Sing a Japanese Song: "Ue O Muite Aruku ( I look up when I walk)"

          

We have translated a book into Khmer

         Last February, a group of Japanese students from Nihon Fukushi University (NFU), a university which I went to, came to Cambodia Japan Cooperation Center (CJCC), which is located in the Institute of Foreign Languages(IFL) of Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP). There were many fun activities on that day because it was also a day that RUPP celebrated a Fund-raising day. Moreover, on the same day, there was also another event celebrated at CJCC; it was KIZUNA festival.

On that day, I was very busy because I had to do multitask simultaneously. I ran here a bit and there a bit, but I was very happy, though tired. One of the most memorable experience of that day was when I joint a program organized by NFU students. We, Cambodian students, are asked to translate children fairy tales into our language, Khmer. At that time, three languages were used, Khmer, Japanese and English. Actually, the fairly tales were originally in Japanese, but they had translated into English, so our job was to translate those English texts into Khmer. 

After that, we, all together, sang a song titled "Ue O Muite Aruku", which means that "I look up when I walk." This song was the first and single Japanese song that hit number 1 in the US. It was in the top chart for three week in 1963. Here is the English subtitle of this song:

I look up when I walk
So that the tears won't fall
Remembering those spring days
But I am all alone tonight

I look up when I walk
Counting the stars with tearful eyes
Remembering those summer days
But I am all alone tonight

Happiness lies beyond the clouds
Happiness lies above the sky

I look up when I walk
So that the tears won't fall
Though the tears well up as I walk
For tonight I am all alone
(Whistling)

Remembering those autumn days
But I am all alone tonight

Sadness lies in the shadow of the stars
Sadness lurks in the shadow of the moon

I look up as I walk
So that the tears won't fall
Though the tears well up as I walk
For tonight I am all alone
(Whistling)