Wednesday, May 26, 2010

'kojo no tsuki' & Thelonious Monk




A jazz arrangement of “Kōjō no tsuki” was recorded by Thelonious Monk under the title “Japanese Folk Song” on his 1967 album Straight, No Chaser. The song was also sung and recorded live in the form of a power ballad by the German hard rock band Scorpions, during a concert in Tokyo. It was released on their 1978 live album Tokyo Tapes.

http://www.flutetunes.com/tunes.php?id=328




I like this translation, from Elvinjourney.blogspot.


Translation ( The Japanese of the Lyric is old and poetic. The next in order is my interpretation.)

1.
A banquet was held in the splendid castle
in the season of the cherry blossom.
Where is the light now,
that shadowed the glasses and flew through the old pines?

2.
The encampment was covered
with frost in the autumn.
Where is the light now,
that shone on the swords like plants, that were as numerous as the cackling wild geese, that flew ?

3.
Now there is the moon
over the desolate castle.
Whom is it shining for without change?
Only tendrils remain on the walls.
Only the storm sings between branches of the pines.

4.
The shadow of the sky doesn't change.
But the moon is reflecting it as before,
changing for better to worse?
Ah! The moon over the desolate castle!


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