The opening lyrics to “Banana Boat.”
“Dayo idedeo derai kammami wanago home.”
Although I was 10 years old and had no idea what it was, “Dayo Ide Deo” had a powerful impact on me, and once I heard it, I could never forget it. It was a cool and vivid call.
All the kids around me were going crazy over it. I think the impact on the naïve children was as great as it was on the adults.
I had heard that “Banana Boat” was a labor song. The Japanese lyrics include the words, “It’s unloading bananas. However, I had assumed from the cheerful tone of the song that it was a song about having fun and engaging in labor. However, when I checked the lyrics of the original song, I found that they were completely different.
I worked all night unloading bananas. I drank rum and worked all night long. The sun is coming up.
I just want to go home.
The song just kept saying, “I just want to go home.
The song is “Daylight come and me wan’ go home,” which means, “The sun has risen. I want to go home.
And he sings incessantly, “I want to go home, I want to go home soon. It is surprising that the song is actually a labor song lamenting the hardships of hard labor.
However, when Belafonte’s strong and cheerfully singing voice keeps repeating the same lyrics to the point of witchcraft, I am tempted to defend myself and say that it is not surprising that I thought it was a work song for joyful work.
I had learned the sound of “con mista tallyman tallyri banana” and thought it sounded kind of fun, but it was saying, “I want to get off work and go home early, so, Mr. Slipknot, count the bunches of bananas I’ve unloaded as fast as you can. Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana.”
In the Russian folk song, “The Peddler,” there is a lyric, “Inside the baggage I carry is calico and brocade, it seems to be getting stuck in my shoulders, I can hardly stand it,” which is a very painful song, and “Banana Boat” is a song about the same kind of suffering.
But Belafonte’s song is filled with the cheerful energy of the people who have overcome their suffering, and I feel that it conveys a sense of bright hope rather than suffering.
The song “con mista taliman talili banana” had such an impact that a comedian in Japan sang a variation of the song with a similar sound, “Â This month is not enough, I must borrow.
That comedian must have sensed the bright hope from “Banana Boat” and came up with the “Bright Debt Doublesong.
The lyrics “Day, he say day, he say day, he say day, he say day, he say day-ay-ay-o” were also included in the song, which sounded like “ide-de-ide-de-ide-de-o” to Japanese people, and everyone at that time applied it to the downtown Japanese word for “ouch-de-o” (ouch-te-o)
Ouch!
They happily sang, “iddede iddede iddede iddede iddede ouch!
It is a nostalgic and happy memory of 65 years ago.
Thank you, Harry Belafonte. Rest in peace on the ceiling.
And I would be happy if you could bring that booming rhythm to us in the lower world from time to time.
Author: Jun Kurose
