１９、ボブ・デュラン

　久々の記事です。ボブ・デュランがエネルギーをくれました。いい意味ではありませんが・・・以下は、イタリアに住む友人に送ったメールです。これは英語が先です。

Dear Mauro, dear Frank,

If you can, give me your opinion.

You know that Bob Dylan got the Nobel Prize, don't you? In Japan it's a big news. Japanese people like Olympic Game and Nobel Prize.

Unfortunately I don't like seeing sports so much. When I was a child, I liked Baseball and Sumo wrestling. For us sports means Baseball and Sumo. We saw them in TV. But first of all we did them. So even now I like both. But I'm not a big fan.

I don't know about science. So it's interesting to know their achievement. But I don't believe the Nobel Prize of literature. It's very political, I think.

I suppose the prize is for polite novels. They don't think about popular novels. In Italy you distinguish polite novels and popular novels? In Japan many people distinguish them even now. I think last 20 or 30 years polite novels lost power. In Japan there are two big prizes for new novelists. One is Akutagawa Prize. It's for polite novel. The other is Naoki Prize. It's for popular novel. Last 30 years Akutagawa Prize is a big mountain of garbages. They selected scandalous or experimental novels by extremely young novelists. Most of them disappear for some years. They never grow up. It's quite same as contemporary art. Only Haruki Murakami is very popular as a polite novelist. The reason is simple. He got fame from foreign countries. After the Second World War Japanese people lost confidence. We always worry how foreigners especially American thinks about Japan. So Japanese people like the Novel Prize and the Olympic Game. When Japanese get it, we can have confidence.

Now in Japan popular novels are energetic even now.

When I knew that Bob Dylan Got the Novel Prize, I was very confused.

Why they didn't give the prize to Stephen King? Next time they must give it to Beatles. Is it OK for literature?

I understand polite novels lost power. But music is different from literature. i think they want to bury novels. Is it wrong?

In Japan we call popular musicians "artist". We call Bob Dylan an artist. Of course Beatles are artists.

The reason is simple. Nobody don't know fine art exist. For common people art is popular music. It means we are in a grave.

In Italy how do you call popular musicians? You call them an artist?

There is an another problem.

When Bob Dylan got the Nobel Prize, TV people in my age, all of them said they were a big fan of Bob Dylan when they were young.

It's a big lie. Around me there was some people who liked American folk songs. When we were young we could listen many kind of popular musics like Italian canzone, French chanson, etc. American folk song was one of them. Bob Dylan was one of them. For Japanese it's quite difficult to listen English song. I understand what they speak. But I can't listen what they sing. So there was quite few people who understood what Bob Dylan said.

Frankly speaking I don't like Bob Dylan's words. I think it's not a poem. It's a kind of message. He uses abstract words. I think poem consists of concrete words like flower, nature, name of city, etc.

When I was young, a singer whose name is Keisuke Kuwata made a big revolution. He sings his song like an American. After the World War, many musicians made and sang like an American. But we could understand what they sang. But Kuwata pronounces Japanese words like American. So it's very difficult to understand what he sang. But many people accepted it. Now it's quite difficult to understand what young singers song. So in TV there is a Japanese subtitle for Japanese songs.

Now young people like American or British popular music, only English.

But even now most of Japanese can't speak English. As you know most of Printsaurus members can't speak English. Our association is for international exchange. Many European people worry about Globalism. All people speak English? In Japan it's impossible. For common people English is too difficult. And they don't need to speak it.

It's very dangerous. I speak English. So I can contact foreign people directly. Common people believe TV. In TV American is the best even now. China and Russia is enemy all the time. Most young people is an American slave. They believe The USA is a paradise.

To tell the truth I'm angry...I forget I have cancer...

Miyayama