Eve X Yuuki – 月華❁乱れ牡丹 (Gekkai Midarebotan) Kanji, Romaji, Translation

Kanji  (Taken from the video)

蝉時雨。水無月の宵はあつくて

華の香に誘われ

こっちきなんし、、、

煙管ふかしてぷかぷかり

嗚呼、虚ろな瞳 色恋映し

いろはにほへといつかちりぬるを

腐った檻の中舞い踊る

牡丹はわたし 凛と咲き誇る

「さぁさ、遊んでおくれなんし。」

首筋を愛撫し 甘い言の葉

囁いた

「約束だ。『地獄』から出そう。」

帯を解いてくるくるり

嗚呼、蜜はあふれて 吐息を奏で

揚羽はあなた

どこへでも飛べて

血の香を纏うは夏の陣

一二三夜数え独りあなた待つ

頬を薄紅色に染めて

あなたは

帰ラズ

わたしはただ

待ちぼうけ

夏が終わる

もう秋が来る

あさきゆめみし そしてよいもせず

迷うことなく裸足で駆ける

華なし揚羽

手足はもがれて

空をただただ仰ぎ(いと哀れない）

百夜過ぎ刃は研がれて

涙の代わりに血を流した

色なし牡丹 打ち上げ花火

後に何も残さず

強く、儚く、粋に

散って

Romaji

Title: Gekka – Midarebotan

Semishigure minatsuki no yoi wa atsukute

hana no ka ni izanaware

kocchi kinanshi…

kiseru fukashite pukapukari

aa,  utsurouna hitomi iro koi utsushi

iro wa ni ho he to itsuka chirinuru o

kusatta ari no naka maiodoru

botan wa watashi rin to sakihokoru

Saasa, asondeokurenanshi.

Kubisuji o nademawashi amai koto no ha

sasayaita

yakusoku da. koko kara dasou

Obi o toite kurukururi

aa, mitsu wa afurete toiki o kanade

Ageha wa anata

doko e demo tobete

chi no kaori o matou wa natsu no jin

hi fu mi ya kazoe hitori anata matsu

hoho o usubeni iro ni somete

anata wa

kaerazu

watashi wa tada

machibouke

natsu ga owaru

mou aki ga kuru

asaki yumemishi soshite yoi mo sezu

mayou koto naku hataji de kakeru

hana nashi ageha

tehashi wa mogarete

sora o tadatada aogi (ito awarenai)

hyakuya sugi ha wa migarete

namida no kawari ni chi o nagashite

ironashi botan uchiage hanabi

ato ni nanimo nokosazu

tsuyoku, hakanaku, hiki ni

chitte…

Translation

Title: The peony blooming out of season in the light of the Moon

Loud chirping of crickets, the June night is hot,

you get attracted by the scent of flowers

“Come a little closer, won’t you?”

You smoke your pipe, puff puff

Ah, and your lying eyes reflect the colours of love.

Colours and and smells are fragrant but will eventually scatter*

and I dance in the rotten cage (of this thought).

A peony am I, proud to blossom in the cold

“Come on, let’s play”

You caress my nape, and sweet words

you whispered:

“This is our love promise. From now on only Hell awaits us”

You untie my obi, round and round

Ah, honey overflows and you make my sighs echo like an instrument.

You, my swallowtail butterfly,

have flown somewhere,

and the War of Summer envelopes everything with the smell of blood.

I count so many nights waiting for you only,

please taint my cheeks of a light red…

You

won’t return

and I’m still

waiting in vain.

Summer is gone,

Autumn already comes.

We shall not have superficial dreams nor be deluded*

Lacking of what I lost, I rush out barefoot.

A swallowtail butterfly without its flower

will lose its limbs because of weariness,

I gaze at the sky (but I can’t feel anything)

A hundred nights pass and the blade shimmers,

I let my tears turned to blood flow.

