有村竜太朗 (Arimura Ryutaro) – 恋ト幻 (Ren to Gen) Translation

 

Kanji

Translation

Title: Love and Illusion*

 

“I want to stay like this, doesn’t matter for how much long, I just want to look at your face”

I guess that such a thing is impossible, to such a spoiled child-like illusion

I want to go back to it, I can’t go back to it, why?

I want to go home, I can’t go home, is that so?

I want to touch it, I can’t touch it, so…

since we can’t meet, it’s fine even if I don’t know.

 

If with a kiss flowers bloom, with the body the fruits ripen and grow beautiful fruits,

I would be happy to completely devote my love to you as if I fell on the ground and started rotting.

 

I wish, you wish, constantly,

we obstruct our ways, wander about the sky.

 

Ridicule, scattered around,

messy, such are my emotions.

 

The memories I gulp down with the medicine melt and drift on the bottom,

the time when it stopped working, when was it? Whose fault was it**? I wonder…

 

“I want to stay like this, doesn’t matter for how much long, I just want to see look at your face”

I guess that such a thing is impossible, from this spoiled child-like illusion

I won’t wake up, I won’t regain consciousness,

it won’t vanish, it won’t vanish, how on hearth?

Even though it’s not fair, I turned this into a demo and wrote everything down.

Where are you? I’m close by you, I’m coming.

Come on, see? I’m right here…

 

Notes and Other

*=the title means “Love and Illusion” but it is read as “Rentogen” which is the Japanese words for X-rays scan. The meaning is that, with this song, Ryutaro tried to scan one of his past loves in order to distinguish what was love and what was illusion (and still is) in that relationship.

**=it can be also interpreted as if he couldn’t remember something about someone.

 

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有村竜太朗 (Arimura Ryutaro) – また、堕月さま (Mata otsukisama) Translation

Kanji

Translation

Title: Once again, the moon sinks down*

 

The fresco** sky is transparent and we, under it, are just naive beings,

perhaps, instead of forgetting,

we hide and show even our memories, it seems so foolish.

Even though we have already read them, we count their number and wait for an answer,

Care about me! Leave me alone! You are so annoying! Our self-consciousness is excessive,

Just entwine the thread between the pinky fingers***!

 

What reflect in my eyes are useless things, I’ll chase only the things floating by my eyes.

 

Laughing moon, the difference between dream and reality is merely words.

Since our heart can’t be connected, I know the meaning of this darkness,

What we swore with our promise is a nearby far place,

if you realize it, it’s so sad, so sad.

 

I’ve been carried off and the sky is void, somewhere there’s surely someone with an heart pattern almost identical to mine,

all this things are obstacles, even memories are just after-images,

even though I’d like to be fooled by them, it’s impossible.

 

If children songs are in the end just lies, it seems like flowers exist just to wither away.

 

The sinking moon drips, I asked something to the night but there was no response,

I understand the vague principle that we’ll forget the principle,

Since we are thorn to pieces**** because of our promises, we’ll vanish

into a nearby far place, it’s so beautiful, so beautiful.

 

The memories have no end, don’t you think? One day, the morning will not come.

 

Laughing moon, the difference between dream and reality is merely words.

Since our heart can’t be connected, I know the meaning of this darkness,

What we swore with our promise is a nearby far place,

if you realize it, why is that?

 

The sinking moon drips, I asked something to the night but there was no response,

I understand the vague principle that we’ll forget the principle,

Since we are thorn to pieces**** because of our promises, we’ll vanish

into a nearby far place, it’s so sad, so beautiful.

 

Notes and Other

*=pretty much all the titles of the tracks of this album are wordplays. This one sounds like he’s referring to the moon using the honorific form (put “o/go” before the word and add “sama” after). It’s written with the words which I used for the title.

**= it’s a painting technique. It hints at the fact that the sky looks like it has been painted.

***=In Japan, children make promises by tying their pinky fingers together. Also, it is said that the red thread linking to lovers together is actually tied to their pinky fingers.

****= the word means “to be thorn off” but it’s out of context and, if you only listen to the songs, it just sounds like the verb for “give one’s word for a promise”.

 

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ポルカドットスティングレイ (Polkadot Stingray) – ポルカドットスティングレイ (Polkadot Stingray) Translation

Kanji

Translation

 

Knock me down

My melting heart starts to spread

You burst out of my heart

like the wind, just as always

I’m fovia about…*

 

You make my eyes bright

I’m blind, you know,

because you are not by my side.

