[Trans] Kame Camera - Vol.21 Melancholy
Highlights:
-Heartrending feelings given by sky sceneries.
-Reflection about the entertainer job and his fans.
-Considerations about how human relations are fleeting and keep changing...
Basically, a melancholic essay, like the theme says. .____. Though, as bonus, a "wtf" comment about women cheating on men xD
Thanks a lot again to
scorch66 for her English betaread <3
Note about the title: the word is almost impossible to translate. At the end I decided to use “melancholy”, even if my first choice was “heartrending sorrow”; it can also mean “painful longing”, “affliction”, “sadness”… basically a psychological pain, which can be given by extreme sadness as much as beautiful sceneries. So it’s not completely negative. You’ll understand it reading Kame’s reasoning :)
KAME CAMERA
What's the scenery of the bottom of the heart that Kamenashi Kazuya's lens reflects?
Vol.21 せつなさ - MELANCHOLY
「People and things, everything changes, and everything has an end. It’s exactly because there is that melancholy that they shine.」
This is where we filmed the movie “Youkai Ningen Bem”. It is a desert island of Muroran, Hokkaido. Hokkaido’s sky was vast and exceptionally beautiful… In the middle of the busy filming, without realizing I gazed at the dusk and even though I was refreshed, I also felt some melancholy (laughs).
Among the pictures I usually take there are many sky sceneries. I like both the blue sky and the starry sky, but I’m particularly charmed by the sky that’s getting dark. The color of the sky changes moment by moment, and the process of the sun setting down until the last light disappears, I forget about the time and gaze at it without even realizing. The feeling of that moment, as if my chest is being lightly compressed, I guess that maybe it’s what we call “melancholy”…. Things that continue changing without stopping even for one second; things that even though they are shining, they look like they are about to disappear at an unexpected instant. I like those ephemeral things, and I like the heartrending melancholy that floats among them .
From the very beginning I don't think there exist a person or thing that doesn’t change, that doesn’t end. I wonder if this is a melancholic thought? (laughs) But entertainers are occasionally like that, I guess. Because it is an occupation largely dependent on public favor. Not only if no one requests you, you don’t come to existence; but also there’s no guarantee anywhere that you can be always requested. No matter how much high ratings you take, no matter how many first places in rankings you take, it’s like that. More than “You’ve reached the peak”, on the contrary it’s easier to be said “you’re over”, isn’t it? Nonetheless, you’re continuously exposed to the public attention, and each and every movement, word or work attitude is being judged.
Honestly, now, I don’t know if the people who today say they like me will continue liking me tomorrow too. Not only fans. The relations with work colleagues which are trust relationships aren’t absolute. I think that private human relationships like a lover and friends are essentially like that. People change every day so it’s unlikely that there’ll always be the same feelings or nature of the relation, and you can’t control a heart that’s changing.
Saying such a thing it may sound negative. But it’s exactly because we can’t see the future and because both work and human relations aren’t stable that I feel like that the idea of “let’s face each other sincerely, heart to heart, always, in order not to have regrets” becomes stronger.
Even if there’s love, I don’t have feeling of attachment. I wonder if I’m a melancholic human being?
I don’t particularly perceive the fact itself that I have such a fleeting job as a minus. I understand that everything has an end, but it’s not that I live being every day conscious of the end. Being afraid of changes therefore making preparations for the future, or preparing a self-defense in order to live longer in this world: I don’t have such thoughts at all. More than that, I want to keenly live the present. I’m deeply grateful to the fans who love the present me. But I’m not giving my best because I want to secure everyone’s heart for myself; I’m just answering to the fact of being strongly requested, because I like it too, because I want to make everyone happy. There’s love in those who love this world and me, but maybe I don’t have feelings of so much attachment. For this reason even if I’m doing the job of expressing myself, I’m okay even if it doesn’t turn out exactly like I want: I think this from the bottom of my heart.[*]
I’m often said by both people that work together with me and people who look at me, “Kame, there’s something gloomy about you. You look somewhat melancholic”; probably that must be this side of me.
