This quarter I'm taking a Japanese reading class, which means wading through a piece of contemporary Japanese prose, page by page, armed only with a dictionary and my vast ignorance of kanji. We're reading Haruki Murakami's new novel Afterdark, and one passage was particularly tricky to translate, and I thought I'd share it here.
On p. 19, one of the characters is describing himself, and says:
スポットライトは似合わない。添え物みたいな方が合っている。コールスローとか、フライド・ポテトとか、ワム！の片割れとか。
Everything up to the last comma (translated literally) means, "As for the spotlight, it doesn't suit (me). A supplemental kind of way suits (me). Cole slaw, or maybe fried potato, or maybe...". But what to do with the last bit, ワム！の片割れとか? 片割れ means "fragment, one of the group or party", but what do the katakana characters ワム mean? Most of the class wasn't able to figure it out.
After puzzling over it for a while, the exclamation point in the middle of the sentence followed by the possessive particle の was the clue that helped me figure it out: it's the name of the early-80's pop group Wham! transliterated. So, the last sentence means: "Cole slaw, or maybe french fries, or maybe the other guy from Wham!" The character is describing himself as a side-dish or a sidekick. When the professor revealed this to the class, which is made up mostly of students who are around 20 years old, he got some blank looks, and so he had to explain that George Michael used to be in a band called Wham!, and there was this other guy in the band who didn't become as famous.
(This is the cool part.) I had a big grin on my face, and I slowly nodded my head while keeping my eyes fixed on the professor. When he was done explaining, he looked over at me, and I raised an eyebrow and said clearly, "Andrew Ridgeley". For you see, unlike the other students, some of whom were likely born after "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" was released, I am of a certain age, and I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
The professor said, "Wow, I don't think I'd be willing to admit knowing that." I, on the other hand, apparently have no shame when it comes to such things.
[Now playing: "Mad World" by Tears for Fears (none of this Gary Jules nonsense, please, I prefer the real deal)]
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