Quote:
Originally Posted by languagehacker
Thanks for doing all that!  I know it might seem like I'm spending too much time to figure out a single song, but I  this PV so much. Perhaps my tenacity in this matter can be blamed on my university education, where we had to take apart ancient texts that were nowhere near as exciting!
I've already translated (well, more like interpreted) the video and uploaded it to Youtube. It can be seen here: YouTube - ‪An Cafe - Natsu Koi ★ Natsu Game (subtitled) 【HD】‬‏ If you have any thoughts on how I interpreted the song, I'd be happy to hear them. One Japanese person already posted a comment about it.
How ingrained in Japan's cultural mindset is Cupid? Over here in America, he's just as well known as Santa Clause.
In a nutshell, Cupid is an angel that carries a bow and arrow, but he was originally a god from Greek mythology. His job was to make people fall in love by shooting poisoned arrows at their hearts. After being shot, whoever that person sees first they'll fall in love with. "Love at first sight," and this is mentioned near the beginning of the song. Cupid can turn himself invisible.
One of the things I mentioned was that at 1:24 it looks like the pianist got hit by something. The way he acts when hit and how he just runs along all happy after is just the way we picture it when people get hit by Cupid's arrow. What did you make of it?
Here you can see a comical representation of Cupid: YouTube - ‪SCADshorts: Love Hurts‬‏
Is this not known about in Japan? |
I feel it might be best if you leave your translation as is instead of discussing it in details between us because our views are totally different. Those viewers who are capable of judging will judge. One senses what one senses and that is probably what song lyrics or any kind of creative writing, for that matter, can have us do. Once it is out, it is destined to get interpreted in as many ways as the readers.
In Japanese culture, Cupid is very well known and it is often talked about. I googled (or Yahoo-Japaned, to be exact) the word in Japanese and it yielded nearly 7 million results. The best-selling mayonaise brand here is named Kewpie. So, at least, my reason for not seeing Cupid in the song is not because I don't know what Cupid is.
The pianist at 1:24, to me looks like he just had a pain in his abdominal region from running and quickly recovering from it. I feel that if the creater of this PV had meant to suggest a Cupid, s/he would have let Cupid hit the pianist right in his heart. Or s/he could have actually used a visible Cupid and a visible arrow.
I really think almost everyone in Japan knows what Cupid is thought to look like. What so many non-Japanese people (the vast majority of JF members included) do not realize is that
Japan has a 470-year history of exchange with Europe.