シビレバシル (Shibilebashir) – サヨナラ狂詩曲 (Sayonara Kyoushikyoku) Translation

Kanji

Translation

Title: Farewell Rhapsody

 

The me who has swallowed down depression

just feel dizziness and gloom.

This out of sync everyday routine is like an illusion,

a vortex of noises in my ears.

 

“Eternity” is a dream of the past, and the farewell too

is an uncertain reality.

Let’s forget those days in which I was loved,

it hurt so much…doesn’t it?

 

I keep escaping from reality,

I love you.

Inside my dreams

-your reflection appears-*

 

A melody humming “farewell”,

let me forget, rhapsody.

The “me” only you knows

doesn’t exist anymore.

 

I keep escaping from reality,

I love you.

Inside my dreams

your reflection appears your reflection appears*

I keep escaping from reality,

I love you.

Only you only you

-your reflection appears-*

 

Everytime I hum “farewell”

I can’t stop the tears, is it ok?**

I only need you,

Will you love me?**

 

Let me dream again!

It’s not a farewell, I want to meet you.

Make me addicted to you forever.

I… I’m here!

I… I’ll just disappear.

 

As the price to pay for desiring too much,

you left me alone.

In this “life” without you

there’s nothing I can wish for,

“Farewell”

 

Notes and Other

*=the way this line is written gets more and more confused everytime, showing the gradual degeneration of the mind of the main character.

**=these lines are so grieving the grammar itself gets influenced and sounds like they’re said while crying.

A somewhat creepy song about the end of love which, according to lyrics and the video, I’m pretty sure ends up with the death of the one who left the main character. The degenerative process is showed by lyrics, getting more and more distorted, ending with the final “farewell” which is not a parting from love, but a parting from life.

 

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大知三浦 (Daichi Miura) – 淡水魚 (Tansuigyou) Translation

No video available for the song

Translation

Title: Freshwater Fish

 

The waterdrop reflecting your image

is a falling star veiling the sky.

 

While searching

who was the one who changed,

the true feelings I preserved

ended up covered in dust.

 

The hole for water discharge gulps down

the dirt fallen off,

the coloured reality is so vermillion

I almost feel like I’m being oppressed.

With the scarce remaining warmth

I’ll wait for the dawn,

we really are like

freshwater fishes dreaming of the big sea,

freshwater fishes…

 

“It’s just that our personalities

don’t fit this place”

 

I’ll untie my dreams,

I’ll stomp over thorns,

or else, far away

if only we were together…

 

The hole for water discharge gulps down

the dirt fallen off,

the coloured reality is so vermillion

I almost feel like I’m being oppressed.

With the scarce remaining warmth

I’ll wait for the dawn,

we really are like

freshwater fishes dreaming of the big sea,

freshwater fishes…

 

Notes and Other

A song about the feeling of the main character, feeling too weak, too small compared to the partner and the world. The colours around him/her are oppressing, a signle drop in which the partner gets reflected is enough to cover the sky of his/her existence: the only thing which he/she can do is to dream big, even realizing that, for nature, he/she won’t be able to obtain that dream. In the end, he/she will just wait for the tomorrow, hoping to survive, as if he/she couldn’t do anything but to watch his true feelings get covered in dust.

 

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メリーバッドエンド (Merry Badend) – 神厄性書 (Shinyakuseisho) Translation

Kanji

Translation

Title: The sex book of the Evil God*

 

Can you hear my voice?

Do my feelings reach you?

Let’s love each other more deeply!

The time has come, has reported by the Good Word**

 

“God created humans so that they could love each other and blessed them saying them to fill the Earth, to respect, to give birth and prosper”

“There’s no need to respect the morals and ethics established by humans. Since the beginning Love was supposed the most free”

 

The innocence of the ostentatious people,

that is the true sin, so let’s fornicate!

The stupid people ignorant of the love

overflowing in this world speak so, click? Crack***

 

“Carnal desire and Love are different!”

“Love is fascinating and beautiful!”

“To indulge in physical pleasure is a sin!”

“Do you really think so?”

