Like A Rolling Stone (1965) part 15
by Jochen Markhorst
XV “I had no idea what the hell he was singing about”
Our Japanese friends do not have a bad reputation when it comes to Dylan translations. Written publications are usually loving, very literal translations with a wealth of explanatory annotations and alternatives. Jingle-jangle = 金属の音が鳴る様子、ジャラジャラ = The sound of metal clanging, jingling, for example. “The lyrics are about a fantastical experience of moving between reality and hallucination, and the fictional Tambourine Man, a being in between the two,” the translator explains. To which they sometimes afford edits that more often than not add an enriching, deepening dimension:
そして救急車が行った後、残されているのものは
シンデレラが廃墟の街を掃いている音だけ
And after the ambulance has gone, all that is left is
Is the sound of Cinderella sweeping the ruined city.
… “Desolation Row” is called ‘廃墟の街’ in Japanese, haikyo no machi, Ruined City – which, in the language of a people who had to endure Hiroshima and Nagasaki, does indeed add an extra, oppressive dimension.
Mr. Tambourine Man – Bob Dylan (Japanese Cover):
Japanese artists, especially those from the premier league, sometimes dare to take a much freer approach to source texts. And even then, the quality of the lyrics usually doesn’t get any worse. As we have seen with Japanese great Haruomi Hosono, the electronic legend who has been forcing Dylan on his countrymen since the 1960s.
On Heavenly Music (2013), for instance, the album on which he honours his Western favourites. There, he surprises Dylan followers with a brilliant cover and exquisite translation of “When I Paint My Masterpiece”. Well, with a retranslation, actually. Hosono sobers Dylan’s slightly-hysterical lyrics, turning them into a naturalistic, tranquil and introspective account. No lions in the Coliseum, but a statue of a lion; no young girls pulling muscles, but a maid eating mussels, not Botticelli’s niece in the hotel room, but a kawaii, cute Greek girl… Dylan’s source lyrics are just a hat rack.
When I Paint My Masterpiece – Haruomi Hosono:
Hosono has not yet dared to touch “Like A Rolling Stone”, though. Neither has his friend Kenji Endo, that other titan in Japanese rock history (“Curry Rice”) – although Kenji recounts in every interview how his passion for music awoke during his college days when he first heard Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone”. As again just before his death, in an interview with the New York Times:
When the Japanese singer-songwriter Kenji Endo first heard Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” as a young student in Tokyo in the 1960s, he was perplexed — offended, even. Aren’t pop vocals supposed to be pretty? But by the third listen, Mr. Endo remembered that he was in awe: “This guy is creating something that has never been created before.” He had found his calling.
And what about Mr. Dylan’s lyrics? “I had no idea what the hell he was singing about,” Mr. Endo said in a recent Skype interview.
Mr Endo would have been helped by the translations that the webmaster who calls himself Yoshiaki Masharu publishes on his wonderful site Lyriclist; hundreds of translations of English-language pop and rock songs, about 20 of them Dylan songs. Yoshi is careful not to translate “boldly”, as he calls it, because “misinterpretation or perversion of the facts is not acceptable”, but still does aim for ‘’translations that make sense, that reflect my own interpretation.” And succeeds excellently with “Like A Rolling Stone”:
皆言ってただろ「気を付けなお嬢さん、今に痛い目みるぞ」って
そんなのは奴らがからかってるだけだと思ってただろ
They used to say, ‘Watch out, missy, you’re about to get yourself hurt.’
You thought they were just messing with you
… for example, and
I hear you graduated from a good school, Miss Lonely.
But you know what, you’ve been coaxed.
No one taught you how to live on the streets.
You have to get used to it now.
His translation is preceded by a clarifying introduction for his compatriots. What is meant by a “rolling stone”, that the text largely describes the fall of a woman from an upper-class background, and that “the lyrics seem to contain Bob Dylan’s caustic message to the bourgeoisie, but they also make us think about what it means to rise and fall in life”.
Tone and content are excellently struck. And where a culture clash threatens, the footnotes provide insight. “Mystery Tramp” can be interpreted in a broader sense, including the subsequent “deal”, which some take to refer to “prostitution,” At most, Yoshi makes concessions in terms of rhythm, as evidenced by his footnote to the third-couplet:
“Diplomat interpreted here as ‘a man who is good at socialising’. Chrome horse was interpreted here as ‘chrome-plated vehicle’. It would be more faithful to translate it as ‘motorbike’ (=horse), but ‘car’ fits the flow of the story better, so we have done so.”
Some well-intentioned amateurs can be found on YouTube with loving but unfortunately unappealing attempts to cover the song in Japanese. Hindered, apart from poor talent, by poor knowledge of English, leading to alienating verses like Who knows where we’re going? Even God doesn’t know and It’s a world where you can’t even get out of college (?).
Like A Rolling Stone – Mabo Saito (Japanese): https://youtu.be/58veePEmFcI
So the wait is on for Japanese music talent to pick up Yoshiaki’s lyrics. The perfect translation is there. Although, perfect… phrasing will be a challenge. The Japanese verse lines have significantly more syllables than the source text. “Like a rolling stone”, for example, becomes korogaruishi mitai ni natte (転がる石みたいになって) – twice as many syllables as Dylan needs to say the same thing. A core line like You’ve gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely is 12 syllables in the source – a translation without “misinterpretation or perversion of the facts,” as Yoshiaki Masharu demands of himself, becomes Mina ittetadaro `ki o tsukena ojōsan, imani itai me miru zo’tte: 25 syllables, more than double the number.
A sensei like Bob Dylan might be able to handle it – but everyone else is bound to fall. And may have to content himself with the fact that, like Napoleon in rags, he amused the audience with the language he used. On the other hand: Napoleon, as Mashura helpfully explains in the footnote to the last verse, Napoleon is the man who said “Impossible, n’est pas français.”
To be continued. Next up Like A Rolling Stone part 16: Beauty in Sound
Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold. His books, in English, Dutch and German, are available via Amazon both in paperback and on Kindle:
- Blood on the Tracks: Dylan’s Masterpiece in Blue
- Blonde On Blonde: Bob Dylan’s mercurial masterpiece
- Where Are You Tonight? Bob Dylan’s hushed-up classic from 1978
- Desolation Row: Bob Dylan’s poetic letter from 1965
- Basement Tapes: Bob Dylan’s Summer of 1967
- Mississippi: Bob Dylan’s midlife masterpiece
- Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits
- John Wesley Harding: Bob Dylan meets Kafka in Nashville
- Tombstone Blues b/w Jet Pilot: Dylan’s lookin’ for the fuse
- Street-Legal: Bob Dylan’s unpolished gem from 1978
- Bringing It All Back Home: Bob Dylan’s 2nd Big Bang
- Time Out Of Mind: The Rising of an Old Master
- Crossing The Rubicon: Dylan’s latter-day classic
- Nashville Skyline: Bob Dylan’s other type of music
- Nick Drake’s River Man: A very British Masterpiece
- I Contain Multitudes: Bob Dylan’s Account of the Long Strange Trip
- Bob Dylan’s Rough And Rowdy Ways – Side B
- Bob Dylan’s High Water (for Charley Patton)
- Bob Dylan’s 1971
- Like A Rolling Stone b/w Gates Of Eden: Bob Dylan kicks open the door