Me too, when I think about someone, it often happens that I look at him/her with a “melancholic” point of view. For example, female friends who in front of the men they like end up playing the fool without meaning it, people who even though they actually have no confidence can’t do anything but put on a “star” bluff……. As soon as I understand what that person is carrying under cover, I feel melancholy. That’s a certain kind of positive feeling. Selfishly, I imagine the depths of that person’s heart and am in empathy with that person, something like this. Well, it may be just a delusion though (laughs). But I think that all human beings are melancholic creatures, and I think that probably this is exactly why they can shine.
---
NOTE
[*] I think it’s pretty clear already, but to avoid misunderstandings the meaning of this paragraph is: I’m not giving my best in my job because I want the fans who are loving me now to love me forever but because I want to answer to everyone’s requests, independently if they will love me forever or not; I am doing my best because I like doing it and I want to make everyone happy. If answering to everyone’s requests means that sometimes the result is not what I was planning in my mind (so I'm not expressing myself, which is my job, exactly the way I wanted to), that’s fine, because I am making my fans happy as they wish.
---
"I think that melancholy is an emotion born exactly because the feelings of thinking about the other or a certain thing/fact are deep."
Kame’s fixed point of observation
When the conversation switched to “When do you feel melancholy?”, Kamenashi-kun said “When I heard that even girls are creatures who have affairs, it was painful! Like it’s often said, men’s affairs and girls’ affairs are different”. Why does he think this? “Differently from men, girls continuously change their physical condition, their perceptiveness and feelings even during one month, don’t they. For this reason one might expect them to be able to enjoy even one man from many different angles. It’s an opinion that includes the desire of “I want you to enjoy many ‘me’, not many men” (laughs).”
By Maquia
*******
Even though it was pretty challenging trying to keep the poetic images Kame used in this essay, I really liked it, and I totally share his idea... sky sceneries are so beautiful they are melancholic ._. And I liked his last line, "It's exactly because human beings are melancholic that they shine", so much! ♥
I still haven't decided how to take Kame's comment about women's affairs *facepalm* LOL.
ETA a small note about Maquia 1 (2011/1 - Yes, almost 2 yrs ago). Recently I've noticed by chance that probably due to tiredness I misread one word. I have corrected the original entry. Instead of "I'm a 'camera lens' that changes...", the correct line is "I'm a chameleon that changes...".
So if you've copied this line somewhere, or translated it in some other language, please correct it. I apologize m(_ _)m
-Heartrending feelings given by sky sceneries.
-Reflection about the entertainer job and his fans.
-Considerations about how human relations are fleeting and keep changing...
Basically, a melancholic essay, like the theme says. .____. Though, as bonus, a "wtf" comment about women cheating on men xD
Thanks a lot again to
scorch66 for her English betaread <3
Note about the title: the word is almost impossible to translate. At the end I decided to use “melancholy”, even if my first choice was “heartrending sorrow”; it can also mean “painful longing”, “affliction”, “sadness”… basically a psychological pain, which can be given by extreme sadness as much as beautiful sceneries. So it’s not completely negative. You’ll understand it reading Kame’s reasoning :)
KAME CAMERA
What's the scenery of the bottom of the heart that Kamenashi Kazuya's lens reflects?
Vol.21 せつなさ - MELANCHOLY
「People and things, everything changes, and everything has an end. It’s exactly because there is that melancholy that they shine.」
This is where we filmed the movie “Youkai Ningen Bem”. It is a desert island of Muroran, Hokkaido. Hokkaido’s sky was vast and exceptionally beautiful… In the middle of the busy filming, without realizing I gazed at the dusk and even though I was refreshed, I also felt some melancholy (laughs).
Among the pictures I usually take there are many sky sceneries. I like both the blue sky and the starry sky, but I’m particularly charmed by the sky that’s getting dark. The color of the sky changes moment by moment, and the process of the sun setting down until the last light disappears, I forget about the time and gaze at it without even realizing. The feeling of that moment, as if my chest is being lightly compressed, I guess that maybe it’s what we call “melancholy”…. Things that continue changing without stopping even for one second; things that even though they are shining, they look like they are about to disappear at an unexpected instant. I like those ephemeral things, and I like the heartrending melancholy that floats among them .
From the very beginning I don't think there exist a person or thing that doesn’t change, that doesn’t end. I wonder if this is a melancholic thought? (laughs) But entertainers are occasionally like that, I guess. Because it is an occupation largely dependent on public favor. Not only if no one requests you, you don’t come to existence; but also there’s no guarantee anywhere that you can be always requested. No matter how much high ratings you take, no matter how many first places in rankings you take, it’s like that. More than “You’ve reached the peak”, on the contrary it’s easier to be said “you’re over”, isn’t it? Nonetheless, you’re continuously exposed to the public attention, and each and every movement, word or work attitude is being judged.