A peony which lost its colours, fireworks to the sky,

and then nothing remains…

Strongly, fleetingly, with elegance

(the peony flowers) scatter…

Notes and other

The only comment I would like to say on this song is “This song, oh my god… the fucking… boom, head blown”. Yeah, I know that originally it was a Vocaloid song but I discovered it after the collaboration between Eve (the composer) and Yuuki (ex vocalist of Lycaon) and the result it’s great imho.

Phrases marked with the “*” are part of a super-duper famous poetry of Heain Period (centuries from end of 700 and end of 1100) of whom you can find an accurate description here. The language is a nice mixture of contemporary and ancient Japanese, making it more easily understandable and really fun to translate/turn into romaji.

The lyrics tell the story of a woman of Heain period and his love for a man that, unfortunately dies on a battle field, leaving the poor thing no choice but to wait and eventually commit suicide. People of that time saw such stories as an inevitable destiny in which love, passion and everything are just fleeting things that prevent from reaching Buddha’s Enlightment: all of this is shortened in the sentences that appear at the beginning of the video and say “Both loving and being loved are Hell, but it’s impossible to live in a world without colours”. Those who decided to promise to love each other had to suffer these consequences.

The woman compares herself to a peony, a flower that symbolize femininity and that usually blooms in spring: the fact that she “blooms” (which is a metaphor to say that she falls in love) in June, so out of season, suggest that she’s eventually going to wither prematurely (a metaphor again for “dying, committing suicide”). The man is obviously the swallowtail butterfly, seen as symbol of something that drifts away trough the reality.

If you are familiar with Japanese classical culture you will find many symbols and images of such period, if you are not just ask me in the comment and I will point them out for you and explain their meaning.

 

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摩天楼オペラ(Matenrou Opera) – 炎の人 (Honoo no Hito)

Kanji-Romaji

Translation

Title: Blazing People

Make your soul burn hotter and greater than a blaze, fringe the world with your light.

 

To think of the people, to join the people, it’s getting almost like you must be able to do such things.

You stop and what can you see? If you really care for the future that awaits you, you’d better keep it in your hand while you go.

 

And if it stops burning, become a person who makes the world shimmer with colours, just like a freshly blooming flower.

 

There’s no reason to shiver, don’t stop the sound in your chest, because what you will obtain is victory.

Walk the path of the passion that never stops blowing and head towards the wall of destiny.

 

And if it stops burning, become a person who makes the world shimmer with colours, just like a freshly blooming flower.

 

Ah, thousands of flames, ah, stand fiercely

 

Is the future scary? Everyone think so

But isn’t it better if we fight a bit more harshly?

You have to go on, don’t betray yourself,

steal the closed fists of freedom!

 

Even if it stops burning, become a person who makes the world shimmer with colours, just like a fresh blooming flower.

 

Make your soul burn hotter and greater than a blaze, fringe the world with your light.

I just live my life, but I can’t shine upon you, because only people can connect their own past to the future.

Notes and other

It seems that lately Matenrou Opera really like “flames” themes with their straightforward lyrics and heavy riffs. Flames are symbol of strength, but also of being able to burn illusions and obstacles.

There’s really nothing more to say, at least I think… enjoy!

 

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Vistlip – Rem Sleep Translation

Kanji-Romaji

Translation

Here’s the darkness of the dream,

the sound of the bell is the check-in,

every time I lose my way, the communication interrupts.

As if I started to walk, I regain consciousness,

In the letter written in the past there wasn’t any mistake?

The “me” who writes the header while continuously stumbling

seals the rip of the page, fixes the rip of the page.

 

I fall in breathing difficulties, my eyes turn upside-down and I was having seizure.

 

Now, I come back to life and it’s time to meet you.

The hand of the star that won’t return, as if I could grasp it,

points at the globe, I choose the place of the destination.

Whatever I will do, I want to meet you

 

Because I want to read with you the dream in which I took note of “How to not forget you”.