 

It’s fine anyway

 

Hallelujah! Come on, love! Whisper to me those words that can tear off even the sadness of my soul.

Hallelujah! Come on, love! Stay by my side forever until we fall asleep together, save me from the pain of my sadness!

 

We hurt

and betray many times,

but, even so, we cannot live without loving anyone.

 

Hallelujah! Come on, love!

It’s a miracle that we live in the same time.

Hallelujah! Hey, honey, let’s show that we were born to be loved!

Only you will always be

the one I’ll love,

I swear it right now

 

Notes and Other

*=The word has the same reading as “The new Testament” but it’s written with the kanji for “God”, “Evil”, “Sex” and “Writing”.

**= that is the word of God

***=Still no idea about this click-crack (or clack?). I’m open to suggestion.

An original take on the theme of free sex, at least in Japan. What sounds strange to me anyway is why the chose the Christian God and Bible instead of Buddhism which is evidently closer to Japan. It may reveal some interesting insight about the band.

 

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大知三浦 (Daichi Miura) – 序詞 (Jokotoba) Translation

Kanji

Translation

Title: Preface

 

If I think about it, my life until now

is like a boat floating in the vast sea,

with the reputation I earned by giving my all

I somehow protect my body from rain and wind.

 

To desire for freedom, to be afraid of freedom,

that is the illusory voice of the words “one day”,

I don’t have where I would like to go,

even though there is a place where I would like to go back…

 

Tell me…

Ah…

Tell me…

Ah…

 

Suddenly everything was scraped off

and cleared.

I accepted my limits

without doubting them.

When even in a decomposing world

flowers bloom,

I hold tight in my hands some seeds,

right now there’s no place where to plant them

so I just stand alone.

 

I desire for an answer and looked down,

in a corner of my field of vision there were the shoes I got used to see,

and as soon as I raised my eyes

you were there bearing the morning sun on your back.

 

“I’m back home”

 

Notes and Other

First song of the album 球体 (Kyuutai). It is common use for a preface to contain all the element of  the poetry/novel/anything else following, pretty much like an overture of an opera. That’s why, while it may seem a bit messy, it contains all the themes elaborated in the album: dreams, a distant feminine figure often appearing in the author memories, the search for something that may last, the sea and soft sounds. It is also interesting to confront this first song and the last song of the album named 球体 (Kyuutai, “Sphere”), indicating that the beginning and the end are actually united in some sort of loop from which the author cannot escape.

 

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Dadaroma – FAKE Translation

Kanji

Translation

 

FAKE!

Imitation, fool, parade

the charismatic people have realized that.

Imitation, be ashamed! Parade

I’m not like you stupid chameleons!

 

Imitation, fool, parade

the charismatic people have hanged you all.

Imitation, be ashamed! Parade

Come on, fall

 

You don’t see anything, you don’t move at all,

your voice doesn’t impress anyone

You don’t see anything, you don’t move at all,

your voice doesn’t impress anyone

 

FAKE FAKE YOU ARE FAKE!

DUM-DUM DUM-DUM YOU ARE SENSE

FAKE FAKE YOU ARE FAKE!

DUM-DUM DUM-DUM YOU ARE MINDS

FAKE FAKE YOU ARE FAKE!

DUM-DUM DUM-DUM YOU ARE VOICE

FAKE FAKE YOU ARE FAKE!

DUM-DUM DUM-DUM YOU ARE SEX

FAKE

 

You don’t see anything, you don’t move at all,

your voice doesn’t impress anyone

You don’t see anything, you don’t move at all,

your voice doesn’t impress anyone

 

FAKE FAKE YOU ARE FAKE!

DUM-DUM DUM-DUM YOU ARE SENSE

FAKE FAKE YOU ARE FAKE!

DUM-DUM DUM-DUM YOU ARE MINDS

FAKE FAKE YOU ARE FAKE!

DUM-DUM DUM-DUM YOU ARE VOICE

FAKE FAKE YOU ARE FAKE!

DUM-DUM DUM-DUM YOU ARE SEX

FAKE!

 

Notes and Other

Words in Italic are in English in the original lyrics.

