Monday 7 July 2003

Pic of the day: Screenshot from The Sims. Hearts all around. It seems to me that in the beginning, there was feeling. And then we started thinking. But should we stop feeling? And what's the deal with personal pronouns?

Feeling hearts

The melody attached itself to my brain. Not like an evil burrowing parasite, though. More like a lonely kitten which you simply don't have the heart to throw out.

As usual, lately, it was one of those Japanese songs that come along with animated TV series from Japan. I tend to watch these, when translated into English by friendly fans of Japanese culture (so-called otaku, a name given in scorn and adopted in pride). The songs, however, are quite at the limit of their reach. I don't think I have ever seen two fansub groups translate the same song in the same way. Often you have to wonder whether it is indeed the same song they have heard. Japanese is a language quite different from ours; and it seems to have rather little redundancy ... that is to say, you have to get each word right to get the meaning right. And when you upset the order of words in the sentence and bring out rare synonyms, it becomes quite a challenge. Some of the translations barely make sense at all. Of course, they may barely have made sense in Japanese too. But even then, there is often a poetry in it ... the meaning may be lost in translation, but eerily enough the mood remains.

The Japanese themselves don't do a much better job of handling the English language. Things that probably make perfect sense in Japanese may look rather unfamiliar when they try to express them in English. And they do. The Japanese love English. And so this song has a punchline, if you may call it that, its final reverberating statement, in English: Forever, you're my only feeling heart. Somehow, it doesn't sound quite English. And yet, I wish English would sound more like that.

So I spent the workday trying to not sing out loud. Some days are more like that than others. This day was very much like that.

***

I also reflected on how the anime could be set in the middle ages or modern Tokyo or outer space, but the songs were still about the same two people: Watashi and Anata. Heh, just kidding, but there is a point to it. Watashi means I and Anata means you, except not really. Mostly women seem to use "watashi", although I have heard a boy use it at least once. Perhaps it is an indication of social status rather than gender? And "anata" seems to be a very personal pronoun that you really should not use around strangers. For some reason Japanese don't seem to like pronouns at all, except in songs. If I was thinking in Japanese, I would not say "I" all the time. I would use my name occasionally but otherwise skip the noun phrase entirely, if it was obvious I was talking about me. (And I talk about me a lot, don't I?) In the same way, instead of calling people "you", it seems customary to use their name, or nothing at all if we are already talking about them. I don't really understand Japanese, but I hear this a lot in anime.

But in the songs it is all about "watashi" and "anata". This makes sense since the songs can be used by lots of people, so you cannot really put a name there. Then other people could not identify with the song. So songs are the last refuge of the pronouns. But more than that: No matter what level of technology (or magic) there is outside, the song is always about you and me. I think there is something important in that. Or it could just be that they are too cheap to make their own songs so they use off the shelf, mass-produced Japanese pop...

(A honorable exception is the TV series Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu, which has its own songs. But you really don't want me to get started on Guu again.)

***

Actually I guess most songs in English too are "you and I" songs. And in Norwegian too, now that I think about it. It's just that it has become a part of the landscape, we have lived in it so long. There is probably a reason why people like songs about "you and I" and not songs about cars or houses or food or even chocolate.

Perhaps it goes back to when we were babies, and all our needs were filled in that intimate meeting between "you" and "I". But we can't go back to that place now. It is certainly not true that each of us is born alone and each of us die alone. Only the last part is true. We were not alone neither when we were born, not just after, nor even before. We may not remember it with our mind (consciousness seems to enter a bit later), but before we were born, we were never alone. There was always a heartbeat resounding all around us. The feeling heart indeed. So no wonder hearts crop up everywhere, even in songs. But we can't go back to that place now.

I guess most people, if they should choose a "theme song" for their life, would choose a "you and I" song. I guess I would too for most of my life, but only in a religious sense. Even now, I am not sure. In the past, I might have come up with some good idea for a theme song for my life. Now, I am wringing my brain, but despite all the songs that sing in there, I cannot get one of them to stand up and represent me. Right now I would prefer something with few if any personal pronouns. But the voices in my head don't necessarily agree. They keep singing "You're my only feeling heart"...