You make my eyes bright

I’m blind, you know…

This is the music**

Once is enough

 

With the eyes of Love look into my eyes

I try to make you look at me

but you still don’t turn around.

I’m still singing!

Then, the music stuck to my heart

scold me and say “you are not even looking at me”

with your resolution…

 

My eyes are still glinting

but I’m almost blind

This is the music** I wanted

My eyes are still glinting

but I’m almost blind

I love that

for one instant

 

I will suffer the lack and excess of love

What I can do is just standing here

even though I’ll keep singing about

the me who will not turn around.

Then the music knocked to my door

and laughed with a face of someone who doesn’t understand anything.

Once is enough

 

I can see the vivid irony.

Please just ignore the me standing up

so I can never catch up with you.

Even though I’ll keep singing,

I’ll call the thorn that pierced me “love”.

It would be fine even if you just let me go free…

With the eyes of Love look into my eyes

I try to make you look at me

but you still don’t turn around.

I closed my sleepless eyes,

then the POP music knocked on my door

Please scold me and say “You don’t understand anything”

with your resolution.

 

Once is enough

 

Notes and Other

Words in Italic are in English in the original lyrics.

*=I think here the composer meant “fobia”, in short words the meaning is “I’m afraid of…”

**=this a mistake that Japanese frequently make: the say “music” whilst wanting to say “song” or “composition”.

This song is the cherry on top of their newest album. The title wants to explain what makes Polkadot Stingray a band like Polkadot Stingray: what is their reasons to make music. And the reason is the love about whom they speak constantly in their song, a love that won’t come back, that has all the right to do that but still, at the same time, looks so cruel. In this pain, the composer got to know music and ended up using it as a way to express this emotion, growing more and more affectionate to the media. This is Polkadot Stingray, simply as that, but still able to convey such emotions.

 

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ポルカドットスティングレイ (Polkadot Stingray) – 極楽灯 (Gokurakutou) Translation

Kanji–Romaji

Translation

Title: Heaven’s lantern*

 

We are dreaming living beings, don’t you think?

Just like I do, you

love me

so does that mean we will always be together?

 

Even from the place where you are at you can see the sky so

you just keep looking in front of you, ok?

And when I was about to throw you away

I want you to hold onto me and scold me.

 

Now the sky is high so

I can’t even understand my feelings.

The hazy mist is white but

you

said “I got it”

 

As if by now I caught the Odakyuu line

and went to Enojima

I wonder what I’d say to you…

Now, In the gap between me and sky, there is the rain and my illusions.

Times and promises feels good but

since people long for what they don’t have

I want to see your angry face.

 

I understand so well it hurts!

Even though I don’t understand why you won’t say anything,

why am I still

saying nothing about it?

 

You said “I got it”

 

While thinking this,

when I catch the Odakyuu line

I end up thinking about these boring things.

If it’s true that

the time to say goodbye to you has come,

I’d rather prefer to vanish.

Your rather angry face is so dear to me but,

if it’s possible, in the end, one more time,

I want to see that funny face of yours.

 

Notes and Other

*=it is a Buddhist ritual object, often used in funeral ceremonies.

We are pretty much at the end of the album: it has come clear that this love, of which pretty much every song has talked about, will not be fixed. The heaven’s lantern symbolize the end, the death of this love, and the new acquired conscience. Buddhist death is in fact not simply ascending, but ceasing to exist as a transient being and start existing forever thanks to one’s enlightment. The end so it’s not just the end, it’s to start living with a newfound knowledge: the conscience that this always will not be anymore.

 

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ポルカドットスティングレイ (Polkadot Stingray) – ショートショート (Short short) Translation

Kanji-Romaji

Translation

Title: Short short story

 

I will never make promises in my life.

I won’t allow myself to break this rule.

You said that this phrase of mine was interesting,

but I realized you are no more here.

 

In the night when I can’t sleep I casually remember it,

the song you used to sing,

I remember every single word of it

but I guess you already forgot it.

 

When you stand up, in front of your eyes you can make your shadow, right?

I only realized now that you said that even such a thing is lovely.

 

That love has kidnapped you and

that love took away everything.

In the crowded night

I remember of you.

Please, bring along with you the one person in life*,

please, laugh by my side one more time,

The blue of the magic of falling stars,

to the me of that time, love wasn’t just enough.