Honestly, now, I don’t know if the people who today say they like me will continue liking me tomorrow too. Not only fans. The relations with work colleagues which are trust relationships aren’t absolute. I think that private human relationships like a lover and friends are essentially like that. People change every day so it’s unlikely that there’ll always be the same feelings or nature of the relation, and you can’t control a heart that’s changing.
Saying such a thing it may sound negative. But it’s exactly because we can’t see the future and because both work and human relations aren’t stable that I feel like that the idea of “let’s face each other sincerely, heart to heart, always, in order not to have regrets” becomes stronger.
Even if there’s love, I don’t have feeling of attachment. I wonder if I’m a melancholic human being?
I don’t particularly perceive the fact itself that I have such a fleeting job as a minus. I understand that everything has an end, but it’s not that I live being every day conscious of the end. Being afraid of changes therefore making preparations for the future, or preparing a self-defense in order to live longer in this world: I don’t have such thoughts at all. More than that, I want to keenly live the present. I’m deeply grateful to the fans who love the present me. But I’m not giving my best because I want to secure everyone’s heart for myself; I’m just answering to the fact of being strongly requested, because I like it too, because I want to make everyone happy. There’s love in those who love this world and me, but maybe I don’t have feelings of so much attachment. For this reason even if I’m doing the job of expressing myself, I’m okay even if it doesn’t turn out exactly like I want: I think this from the bottom of my heart.[*]
I’m often said by both people that work together with me and people who look at me, “Kame, there’s something gloomy about you. You look somewhat melancholic”; probably that must be this side of me.
Me too, when I think about someone, it often happens that I look at him/her with a “melancholic” point of view. For example, female friends who in front of the men they like end up playing the fool without meaning it, people who even though they actually have no confidence can’t do anything but put on a “star” bluff……. As soon as I understand what that person is carrying under cover, I feel melancholy. That’s a certain kind of positive feeling. Selfishly, I imagine the depths of that person’s heart and am in empathy with that person, something like this. Well, it may be just a delusion though (laughs). But I think that all human beings are melancholic creatures, and I think that probably this is exactly why they can shine.
---
NOTE
[*] I think it’s pretty clear already, but to avoid misunderstandings the meaning of this paragraph is: I’m not giving my best in my job because I want the fans who are loving me now to love me forever but because I want to answer to everyone’s requests, independently if they will love me forever or not; I am doing my best because I like doing it and I want to make everyone happy. If answering to everyone’s requests means that sometimes the result is not what I was planning in my mind (so I'm not expressing myself, which is my job, exactly the way I wanted to), that’s fine, because I am making my fans happy as they wish.
---
"I think that melancholy is an emotion born exactly because the feelings of thinking about the other or a certain thing/fact are deep."
Kame’s fixed point of observation
When the conversation switched to “When do you feel melancholy?”, Kamenashi-kun said “When I heard that even girls are creatures who have affairs, it was painful! Like it’s often said, men’s affairs and girls’ affairs are different”. Why does he think this? “Differently from men, girls continuously change their physical condition, their perceptiveness and feelings even during one month, don’t they. For this reason one might expect them to be able to enjoy even one man from many different angles. It’s an opinion that includes the desire of “I want you to enjoy many ‘me’, not many men” (laughs).”
By Maquia
*******
Even though it was pretty challenging trying to keep the poetic images Kame used in this essay, I really liked it, and I totally share his idea... sky sceneries are so beautiful they are melancholic ._. And I liked his last line, "It's exactly because human beings are melancholic that they shine", so much! ♥
I still haven't decided how to take Kame's comment about women's affairs *facepalm* LOL.
ETA a small note about Maquia 1 (2011/1 - Yes, almost 2 yrs ago). Recently I've noticed by chance that probably due to tiredness I misread one word. I have corrected the original entry. Instead of "I'm a 'camera lens' that changes...", the correct line is "I'm a chameleon that changes...".
So if you've copied this line somewhere, or translated it in some other language, please correct it. I apologize m(_ _)m