Meaning of ご縁 and 縁 in this context

Question

I came across this interview, where the speaker mentioned both ご縁 and 縁 and this is from this particular clip -> https://clyp.it/v1uobgr2

I managed to transcribe it (I believe?), but I'm not sure how would I go about translating the first part, especially to distinguish between ご縁 and 縁.

What I heard was

それから、Staffさんとの沢山のご縁があって
作品の中でも沢山の縁があって
素晴らしい方々と色んな縁でこうして出来たのが
舞台Haikyuu!!だと思ってます。

I know that 縁 has such a deep meaning in Japanese, so I was wondering if there is any way to make it easier to understand?

PS. Yes this is an interview related to the manga called Haikyuu!!

Edit: The audio link has been fixed.

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Also I struggled to transcribe this particular bit from the same interview.

-> https://clyp.it/ibxy43to

I could only hear

本当にxxxx良かったです。ありがとうございます。

so I was wondering, if anyone can help me shed some light on this.

Thank you!

Answer 1

Some spiritually-inclined person might think of 「人とご縁があって」 as "the universe brought us together", a religious person might say "God brought us together", etc.

However, I think that ご縁 is quite similar to the sentiment in "it was meant to be".

In the context you give, this is difficult to make sound natural, so I would tend to something like

スタッフさんとの沢山のご縁があって、作品の中でも沢山の縁があって、素晴らしい方々と色んな縁でこうして出来たのが舞台Haikyuu!!だと思ってます。

I feel very lucky to meet the staff, the production likewise went very smoothly / just flowed naturally, and the encounters with all these wonderful people is how Haikyū!! came to be.

I think the difference between 縁 and ご縁 is just the usual difference between 〇 and ご〇・お〇 (the one with ご・お is more polite).

Answer 2

The way 縁 is used in your clip seems to be rather vague and strikes me as phatic. If I heard someone use 縁 like this, I'd either think they are the sort of person who very earnestly believes in 縁 or are trying hard to find a simple, agreeable word that will please everyone.

I interpret these uses of 縁 in the following ways:

Staffさんとの沢山のご縁があって
→ had many nice-meetings with the staff = "was happy working with them"

作品の中でも沢山の縁があって
→ had many nice-meetings in the work = "knew many people / learned a lot from such a great work"

素晴らしい方々と色んな縁で
→ with all sorts of nice-meetings and wonderful people = "by a fortunate collaboration of wonderful people"

Basically 縁 is a concept widespread among East Asians, typified by the legend of red string, that every association between people is divine match-making, and you should treasure and be grateful for having good relationship with someone. Based on this, people often use 縁 casually when they feel "happy, lucky to be or doing something together", to indirectly praise people around them.

Answer 3

縁 is one of the difficult concepts to translate into English because I cannot find a comparable concept in English. I explain 縁 to my American friends as life circumstances which has brought people together.

In this sentence, I do not know who is talking, so I cannot specify some parts, but I might translate:

And, I think that we are able to produce this stage play, Haikyuu!! because of the wonderful connections with wonderful staff and co-workers.