A very fragmented song and so very difficult to fully grasp. While there are really obscure passage, what clearly emerges is the hate towards the imitating other charismatic people who, realizing that, hang them (in a metaphorical way of course). I might try guess that the meaning of the song is that, no matter how much we change our appearance imitating the others, in the end we are just senses, voice, minds, sex addicted. Unable to do so, we march in line as clones (or even androids, to link to the album) of other people towards our demise. But I’m not 100% sure of this interpretation.

 

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大知三浦 (Daichi Miura) – テレパシー (Telepathy) Translation

(No music video for this track)

Kanji

Translation

 

The sudden evening downpour echoes,

under the iron bridge

the grain of rain caress your cheeks,

You joke

and while drying my cheeks with your finger you say

“Don’t cry”

 

To the softly laughing me, you say

“Don’t cry”

 

As soon as I avert my eyes

the hydrangeas* call for the thunder.

 

The “What if one time…”

and the “one day”

of those days,

you surely remember those, right?

 

The flying you says

“Flap your wings”

 

“Flap your wings until you can see that cloud from above”

 

A gust of wind moves

the memories of that far gone summer.

 

As soon as I avert my eyes

the hydrangeas* call for the thunder.

 

Far away…

 

Far away…

 

The sky reflects in the puddles,

fireworks** bloom on the riverside,

the same fireworks I saw with you.

 

Suddenly,

the wet wind moves a poster,

a big flying ship

is drawn on it.

 

Notes and Other

*=hydrangeas are the flowers of June, the period of time in which Japan enters the rain season, that’s why they are easily linked to the image of storms and rain.

**= the word for “fireworks” in Japanese is spelled with the kanji for “Flower” and “fire”, that’s why it is used the verb “to bloom” to indicate their explosion.

While it may seem that the present time of the song is in a summer rainy day, I’m pretty sure that the main character is remembering those images from a past summer day while being in the same place but in a sunnier day (maybe in autumn, which in Japan is kinda dry and warm season). In those memories the rain is not something sad, it is in fact the reasons why the main character and a dear person managed to bond: they joke on their tears being actually raindrops and dream the future in which they will fly far off over the clouds. But that “far off” is only in time and now the main character is back again in that place where the only remnant of the dream of flying is an old poster moved by the wind depicting a flying ship.

 

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Dadaroma – 汚れる前に (Yogoreru Mae ni) Translation

Kanji

Translation

Title: Before it gets contaminated

 

It slowly drips,

it slowly becomes muddy

before getting contaminated

 

Diptyque* perfume, the red garden** has no key,

Dyptique* perfume, the garden of anesthesia*** has no shadow.

 

Embrace**** me,

tonight embrace**** me,

before my fresh and crumbling body

gets contaminated.

 

The night gliding down

is so pleasant,

it’s so light

I can’t grasp it.

 

Embrace**** me,

tonight embrace**** me,

before my fresh and crumbling body

gets contaminated.

 

Notes and Other

*= it’s a famous seller of perfumes

**= sounds really sexual, it may refer to the red lips of the lover.

***= again, really sexual, it may refer to the pleasure of sex felt like some kind of anesthetic for the pain inflicted by life. It has no shadow so it maybe that is ephemeral, not real.

****= also has the double meaning of “having sex with someone”

The song is really vague so it’s really open to interpretation. From the sound of the song and the feel of the lyrics, I think it has a sexual theme based on the concept that the instant of carnal pleasure is a magic time in which we are pure (not contaminated by our over-structure oh humans part of a society, but just animals enjoying ourselves). If you read it in this way, one could say that the first lines may be referred to sperm, oozing down, getting more dense and then getting contaminated by this world. All this looks like an invite to enjoy sex with the partner in all its purity, sensuality and pleasure.

 

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大知三浦 (Daichi Miura) – 硝子壜 (Garasubin) Translation

Link to song

Kanji

Translation

Title: Glass vase

 

Rather than sunny days, I prefer cloudy days,

I can complain as much as I want pretending that it’s cold…

 

Inside the lead coloured room

only the glass vase you left before going away

has some colour and reflects the light

and only that

is so beautiful.

