I come to remember
I look up and think
Everyone in this world
comes from two people...

胸の中にあるもの
いつか見えなくなるもの
それは側にいること
いつも思い出して
君の中にあるもの
距離の中にある鼓動
恋をしたの貴方の
指の混ざり　頬の香り
夫婦を超えてゆけ

What's inside my chest?
What will someday disappear?
Being by your side
Never forget that^[4]
What's inside you?
Hearts^[5] throbbing in the distance
I fell in love with you
Laced fingers, the scent of cheeks
transcend a married couple

みにくいと
秘めた想いは色づき
白鳥は運ぶわ^[6]
当たり前を変えながら

Ugly and
Hidden thoughts grow
A swan carries them
while changing what is obvious

恋せずにいられないな
似た顔も虚構にも
愛が生まれるのは
一人から

We can't exist without falling in love^[7]
Similar faces and fabrications
Love^[8] is born
from one person

What's inside my chest?
What will someday disappear?
Being by your side
Never forget that
What's inside you?
Hearts throbbing in the distance
I fell in love with you
Laced fingers, the scent of cheeks
transcend a married couple

泣き顔も　黙る夜も　揺れる笑顔も
いつまでも　いつまでも

Crying faces, silent nights, nervously smiling faces^[9]
Will this go on forever?^[10]

胸の中にあるもの
いつか見えなくなるもの
それは側にいること
いつも思い出して
君の中にあるもの
距離の中にある鼓動
恋をしたの貴方の
指の混ざり　頬の香り
夫婦を超えてゆけ
二人を超えてゆけ
一人を超えてゆけ^[11]

Lit. "activity", "occupation", "sex" ↩︎
Lit. "My stomach gets empty." What's normally said when someone is hungry (for food). ↩︎
Lit. "I come back to your source" ↩︎
Lit. "Always remember" (that which was previously stated) ↩︎
Is it 君's (your) heart? Is it the speaker's heart? Is it both their hearts? I will settle with both, given the show's context. ↩︎
わ at the end of a sentence indicates an emphasis, or great emotion in the Kansai dialect. ↩︎
恋 is romantic love ↩︎
愛 is sometimes translated as the Greek agape, like an affectionate, caring form of love for God or your neighbor. ↩︎
Lit. "A shaking, smiling face" ↩︎
Lit. "Forever, forever." Is it a question mark? An exclamation point? Sticking with the former... ↩︎
Source: https://www.lyrical-nonsense.com/global/lyrics/gen-hoshino/koi/ ↩︎

Analysis

One of my constant struggles in Japanese is figuring out who is the subject of a phrase. Subjects are so often omitted because you're expected to glean them from context. Is it especially hard when the context is poetic, like in a song? Or is it all the same difficulty? 🙃 There also isn't an explicit single or plural indicator. For example, my difficulty with translating whose heart(s) is (are) throbbing.

With help from the Internet and my past studies, I settled on assuming that the subject in the phrases of this song are always the man singing, unless there are clues indicating otherwise.

Since I have been watching the show where this song was featured, I think of the show's story. There is a young, single woman named Moriyama Mikuri who gets fired from another job, and another young (but older by 10 years), single man named Tsuzaki Hiramasa (played by Hoshino Gen himself!) hires her as his housekeeper. She has dated before, but he has been a bachelor his whole life. They start to have feelings for each other, but they struggle to express these feelings with the complications of their employee-employer relationship. Yes, it's silly rom-com stuff, but it's good! It's so fun. Bonus: Aragaki Yui, the actress playing Mikuri, eventually marries Hoshino Gen in real life. 😊

So I think of the singer as Hiramasa, a lifelong bachelor who has only lived a humble life for himself, but is experiencing romantic love for the first time with Mikuri. He doesn't know what to do about this. He realizes he has these feelings, but he doesn't know how she feels. He wonders and doubts because of his low self-esteem, while also hiding his own feelings.

みにくいと
秘めた想いは色づき
白鳥は運ぶわ[^wa]
当たり前を変えながら

They struggle to advance their relationship romantically. They make each other cry, they can't find the right words to say anything, they just smile nervously at each other. Will this go on forever?

泣き顔も　黙る夜も　揺れる笑顔も
いつまでも　いつまでも

[spoilers ahead]

Their connection is complicated by their employer-employee relationship, which is presented to their families as a marriage, but with no wedding; and secretly, their marriage isn't registered with the Japanese government. They can't really call themselves girlfriend and boyfriend either. But their connection is real. In this context,

夫婦を超えてゆけ

has many meanings.

[/end spoilers]

The singer keeps exploring his feelings, wondering what are her feelings, but knows that he wants to be by her side--he's fallen in love with her.

胸の中にあるもの
いつか見えなくなるもの
それは側にいること
いつも思い出して
君の中にあるもの
距離の中にある鼓動
恋をしたの貴方の

See my other translations and posts about 日本語.