Bocchi Camp

　　In a Japanese TV program, a professional entertainer stays for a night at a variety of campsites. He collects fallen trees from around about, then starts a fire in a primitive way and cooks something easy. In short, he enjoys inconvenience in the wild circumstances. That's all in the program, but this program's popularity is taking off and it triggered a solo-camp boom.
　　When I was young, I sometimes enjoyed a small bonfire myself or with my friends. Just gazing at the fire, I drove off daily annoyances from my mind and I didn't mind anything. It was a really relaxing time for me. This TV program reminded me of my fun time which I had forgotten. The title of the program is "Hiroshi's Bocchi Camp". "Hiroshi" is the entertainer's name and "Bocchi" comes from a Japanese word "Hitori Bocchi", which means "completely alone". I'm going to try it some day.
　　By the way, I liked this program's theme song "Guaranteed". The singer was Eddie Vedder, the vocalist of "Pearl Jam" based in Seattle. This song was used in the movie "Into The Wild". I wasn't able to catch all the lyrics and got them on the internet. I can imagine a rough image of the song, but it 's difficult to understand them fully and accurately. I have to ask someone from the U.S.

The 1st and 2nd lyrics are as follows:

"Guaranteed"

On bended knee is no way to be free
Lifting up an empty cup, I ask silently
All my destinations will accept the one that's me
So I can breathe

Circles they grow and they swallow people whole
Half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know
A mind full of questions, and a teacher in my soul
And so it goes

(continued....)

　　The part 2 which starts from "Circles" is considerably hard to catch. What on earth is "Circle"? I looked for suitable Japanese words in the English-Japanese dictionary, but in vain. Additionally I bought the kindle version of the original of the movie "Into The Wild". I'm now reading it bit by bit.

ぼっちキャンプ

ある番組で芸人が一人でキャンプ場に泊まり、付近の倒木を集めて原始的な方法で火を起こし煮炊きして不便を楽しんでいる。ただそれだけのことなのだが、この番組がソロキャンプブームを巻き起こしている。

若い頃、自分もよくやっていた。たき火を見つめて、日常の一切を忘れて一人でのんびり過ごす時間は至福の時間だった。長い間忘れていた時間をこの番組が思い出させてくれた。まったく一人っきりという意味の日本語、『ひとりぼっち』から取り出した単語をくっつけて『ぼっちキャンプ』と呼ばれる。そのうち、やってみようと思っている。

さて、この番組の主題歌が『Guaranteed』。調べてみるとシアトルで誕生したロックバンド『パールジャム』のボーカル『エディーヴェダー』が歌っている。映画『Into the Wild』の中で流れた歌だそうだ。全てを聞き取れなかったのでネットで歌詞を調べてみた。大雑把な意味は想像できるのだが、やはり正確に意味を掴むのは難しい。知り合いのネイティブに尋ねてみよう。下に歌詞を書いておく。

Circlesから始まる２番の歌詞の意味はかなり難しい。そもそもCircleはどういう意味なのか、、、辞書を探しても適当な役が見つからない。ヘルプ！そして、映画の原作、『Into The Wild』キンドル版を購入した。毎日少しずつ読んでいくつもりだ。

Comments

[Peter]

A circle is a round shape which gets larger and larger and eventually swallows people whole.