[Translated from Japanese]
Those filthy bloody factories in Tokyo,
It’s just a polluted city.
Where can we go?
Discover Japan!
The pollution is making it more and more shitty.
For God’s sake, let’s get away.
But where can we escape to?
This cold, filty, polluted city!
It’s become so foul that
Even the trees have withered away.
What’s happened to them?
Clean people, clean rice,
Clean homes, clean earth, no chance.
Let’s try eat fresh vegetables, but stop eating the fish.
Why?
It’s just a polluted city.
Where can we go?
Discover Japan!
The pollution is making it more and more shitty.
For God’s sake, let’s get away.
But where can we escape to?
This cold, filty, polluted city!
It’s become so foul that
Even the trees have withered away.
What’s happened to them?
Clean people, clean rice,
Clean homes, clean earth, no chance.
Let’s try eat fresh vegetables, but stop eating the fish.
Why?
Doko E in Japanese means, roughly speaking "where to go?" in English. This song really does capture the displacement of a Japanese foreigner (Damo Suzuki of course) living in Cologne, Germany where the band was formed. You can sense Suzuki's sense of bitterness in his sarcastic whistful tone. But the song is also slightly playful.
I know he's speaking Japanese, but he's got such an accent that it really sounds like he's saying, "Go back to Germany" over and over again in English.