Twitter in Translation - Transgender Edition

[phonon_belt]

General Hirasawa Vocabulary Notes:

- あんどう蒼 = Andou Soh = a Japanese author with a good sense of observation and a wicked sense of humor. She is also very open about her life as a male-to-female transgender woman. She seems to be a friend of Mr. Hirasawa and he reviewed a book of hers on his blog. He imitates her mannerisms and emoticons on Twitter

Comments

[fujikothefab]

I'm just saying... Good job on all these translations. I try to translate songs and tweets, but often I run into some in-joke or his usual bits of wordplay and general weirdness, and can't translate it well. It's all very interesting to read.

[phonon_belt]

Thanks! Yeah, there are definitely a lot of things that don't make sense to me, but it's fun to try to decipher his words, isn't it? :)

[aural_elixir]

Thanks for these translations. I wish I knew more Japanese, as trying to understand his tweets can be very confusing! I often check his Twitter through Google Translate, and usually get something along the lines of this

[tenshi_saito]

I'm imagining P-MODEL trying to record in front of an elevator. As much as Hirasawa had to apologize every time somebody came out, I imagine the whole band must have been been muttering a string of curses to themselves once the 20th person or so came through the elevator, haha. You know, sicne Tanaka left after the album Perspective, I wonder if he was tired of recording in stairwells! Also, I've never heard of a dancing area in a stairwell

[phonon_belt]

I've never heard of a dancing area in a stairwell
Yeah, me neither. No idea what he meant. Could be a typo. Or maybe it's a club with stairs inside and so they planted themselves there? Who knows.

I have the feeling he might want to just throw the whole gender binary thing out the window, and won't suppress any traits that seem as "too male" or "too female".
I suspect it's something like that, though it's hard to know. I admit I thought of him as rather manly (LOL "MANLYsawa"), but then when I saw my first video clip of him chatting seriously with some SP-2s in Thailand my immediate reaction was "he sits with them like he's their sister!" and since then I perceive him as much more androgynous. Such an interesting character.

there's probably a chance he doesn't see it as a disorderOh, good point! Yeah, I can't imagine him thinking of GID as a sickness or disorder, since he seems to have such respect and affection for people who are transgender. And from his blog posts I have the impression that he is fascinated by the paradox of

[picturesmcgee]

why is there so much art fodder aaaaaaa

I think Hirasawa is the type of person who generally does not give a shit about "proper" gender roles. Do what you do, man. Haters gonna hate.

That anecdote about Solid Air is golden, haha.

Even young Mr. Hirasawa magically attracts MTF transgender people. I believe this is a magic power at this point.
Nothing magical about it. Hirasawa (at all ages) is a looker, let's not lie~

[phonon_belt]

I keep trying to rein in my fangirlish impulses here lest I scare away the average reader coming for some plain old lyrics, but I must pause and agree 100% with the following statement:

Hirasawa (at all ages) is a looker, let's not lie~

Even just trying to decide which era of Hirasawa is my favorite to look at leads to about 10 minutes of flailing before total brain meltdown. No wonder people want to grab his ankles when they see him in real life.

[fujikothefab]

Thirding this, haha!

[picturesmcgee]

The man is handsome, so shame in admitting it~
Thank god you agree though. I was thinking that might be a little weird.

The world need more pictures of Mandrake era Hirasawa. /my 2 cents

[ext_684765]

Hey, great job for all these translations.
Just a minor part, but 踊り場 doesn't literally meaning dancing floor.
It means staircase landing in Japanese.
So he recorded his music actually on stairs and that's why he had to apologize anyone came out from the elevator.

[phonon_belt]

OOH. THAT MAKES SO MUCH MORE SENSE.

Thank you for the correction, I'll go back and fix it. :)