驚喜

Kanji:

驚喜

利口に生きよう

自閉気味少年少女国会議事堂前集団自殺倶楽部

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English: Note: This one is strange even in Japanese. The original English translation in the book reads “Live smart/ Tend to be autistic boys and girls-in front of the Diet Building-mass suicide club.”  It is so awkward that it is almost comical and detracts from the image. In Japanese, modifiers are always placed in front of the noun they are modifying.  (“Jeans-wearing girl” instead of “Girl wearing jeans.”) This poem is a long string of kanji, no verbs present, describing an image of bored, hedonistic teenagers acting out in front of a very public building in Japan. (The Diet is Japan’s legislature, consisting of a lower house and an upper house, similar to the U.S. Congress.) Everything before the last three kanji (倶楽部, or club) is describing said club. Really the only way to make it work in English is to put hyphens between each word to indicate that they modify the club. What kind of club? The mass-suicide club, of course. That’s why I didn’t put hyphens between building and mass, or suicide and club, because the words before are modifying a certain kind of mass-suicide club. Complicated? Yes. I think I got pretty close to Kyo’s original tone, though.
One other note. The book has the title translated as “Overjoy,” but what the word actually means is “pleasant surprise.” Hm.
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Overjoy

Let’s live smart

Autistic-looking-boys-and-girls-in-front-of-the-Diet-Building mass-suicide club