Night Drive or the Inverted L Enigma + Translation
Even if you're not interested in the translation, there may be something interesting for you in this post...
I think I've got the answer to the famous enigma of the inverted L in ナイトドライブ. Not that I found it myself... but I've read so many blogs around, mainly Japanese blogs, that couldn't get over it, that I was starting to get quite desperate, and thought about just translating it as 'inverted L' and as everyone else saying that I didn't know what he referred too there...
But that wasn't before - you're gonna laugh - I had painfully looked through some car park modalities, engine and car stuff to try to find out what he was referring too... you never know what a bad influence Koichi may have on him. Actually, I even read one Japanese blog telling the story of how they wrote to a Japanese radio show about cars to ask them about it.
And it's actually so far from the actual thing... because the actual thing is actually so Tsuyoshi-like... so poetic... so perfect... and such an unique way to watch the world and write about it...
Anyway, before we go to the heart of the subject, I have to thank someone here, because as I said I wasn't the one to come up with the answer on this one. So ジークさん, どうもありがとな！
So... before the translation, here is ジークさん's explanation of the famous inverted L, so brilliantly demonstrated in one single shot and I want to thank her to have allowed me to repost the picture here. I can't remember where I found the other one, so... hum... credits to whoever I stole it from but it wasn't a Tsuyoshi related website anyway, so...
It looks so obvious when you see that, right? These infamous inverted L that can kill the speed... it's so obvious, but I and other people wondered about it for so long. When it actually makes such an awful amount of sense… If you're still doubting this interpretation, have a look at the lyrics and you won't doubt any longer.
Anyway, you have no idea how pleased I was when I finally get a definitive answer about that line and how grateful I am for the people who managed to relate enough to Tsu's mind to understand it (or to live in a part of the world where the traffic lights look like that... because by here they don't and it obviously didn't help me at all... lol) to have share their findings. I guess I still have a long way to go before being able to observe the poetry of this world as Tsuyoshi does...
But maybe that's what it is all about... to manage to go forward, maybe all we need is to have a different view on thing. Being able to invert the inflexible border between reality and spirituality or, if you prefer, imagination... between what is common and boring and seen without ever being truly watched and what can be magic and beautiful...
Maybe it's just a matter of convincing ourselves that this inherent fantasy that seems to inhabit only our minds and makes this world look so dull can actually be found around us if we look properly...
I've ranted about that at length in my explanation post about the translation of the song, but I'm quite convinced that beneath the story, it's one of the messages contained in this song. The whole text is built on inversions of references and common values, of any landmarks you thought you had and could rely on. It's as if the night had changed the Earth into a different world where dreams becomes reality and where distant and unreachable concepts become useless.
And that can be so well felt when you hear the song... I guess it's also what makes Tsuyoshi a genius songwriter... his lyrics and melodies always match each other so well... it's a strange harmony that gives to the complete work bringing together music and words a force that despite their perfection the parts themselves cannot reach.
Another point that makes Night Drive so special is how perfect the very few English words employed there sound in the way they blend with the rest of the text.
I have to admit that the use of English in Japanese songs is something that quite often gets on my nerves, because I know of several lovely songs that have been pretty badly damaged by this obligatory fashion of English adds. Not to mention that English pronunciation of the singers (and I'm not even targetting anyone here... it's a general thing) usually make the lines barely intelligible, despite the fact that you know for sure it's not Japanese. But here it's not the case. Here Tsuyoshi has the courage to integrate these words perfectly into the text by singing them with a pure Japanese pronunciation, and it's just lovely. It was already the case with ‘Devil’ where he doesn’t use an English pronunciation and clearly sings ‘debilu’ and somehow I like it so much, when his admirable efforts to sing «you’re everything forever” in’ラプソディー’ just make me laugh… tenderly for sure… but they still make me laugh… But in his own songs, he has understood so well how English should be used in Japanese songs, if you want to use it. In Night Drive, the words actually add a really nice feeling to the text... reinforcing the idea of this night drive taking place between different or at least wider boundaries than the world actually has...
This diffuse feeling that night can sometimes bring you 'elsewhere' is even integrated into the lyrics themselves... When Tsuyoshi sings 'sky' and still writes it as 空 (sora = sky). Or when he sings 星 (hoshi=star) and writes 地球 (chikyuu=Earth)...
Everything about this song... from the lyrics to the way they are written... from the melody to the way it is sung... absolutely everything is as perfect as it can be.
I'd like to say 'thank you' to Tsuyoshi one more time, but confronted to what his own creation means to me, it feels somewhat trifling...
Anyway, here is the translation… I don’t think it’s perfect, and it took me a lot of time and efforts, but at least I believe the result to be decent even if far from the standard I’d like to reach… I've been working on this translation since mid-January and that's as good as I can manage at the moment. The song tells a really clear story and I tried to make it understandable when translating, and believe me it's not easy. It's a succession of thoughts and direct speech. Some more explanations of the way my mind worked or didn’t work on that here (friends only) and my bitchy post about what you need to know about me translating songs here.
「Night Drive」from [si:] album
Music and Lyrics: Domoto Tsuyoshi
I don't want to send you home
By ourselves, we enjoy night drives
The smile of the headlights
The future slipping through the darkness
After all, this star
Isn’t just despicable noise, you know
Even if one day all about you
I come to dislike... Somehow
It's an eternal bad habit
This inverted mechanical L
As we're going up the hill, can kill the speed
Our conversation has stopped.
In the time for the red to change into green
Won't we kiss? Let's kiss.
These slender fingertips
My hand touches
The sky is disappointing
Looking up at my princess
About what I was saying,
Even your concealed dreams will come true.
Wherever these streets end
Was it awarded to us?
Simply wondering about it is happiness
But after happiness has gone
A drizzle going by the name of anxiety
Will soaked our bodies
And then, happiness will come again
I know it, as long as it's us...
Even if one day all about you
I come to dislike... Somehow
It's an eternal bad habit
This inverted mechanical L
As we're going up the hill, can kill the speed
Our conversation has stopped.
In the time for the red to change into green
Won't we kiss? Let's kiss.