 

You keep using your heart as a shield, but when one day someone will satisfy it, it will seep from the cracks.

Every time I think about this, my scars hurt, but will it be okay if I recorded my overflowing love and made it explode?

 

If it’s this kind of dream, I want to keep sleeping.

The me who sinks and re-emerge, like an ECG stands up and lives.

 

Now, I come back to life and it’s time to wake up.

The hand of the star that won’t return, as if I could grasp it,

points at the globe, I choose the place of the destination.

Whatever I will do, I want to meet you

 

Because I want to cross with you the reality frozen in the “I don’t want to see anything”.

 

You keep on relying on that medicine and when one day someone will make something happen, there will be no reaction.

From the iron sky spikes fall but, every time I make them pierce me to protect you, it’s fine even if I take too much of them.

 

If it’s this kind of dream, I want to keep sleeping.

The me, who outright rises up, like an ECG lives with a annoying sound

And continues to live in a dream.

Notes and others

I hate translating Vistlip songs because I never feel like I used the right words to convey their message and the atmosphere they wanted to create: this song is no exception and if I keep reading it again I will end changing pretty much everything. But I really wanted to translate this anyway, because I loved this song from the very first time I listened to it.

As you can tell from the title, the song is a dream (rem sleep is the moment of the night in which we dream) and therefore there may be some things that seem weird in the lyrics but they are there to create the imagery of a dream. The style of the lyrics is really cryptic and uses a lot the “suspensive form” which gives the impressions that things are happening in a twitchy way  (like something happens, then pause, and then suddenly something else happen), just like usually things happen a dream. The ECG reference refers to line of the exam which goes up and down emitting that beeping sound until the patient is alive, which, in the song, means that the “me”, who the artist dreamt  and wants to let out his feelings, is still not dead.

 

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Reign – Club Bunny Translation

Kanji-Romaji

Translation

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls.

welcome to CLUB BUNNY.

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls.

Welcome to CLUB BUNNY.

Wake up, wake up!!

 

Even tonight let’s start the CLUB BUNNY

everyone is welcome, let’s dance until dawn, come on!

 

Even if your face doesn’t show it, everyone has already noticed it,

when you are surrounded by your friends, you look so happy, don’t you?

 

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls.

welcome to CLUB BUNNY.

 

Small bunny, bunny, bunny, bunny’s ears

Why your ears are so long?

Small bunny, bunny, bunny, dancing bunny

The one dancing in the moonlight is for sure a small, evil imp.

Small bunny, bunny, bunny, X bunny

Why you don’t talk?

Small bunny, bunny, bunny, misfortune bunny

Talking about the bunny’s past is no good.

 

The reason for the tears that fell and scattered,

when the time comes, from that girl (will be revealed)…

 

Small bunny, bunny, bunny, red bunny

Why your eyes are red?

Small bunny, bunny, bunny, open sea bunny

He surely is a sadistic small imp.

Small bunny, bunny, bunny, X bunny

Why you don’t talk?

Small bunny, bunny, bunny, misfortune bunny

Talking about the bunny’s past is no good.

 

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls.

welcome to CLUB BUNNY.

Notes and others

This of one of those songs to make everyone pumped at the lives and therefore the lyrics aren’t that important: I myself wanted to translate this song mainly because it got stuck in my head (and it still is). I still have no idea of what “open sea bunny” may be, and the “(will be revealed)” at line 21 of the song is just a supposition of mine.

I really like though the idea of “transforming into a devilish little bunny” that the song suggests over and over: the concept of “devilish” here means “that can’t control his/her emotions” and the bunny is a reference to the white bunny of Alice in Wonderland, which is the one who took Alice to a marvellous new world. Basically it’s an invite to “get crazy to discover a brand new world” but with many many more style points (good job!).

 

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ペンタゴン -Welcome to ghost hotel Translation

Kanji-Romaji

Translation

Are you check in tonight?

