Chinsagu No Hana ["I'd like to be involved"]

Sakamoto Ryuichi's most beautiful song with Okinawa inspired music had me cry a couple times simply because it spoke to me long before I would actually find its title and meaning (it just happened a couple minutes ago and lead me to write this quick post).

This is the feeling I have when I am among foreigner people who 'do not seem to care' about me.
Have you ever experienced that feeling : you can't speak a language that you love and the people around you are talking so much. You feel like you do not belong to the party and nobody cares about you. Of course they do care but they enjoy their culture. Yet you feel lonely like the guy outside the restaurant looking at the people enjoying ; he feels more hungry for company than for the food itself.

Next time it happens to you, focus on the beauty of the language and try to decode some expressions on the faces and in the eyes.

Listen to this beautiful song and raise volume at 2:00 to get the emotional musical background melody. The women's voices give humanity to the song too.

Sadness and yet hope are in this song. I can almost picture a movie scene with a daunted human being who finds the courage to stand up and look at the rising sun with a slow moving smile on their tear covered face.

Chinsagu No Hana, Beauty, Sakamoto Ryuichi

And on YouTube!

Chinsagu No Hana

Chisagu nu hanaya, chimisashi ni sumiti.

Uya nu yushigutu ya, chimu ni simiri.

Yuyu harasu funi ya, ni nu fa fushi mi-ati.

Wan nacheru uya ya, wan du mi ati.

Tun nu buri-bushi ya, yumiba yumariyun.

Uya nu yushigutu ya, yumin naranu.

Takara tama yatin, migikaniba sabisu.

Asayu chimu migachi, uchiyu watara.

Agari akagariba, shimi nare ga ichun.

Kashira yuti tabori, wa uya-ganashi.

Chinsagu nu hana ya, chimisachi ni sumiti.

Uya nu yushigutu ya. Chimu ni siniri.

The Flower of Balsam, one dyes on one's fingernails.

The words of one's parents, one must dye in one's heart.

Ships sailing the night seas take their bearing by the pole star.

The parents who gave me birth take their bearings by me.

One has to study and to master the name of constellations.

But the lessons taught by one's parents are no mastered by study alone.

Even gems and treasures will rust unless polished.

Polishing my spirit night and days, I traverse this transient world.

When the sun rises, I shall go off to study.

Please plait my hair, my dear mother.

The Flower of Balsam, one dyes on one's fingernails.

The words of one's parents, one must dye in one's heart.

Thanks to Xtopher for sending the link of the original movie : a Japanese story. I missed the movie which I only noticed on walls ; I'll catch up with the DVD some day...