IT Anthems: Ahhhhh Fujitsu!

This is an inspired corporate song -- a big budget number, where no expense has been spared, from the detailed orchestration to the use of one of Japan's best-loved jazz singers, Martha Miyake. Her efforts alone place this song in the big league. And yet. The song itself has a frisson of strangeness, managing to sound like a cross between children's classic "Puff the Magic Dragon" and the fascist rallying song "Tomorrow belongs to me" from the film Cabaret. Every year around 15 June, Fujitsu celebrates its anniversary, with a company-wide picnic. In Japan, "Ahhh, Fujitsu" is piped over the PA system. This year, we understand the picnic was cancelled due to the economic conditions, but we hope the song was still heard. We have heard from a Fujitsu veteran that, one Fujitsu day, a US subsidiary, Fujitsu Network Communications, attempted to introduce the song. "We (the entire company, several hundred people at the time) were given Xerox copies of the sheetmusic to the anthem, and asked to sing it together. Not many of the employees could read sheetmusic (even if they could sing)." "It was a humurous thing to experience," he says, but despite evident enjoyment, "we were never asked to perform it again. I guess the well-intentioned Japanese who instigated the event were not too impressed with the result." The lyrics were sent in Powerpoint format, suggesting that corporate performances still take place somewhere whithin the company. If recordings of these exist, we would love to hear them. Also, that sheet music would help very much in our own efforts to get this one note-perfect by next June. Please get in touch. Incidentally, Fujitsu now owns the flower of the UK's IT industry, ICL, which includes some of the companies that invented key computing concepts. Note The English lyrics we were sent have "oh plus in our soul", where we have written "open-ness in our soul" (and the lyric sounds more like "hopeless in our soul to us). The song was originally written in Japanese, of course, with music by T. Hirosawa, and lyrics by M. Nakamura. Harry B. Guest is credited with the English translation on the sheet music. (Google searches turn up Harry Guests who are epserts on Japanese and poetry -- this one could be either or both) Sources in Fujitsu have provided the original translation, which we present here. And we recommend the Engrish.com site to anyone wishing to explore the possibilities of mis-translation further. Audio Lyrics Verse 1:
Let's run out now, to greener fields, where shines a splendid Sun.
We have a dream, a wondrous dream, that gets the best things done.
A wide blue sky is in our heart now,
Open-ness in our soul,
We'll run together going onwards now,
On towards our goal.

Chorus:
Ahhhh Fujitsuuuuu, oh tomorrow is our goal.
.
Verse 2:
Lets join our hands, with everyone, and smile at each new hour.
We have a dream, an endless dream, of youthful love and power.
We want to use all our skill now,
All the strengths unfurled,
We plan uniting all our new techniques,
Over all the world.

Chorus:
Ahhhhh Fujitsuuuuu, forges links all over the world.

Verse 3:
Let's make a bond, from heart to heart, throughout the human race.
An unseen power, now in our grasp, can even conquer space.
We want to find a new harmony,
Both in work and play,
We'll share the fresh things we discover now,
Building a new day.

Chorus:
Ahhhhh Fujitsuuuuuu, GIVES A JOY WITH EVERY NEW DAY!

Any more Anthems? Send them to corpanthems@zdnet.co.uk

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