Today, melancholy in the small room

and the sea of sins* which continues to get mixed up,

the hope from the sky falls wavering.

Today, it’s sunny in the dark room,

but the memories of that day keep on getting back

and they fall wavering, where are you?

 

Love, dreams and all of that stuff are just lies.

 

So, let’s open this Pandora’s Box,

look at your desires tonight,

try to stir your suffering and dance!

But, you see, it’s already coming

that stupid feeling called “hypocrisy”.

Oh God, give some light to this person…

 

“Dear my last lover, try to understand the reason why I love you”

and the sea of sensual pleasure keeps on getting mixed,

the feeling of self-disgust falls wavering.

“Let me get closer to you again”

but the memories of that day keep on getting back

and they fall wavering, where am I?

 

Love, dreams and all of that stuff are just lies.

 

So, let’s open this Pandora’s Box,

look at your desires tonight,

try to stir your suffering and dance!

But, you see, it’s already coming

that stupid feeling called “hypocrisy”.

Oh God, give some light to this person…

 

So, let’s open this Pandora’s Box,

look at your desires, they are dead

the suffering has already turned to dust, isn’t this what you wanted?

But, you see, it’s already coming

that stupid afterimage called “harmony”.

Oh God, judge this person…

Notes and Others

Words in Italic are in English in the original lyrics.

The “ghost hotel” is actually the place where the memories of the artist’s lover are (that’s why at the beginning there’s that question: the artist wonders if there are still memories of her/him). The rest of the song describes the evolution of the feeling towards the break up which, in the end, just disappear leaving nothing else than mere “afterimages”.

There are some nice kanji tricks that I didn’t manage to translate. For example that “sea of sins” (3rd line of the song), in the way the artist has written it can also mean “source of economic gain” as if he wanted to mean (maybe?) that, thanks to this experience he can write this song to get some money.

 

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DADAROMA – ルシッド ドリーム(Lucid Dream) Translation

Kanji-Romaji

Translation

Title: Lucid Dream

In a night of attempted suicides, dance languidly

these words and the era which clasps my neck.

 

The childish dream to which can not return

The childish dream to which can not return

 

The dream in which I look away from my carbonized body is…

 

Quietly, quietly, quietly kill me,

put an end to me.

But now, let me embrace my trembling hope

and fall.

 

In the night, the idea embedded in my right hand

sadly meets my eyes.

 

This morning I opened my eyes and it was all grey,

even the red sofa in the room I got used to see was grey.

And then I realized that the dream had ended,

I was just holding in my right hand a roll of bills.

 

Quietly, quietly, quietly kill me

before a new day comes.

Ah, I would like to hold onto those peaceful days

and just fall asleep in this place.

 

The childish dream to which can not return

The childish dream to which can not return

 

LUCID DREAM

 

I hurt you, what will be the next dream now?

Even love, even my voice,

everyone, just disappear already!

Ah, in the starry sky, the me I imagined,

that song and that promise…

Notes and explanation

Words in italic are in English in the original lyrics.

The song is about the lost of hope in a way that reality seems like an illusion: when the artist was young he used to have a dream, but now it seems that he lives in such a dream while being partially awaken (or simply: lucid dreaming). When will the dream end? How will it end? Nobody knows, but everything looks already too much grey.

I really liked the idea that when the artist was dreaming as young boy he kept his ideal in his hands, but when he awakens in the same hand there’s just a pack of bills, as if ideals as well are destined to become something futile as money. The right hand also is a simbol for Buddhist Enlightment.

I think that’s all for now, don’t get too sad. Bye!

 

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己龍 (Kiryuu) -彩(Irodori) Translation

Kanji and Romaji

Translation

 Title: Colours

He makes flower bloom on withered trees, he makes the light of the 15th night shimmer with colours,

and dancing like a whirlwind he makes you forget the dust.

A small child playfully hummed

“Let’s play!”

