I wish you were here…

Here I am again, sharing bits and pieces of Candy Candy Final Story (CCFS) with you. Please bear with me because I read Japanese not as fast as I wish. 😛 So far I’ve quickly skimmed through pages here and there just for curiosity, but before I dare to share anything here, I have to make sure what I’m going to say is correct. Therefore, I strive to include as many references as possible. 😉

So I’m going to talk about Candy’s brief letter to Albert while he was in São Paulo for some business. Apparently, he had been there for a while already (at least some weeks or longer?), and while he was there, he wrote her a heartfelt letter, revealing details about his inner thoughts. The way he wrote was very sincere, especially when he said he was very grateful to Candy and wanted to find where her happiness was, which implied he wanted to do something to make her happy. Then he ended his letter with a promise that he would take a holiday to visit her when he returned. He signed his letter using the name “Bert”. Note that it was the first time he called himself Bert.

I don’t know back then how long it took for a letter to arrive from São Paulo to where Pony’s Home was. Possibly two weeks, or less, or more? At any rate, by the time Candy got his long letter, she replied (see the CCFS spoilers below):

Dear Albert-san,
When will you come back from São Paulo?
When will you come to the Pony’s Home?
If you are so much thankful to me, I hope you’ll come soon.
Well but, “Bert”? Did people call you so?
It sounds cute!
And now, that’s all for today.
I just want to meet you and talk with you personally.
Maybe I’m stingy?
Candy

The translator has done a great job, but regrettably, the nuance is lost in translations. 🙁  In the original text, the first three lines are as follows:

いつサンパウロから帰って来るのかな。
いつーポ二一の家に来るのかな。
そんなにわたしに感謝しているなら、早く来てほしいな。

I highlighted the ending words in each sentence above, so Candy was like wondering to herself when Albert would return from São Paulo. Then she wondered when he would then come to Pony’s Home (to keep his promise of taking a holiday to see her). This is a good example of “thinking out loud”, and she opened her letter this way by being honest with him.

Next, she said (literally), “If you’re this grateful to me, I want (would like) you to come promptly (early or soon)!!”

The adjective Candy used, hayaku ( 早く), also carries a sense of hurry, rush, or swiftness. Besides, the highlighted word of the third sentence, な (na), is a sentence ending particle that gives emotion or emphasis to the entire sentence. Since there’s no equivalent word in English, I used two exclamation marks instead. 😉

Then she suddenly changed the topic by asking about the name “Bert”. I will talk more about the significance of this name later. Anyway, after saying that the name sounded cute, Candy wrote (literally), “Today’s letter ends here.” She then gave him her reason why she abruptly concluded her letter,

会って話したいから。

The literal translation is “Because I want to meet and talk with you.”

After that, she signed her letter by calling herself “perhaps stingy? Candy”. Guess what? I didn’t quite understand why Candy said she was stingy until after reading her letter in Japanese. 😆 I think she mocked herself for being stingy because her reply was so short in spite of getting a lengthy letter from Albert. Can’t you tell how much she missed him? 🙂  She was essentially telling him “I wish you were here with me NOW so that we could talk”. Don’t you think? 😛

Found this quote (source unknown) that perfectly summarizes Candy’s letter in a few words. Note that we took this picture just yesterday. Cherry blossoms are blooming everywhere in our neighborhood. 😀