yakushitemita

く〇たしげたかがまどからみている

sm40772073

Do you know who Shigetaka Kurita is? Well, I didn't either before I become more active on niconico douga. The dutiful COO of niconico, he tweets constantly about the goings-on of the community and regularly appears in livestreams. In other words, he's a meme of his own caliber.

I tried to translate this song, which was released last July to instant fanfare by Fujiwara Hagane. You might think that a typical 'respect' urban horror story is about to unfold, but prepare for a surprise.

I'm not sure why I waited so long to do this, but I just got out of an interview and needed a break so it seemed like a good time. I did my due dilligence but I'm not a professional, so please keep that in mind.

Shigetaka Ku██ta is watching from my window

赤い鳥居の柱の横
akai torii no hashira no yoko
Beside the post of a red torii gate,

きれいな貝殻を拾いました
kirei na kaigara o hiroimashita
I found a beautiful seashell.

左のポケットにぎりしめ
hidari no poketto ni girishime
Grasping it tightly in my left pocket,

家に急いで帰りました
ie ni isoide kaerimashita
I hurried back home.

蛍光灯の明かりの下
keikoutou no akari no moto
Beneath the glow of fluorescent light

くらがりとしじまの中
kuragari to shijima no naka
Within the dark and the silence--

く〇たしげたかが窓の外で
kurita shigetaka ga mado no soto de
Shigetaka Ku██ta is outside my window

ぼくを見ていました
boku o miteimashita
Watching me

何も言わず窓にはりついて
nani mo iwazu mado ni haritsuite
Staying close to the window without saying anything,

じいと見つめている
jiito mitsumete iru
blankly staring

く〇たしげたかが窓を通り抜けて
kurita shigetaka ga mado o torinukete
Shigetaka Ku██ta is coming through my window

入ってきた
haitte kita
And now he's inside

何も言わずただとなりにいる
nani mo iwazu tada tonari ni iru
He's just standing next to me without saying anything.

ぼくはどうしたら良いのでしょう？
boku wa doushitara ii no deshou?
What should I do now?

Notes

What do you think of the song? I think it's pretty funny that Kurita isn't actually dangerous and that the speaker is just wondering what he should do now that he's peacefully inside the house. And the fact that the shell by the torii might not have had anything to do with Kurita.

By the way, the lyrics data I translated is from the UTAU song database. They use the lyrics that are typed out in the video. There are slight differences between the video's text and the words that are actually sung.

The mistake that might exist in this translation is the follow-through on the tense of the original. There are two points where the lyrics are originally written in the past tense, but I chose to translate them in the present tense for clarity. These lines are "ぼくを見ていました" and "入ってきた".

"ぼくを見ていました" is literally "watched me" and "入ってきた" is literally "came in". But the rest of the lines in these parts of the song are in the present tense, and the speaker starts to recount what is happening as it happens, rather than providing context (finding the shell). Time "steps forward" between each stanza.

But the flow of the story isn't really kept in English if I translate the first phrase of the chorus as "Kurita Shigetaka was outside my window, watching me". We assume from that statement, he's either left or is already inside the house, which ruins the punchline of the song and the surprise of Kurita's head bouncing through the box (recontextualized as a window pane) in the MV.

It's possible that's a bigger goof than I realize, but given that it's a meme song and parody of songs like ヤツメ穴、which also tell stories with a twist ending, I felt comfortable publishing it like this to maintain the feel. If you have thoughts, please message me!

the song recommendation is: sm41949829