McCartney Times

The best Beatles album is the Capitol folk-rock version of Rubber Soul. It is basically perfect, track for track (though I wish they had found room for “Nowhere Man”). The mono, stereo, and Dave Dexter ultra-reverb stereo mixes are all excellent in their own ways—but the mono is the best. Fab Four enthusiasts who are also Japanophiles (the two interests tend to cross-fertilize very well) know that translators used the wrong kanji for “Norwegian Wood” and ended up suggesting a vast primordial forest rather than cheap paneling. “That song can make me feel so sad,” says a character in Haruki Murakami’s novel of the same name. “I don’t know, I guess I imagine myself wandering in a deep wood. I’m all alone and it’s cold and dark, and nobody comes to save me.” I certainly know what she means. One of the most winsome errors in the history of translation.

Source: 95 Theses on The Beatles