 

I will never make promises in my life.

I won’t allow myself to break this rule.

Even the empty me remembers it,

the song that you lost the ability to hear.

 

When I walk around the city to which I still can’t get used to,

it feels like I’m alone.

Each and everyone of the people passing by

look so happy…

 

I heard that flowers just bloom to wither but

the childish don’t understand such things,

it’s fine even if I don’t understand.

 

Because I want to know, I hurt your feelings and

even though I don’t know, I hurt my feelings too.

In the deep blue night you are laughing.

Please, just get into the flow of the people coming and go.

Please, hug me with your usual smile.

I guess this won’t happen, right?

In the midst of the crowd, just I remain, alone.

 

That love has kidnapped you and

that love took away everything.

In the crowded night

I remember of you.

Please, bring along with you the one person in life*,

please, laugh by my side one more time,

The blue of the magic of falling stars,

and you are not here.

 

That love has kidnapped you and

that love took away everything.

I can hear that song coming from the bottom of the heart,

this time I won’t let go of you so

Please, bring along with you the one person in life*,

this time I won’t let go of you so

please, laugh by my side.

 

Notes and Other

*=I guess it’s in the meaning of “the one and only love of your life”, but it’s spelled just as “one person’s life” ( actually in a bit more difficult way but it’ll take too long to explain).

I still can’t figure out the meaning of the title, perhaps it may be just sarcasm?

 

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ポルカドットスティングレイ (Polkadot Stingray) – ジェット・ラグ (Jet-lag) Translation

Kanji–Romaji

Translation

 

The “goodbye” is surely about to come out,

goodbyes and end will be the same thing.

But if it’s your case,

next we meet you could be a stranger.

 

I just can’t forget everything

with a some monotonous earphone, but

at least, put some color over this world.

Put everyone into this music sheet.

 

I my me mine
red green yellow white
My heart is still a bit blue

I’ll say forever my rambling

with the feeling they will echo, they will reach you

I my me mine
brown pink purple black
Such a beautiful green

Don’t stop, because

I guess it’s true
I leave it for you

 

The “goodbye” is surely about to come out,

goodbyes and end will be the same thing.

Your smile will always be radiant and…

your smile will always kill me.

 

I my me mine
red green yellow white
My heart is still a bit blue
If it’s you, it will always be the same,
you’ll say that life goes this way
I my me mine
YES no
All is strange
Such a beautiful day
Let me go back, because
I guess it’s impossible
Leave me alone

 

I used to think that once I got taller, I could become an adult

I used to think that once I took off my school uniform, I could become an adult.

 

Notes and Other

Words in Italic are in English in the original lyrics.

Sometimes translating means to find a meaning, this time simply means to convey emotions. I could speculate about this love story, but it would just horribly overlay the feelings of growing up and parting in this song.

 

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ポルカドットスティングレイ (Polkadot Stingray) – フレミング (Fleming) Translation

Kanji-Romaji

Translation

 

I just remember your “farewell”,

I don’t know if I am myself,

In the peppermint flavored, thin, thin reality

I just felt I was getting weaker and weaker.

After 24 years I realized it,

I realized it.

 

I’ve been going with same pace as always,

and I know

that your field of vision* and my field of vision*

cannot be compared.

I just remember your “farewell”,

I don’t know if I am myself.

After 24 years I realized it,

I betrayed you.

 

I wonder if I tell you the truth yeah

I’m walking by myself,

I realized that I lost my arms, legs and head

and that inside you there’s no me.

 

I can’t even remember yesterday.

I don’t know if I am myself,

In the peppermint flavored, thin, thin reality

I just felt I was getting weaker and weaker.

Even though I’m hurt because of someone,

it’s nothing that has to do with you,

A quarter of century passed and has become useless,

I’ll open it**.

 

I won’t reach to you anymore my boy

I’ll keep walking like this,

Regrettably, I can’t even remember yesterday,

but the scenery I’m seeing now is so dear…

 

I wonder if I tell you the truth yeah

I’m walking by myself,

I realized that I lost my arms, legs and head

and that inside you there’s no me.

I’ve been doing this and kinda understood,

I know that now you are a stranger***.

Even if it has no consistency**** I’m still chewing it,

non stop, it hurts, it hurts.

 

I just remember your “farewell”,

I don’t know if I am myself.

After 24 years I realized it,

I realized it.

