U N I C O R N


Yuki-ga Furu Machi Music & Words:
Tamio Okuda


In Japan, we have a custom that everyone who lives and works in the city returns to his hometown(inaka) at the end of the year(nenmatsu) and spends with his family or old friends through New Year Holidays (like your countries' Christmas seasons?). Or at least he wants to. Someone can't. The main streets of Big cities are always badly crowded by cars and people doing a lot of shopping to prepare for the trip or home parties. But when there are only a few days left, most of shops are closed except big department stores. You would wonder where all the cars and people are gone. In the street quietly deserted, snow begins to fall down. Tamio is describing such a scenery.

I think the speaker of this song is still in the city and imagining his hometown in the snow and talking to his girlfriend in his mind now. And I'd like to say something about the last sentence. When I heard of this part, I was nearly in tears. I felt as if Tamio was minding me. Of course, not only me. To everyone who is listening to this song. Another famous singer in Japan, Yousui Inoue, much elder than Tamio, told that those words of this song had touched him and decided to see Tamio. He said, "As young he is, Tamio knows about life." That was the beginning of the two Big Singers' collaboration. Have you already listened the album "Shopping" by Inoue Yousui Okuda Tamio? -- AI



Dakara kirai dayo. Kon na hi ni dekakeru no
Hito ga yatara aruitete. You mo nai no ni
Kotosi wa hisasiburi inaka e kaeru kara
Kanojo ni nannka miyage demo. Donna mon kana
 I hate going out on such a day as today
Too many people walking on the street. What do they want?1
I made up my mind to go back to my hometown for the first time in many years.
So I'm wondering what will be nice as a souvenir for her.
Hito mo kesiki mo isogasi sou ni.
Nenmatsu dakara Ah 		People and everything2 crowded so busily.
Naturally, it is the end of the year.
Bokura no machi ni kotosi mo yuki ga huru
Minareta machi ni shiroi yuki ga tsumoru tsumoru
Ato nannichi kade kotoshi mo owaru kara
Tama niwa hutari de jamamono nashide.
Sukoshi hanashite nonbiri shite
 Snowfall on our town like every year.
White snow lay on our good old town thicker and thicker.
We have only a few days left for this year.
How about a little bit of chat once in a while,
Sitting back, two of us alone, without nuisance.
Hito mo kuruma mo heri hajimeteru.
Nenmatsu dakara Ah 		People and cars are getting lesser and lesser.
It's the end of the year as usual.
Bokura no machi ni kotoshi mo yuki ga huru
Itsumo to onaji shiroi yuki sa. Tsumoru tsumoru
Ato nannichi kade kotoshi mo owaru kedo
 Snowfall on our town this year, too.
The same white snow. Burying more and more.
We have only a few days left for this year.
Yono naka wa iroiro arukara.
Douka gennki de.
Oki wo tsukete... 		But nobody can tell what will happen in life.3
Be happy.
Mind yourself...


Explanatory Notes
  1. "I don't think they have anything worth to do."

  2. "People and scenery"

  3. "But life is unpredictable."


Translation: Ariko Ishii

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