Originally Posted by frecklegirl
I just think it's important not to take Japanese politeness at face value--there are lots of times where people are disguising how they truly feel with polite words. But, you're right, considering it was written by a man, my interpretation is probably wrong, and she is just being traditional and self-effacing.
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no, I totally get your drift. I always think of this one time in tokyo my neighbor told me I had a lovely voice and when I looked puzzled they told me they could often hear me singing in the shower, which was their polite and roundabout way of telling me to shut the fuck up when they are trying to sleep (I'm a night owl). You can totally read that into this song too, but based on all the other things surrounding this song, the genre it fits into, the images the music and lyrics evoke, I can't help but just think of this as a quite tragic love song. If you look at a lot of traditionals from Europe, America, Asia, anywhere really, it is quite disturbing how many of them involve murder/love lost/suicide, sad themes. It is like during those periods song was the only way people could cope when society was repressing their outward display of emotions. This song is too recent to really fit that scenario, but still.