 

Notes and Other

Words in Italic are in English in the original lyrics.

*=the two words used here have the same meaning but a slightly different nuance. The first is a field of vision which may refers to a scenery completely visible and it’s used to indicate something that, potentially, has no limit. The second,on the other hand, indicates one’s limit of vision, putting an emphasis on the limit. This reflects the two ways of thinking: his and hers.

**=It’s a strange word in there. Usually it means “evolution”, “progress” and so on, but its written with the kanji for “opening” and one other kanji that indicates a passage to a different state. It may be a wordplay on the vases owned by Fleming which were full of mold he then used as antibiotic.

***=this word is not light at all in Japanese, it denotes a very strong demarcation between the people one knows and the ones he/she doesn’t.

****=meaning the consistency of a food while being chewed. Again, referring to molded food, just like molded old memories, with no taste or consistency.

Fleming was the one who discovered penicillin by chance, after he left some molded stuff in a vase. The song plays on this whole idea of leaving something behind, forgetting completely about it, and then re-discover it by chance.

 

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ポルカドットスティングレイ (Polkadot Stingray) – 顔も覚えてない (Kao mo oboetenai) Translation

Kanji-Romaji

Translation

Title: I can’t even remember the face

 

This evening, after having drunk and slept a bit,

as if I unexpectedly slept for too much time,

I thought I had to put my washed clothes out to dry

and when I looked beside me, there was a person I didn’t know.

 

I didn’t understand and started sweating*,

I even tried to remember what I did the day before but

I really couldn’t remember anything about that person,

but he was definitely looking over my direction.

 

I myself forget things too,

it really is unpleasant,

I’m so sorry I couldn’t remember but

you, you, just say something, it’s scary!

3 2 1!

 

No, No,

I can’t even remember the face,

I can’t remember

 

No, No,

I can’t even remember the face,

I can’t remember!

 

Notes and Other

*= the phrasing here is a bit weird, it sounds like she started sweating the kind of sweat someone usually sweats when there’s something they don’t understand.

Really light song, nothing special here neither.

 

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ポルカドットスティングレイ (Polkadot Stingray) – BLUE Translation

Kanji-Romaji

Translation

 

Making the impossible possible is easy to say but

if it really was that easy, there won’t be

things called “impossible” just from the start…

Please, grant me wings!

I want to dance like a bird, even without a purpose…

 

I

 

Accelerate and take off

Accelerate and take off

Actually, BABY

I want to say “I love it” about what I do love BLUE SKY

Don’t worry about it STAY GOLD

With a revitalizing JUMP

I want to dance like a bird, to the point you won’t even see me.

I’m off

If the uninteresting were interesting,

there wouldn’t be fantastic things either.

Just get out as if there wasn’t nothing.

It won’t happen, right? This day just like the other that I can’t efficiently manage…

 

One more time

 

The doctor take off too,

the bank employee take off too,

students, follow me,

say “I love it” only about what you do love,

Accelerate and take off,

Accelerate and take off,

it’s fine, Take it easy

I just want to purposely struggle for this,

while always changing, for ever.

 

Notes and Other

Words in Italic are in English in the original lyrics.

Just want to point out how fucking cute their cat mascot is.

Very light and enjoyable track. Nothing special in the lyrics, just enjoy them!

 

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Dezert – Hello Translation

Kanji: taken from a comment below the video

Translation

 

The outcome of this era, the sense of life,

those things don’t matter,

What we want to know now

it’s not such thing.

 

This hand which touched the snatched reason

will reach to you?

I hope that our place to be*

can become the place to be* for someone and

I say “Hello”

 

The evil in this world, all the excuses,

those things don’t matter,

what we want to hear

it’s not that sound.

 

This hand which reached out for the snatched reason

will head somewhere?

I hope that the place where I want to go back

won’t disappear in front of me and

I say “Hello”

 

While praying, while grieving,

while parting, we keep going forward.

 

This hand which touched the snatched reason

will reach to you?

I hope that my dream

will become the dream of someone and

I say “Hello”

 

While praying, while grieving, while parting, “I’m right here”.

 

Notes and Other

Words in Italic are in English in the original lyrics

*=it’s a very hard to translate term. It refers to one’s right place into society, or the place where someone can really feel accomplished and satisfied.

I don’t know why, but the sound of this song sounds so familiar, yet so refreshing. A simple and powerful song by Dezert.

 

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