Under a big temple’s gate he is still waiting in vain

Even if he claps his hands, nothing can be heard,

 even if he calls someone’s name, it’s all so quiet.

 The fun is in the calmness of the evening,

when the sound of the bugs calls for you (to play).

He makes flower bloom on withered trees, he makes the light of 15th night shimmer with colours,

and dancing like a whirlwind he makes you forget the dust.

And if the end of the dream comes, the only one who taught you to dance for the first time will be

in the eastern sky vanished in the light.

Someone mocks the child laughing,

but the small child always plays hide-and-seek without knowing people’s faces.

“Let’s play!”

One

Two

Three

Four

You still didn’t find me

Even if he claps his hands, nothing can be heard,

even if he calls someone’s name, it’s all so quiet.

The fun is in calmness of the evening,

when the sound of the bugs calls for you (to play).

The eastern sky turned to ashes already

maybe you are just tired of chasing the red dragonfly…

“Why don’t we do it one more time?”

He makes flower bloom on withered trees, he makes the light of the 15th night shimmer with colours,

and dancing like a whirlwind he makes you forget the dust.

And if the end of the dream comes, the only one who taught you to dance for the first time

will be waving his hand in the eastern sky vanished in the light.

The dust vanishes in the wind

A small child playfully hummed

“Let’s play!”

Under a big temple’s gate he is still waiting in vain…

Notes and explanation

The song talks about the small child which lies inside us all, that part of ourselves which can make us cheers on simple things and play with people we don’t even know. The “he” which I used in the translation is presumably the child (which can actually be also a “she”, it’s not specified). He/she’s the one who first taught us to have fun and it lives in the eastern sky, the sky where the sun rises (and therefore it means he/she lives in the first time of our lives).

The dust is a metaphor for “problems” in general.

I don’t feel like I should give you more details on the song because I think it would become too much, but if you want to know just tell me and I will explain everything.

 

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How I actually can’t write a good self-presentation

Sooo… yeah, an uninteresting title isn’t the best way to start an article but, since this is going to be the presentation of the site and myself I don’t want to give to the reader any false expectations, I preferred to keep it this way: it’s a bit less “artificial”, it doesn’t put me on a higher level to the reader (or at least that’s what I think).

I’m an average italian guy with some blue bangs here and there struggling to write in a decent and understandable English, I’m currently twenty and I’m studying Japanese Studies at the University of Venice. I have some many interest that I eventually lost count of them, the main are reading literature from all over the world, writing “things” (essays, poetry, short stories or pretty much anything that crosses my mind… I don’t know how to describe all of them with one word), trying to understand as many aspects of the Japanese culture as possible and to link them to my personal experience and way of feeling things, listening to Japanese music (especially Visual Kei) and trying to figure out what the hell they are talking about ( and that’s no easy task).

The site is going to be a messy page where I’m going to write pretty much everything I want (at the beginning is going to be mainly Japanese songs’ translations), hopefully I’ll be able to create a clean and easy-to-understand way to find things scattered around my blog (see how I used specific terms referring to some function of the blog there? That’s how much I’m an expert of this things). If you have a basic “Japanese-a language you can understand” translator you will find out that “Zuihitsu” means “Miscellaneous writings”, but since I’m a classy little bitch I also know that it has also the more literal meaning of “to let the painting brush flow” (which is a cooler way to say  “to write anything without the need of approval by anyone else”). That’s the term that Japanese hipster literate men of 1300 used to describe their writings after they had sad “So, since the world is shit and it will eventually get more shittier, I guess I’ll just go to live in an abandoned place, within the nature, waiting for my hour to come and letting my painting brush flow” and set toward a far off mountain knowing that they will be remembered as かっこいい and hipster af.

Sorry for the rough presentation but that’s pretty much everything I wanted to say, I guess I could just say as excuse the fact that, since the main focus of the blog is the “flow of writings”,  the initial presentation is just the starting point so it’s not that important… but I won’t do such a thing.