 

“Since it’s awful to lose sight of the things important to us

while closing our eyes because there’s too much light,

rather than the sun, I prefer the moon”

 

Inside the lead coloured room

only the glass vase you left before going away

has some colour and reflects the light

and only that

is so beautiful.

 

The sadness won’t leave me,

in the tomorrows that will keep coming

you won’t be there.

 

The sadness won’t leave me,

inside the small glass vase

no flower will bloom

 

Ah…

 

Notes and Other

A very sad song about the loss of a dear person, tainted in a very gentle colour of sadness. The main character is depicted as a person who likes quiet things (rain, moon, a glass vase) but still, in this moment he realizes how all this silent things he/she likes are actually plain without the partner. The only thing left is the vase, the only coloured thing in the room which, unfortunately, won’t contain any flower from now on and will just remain empty, just as the heart of the main character: the only colour left is the one of the vase, the colour tied to the memory of the partner.

 

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Dadaroma – 僕はアンドロイド (Boku wa Android) Translation

Kanji

Translation

Title: I’m an Android

 

I’m an android,

I’m an android

I don’t feel pain at all.

 

We live in an era in which the key to success

is to cast away people.

Headed towards a colourless world,

we are humans made in mass production,

a new model of androids agreeing to anything*,

that’s what we are.

 

Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.

Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.

Don’t worry about… ab…a

 

I’m an android,

an android of these times,

I don’t feel pain at all.

I’m an android,

an android of these times,

I’ve already erased the memories I share with you.

 

Oil is leaking from my eyes

Oil is leaking from my eyes

Oil is leaking, it’s not tears

Oil is leaking, it’s not tears

Lala Lala Lala Lala

 

I’m an android,

I’m an android

I’m not scared of being alone

 

I’m an android,

I’m an android

I don’t feel lonely.

I’m an android,

I’m an android

I’ve already erased the dreams I share with you.

I’ll be able to laugh to laugh tomorrow too.

 

Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.

Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.

Don’t worry about… ab…a

 

Notes and Other

Words in Italic are in English in the original lyrics.

*=it’s a very specific term indicating a behaviour where one pretty much accept happily whatever from the others. An example: “Do you wanna go someplace?” “Dude, I really wanna go, let’s go” even though the answer is nothing more than a facade.

Main track of this EP, this song depict humans as androids, forced to become emotionless, cold, just to survive to this wretched era. The problem is that we do not seem to function well (as you can tell by the part in english in the original lyrics), as if we couldn’t get rid of the last fragment of our humanity. We may forget our dreams, forget our memories but we cannot stop suffering for that.

 

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Critical Theory: what’s the value of Visual Kei, some core value and an opinion on how to hestimate a visual artist’s value

No true research starts without letting the reader know why it is important to research on such topic and I want to do the same: Visual Kei must not be studied as the Japanese version of glam rock, but it can’t be defined worthy of research just because it is a peculiar genre of Japanese music.

I think that its research value is its capability of transforming and adapting traditional as well as foreign values into a product different from the starting point and presenting it to a young audience in an underground/indie context. To give some examples, 9Goats Black Out quoted greek myths and philosophy as well as european art in their works, Kiryu pretty much re-wrote the image of many characters of medieval and classical Japanese Literature, D and Kamijo wrote something like a vampire-legend giving an extremely original take on the figure of the Vampire taken from European folklore, Dadaroma (and especially Yoshiatsu) started portraying themselves as a joker heavily inspired by the figure of Stanczyc, the jester who became the symbol of Polish culture during a specific time in Poland, and much, much more. With such a lively scene, literature students would be surprised of how much this figures have been adapted to Japanese culture, maybe to an extent that nobody could even imagine, and made somewhat coherent. It’s the paradise of comparative literature and presentist research. Researchers out there, your paradise is here!

Now, going deeper, there is much more to research. For example, how did the Visual kei scene become like this, how it is perceived, how much influence has and receive from the not-underground culture and so on.

In order to research on such topics, one must find some sort of orienting point throughout Visual Kei that really deserve some attention: that is the evolution of the “Mask”.

Seeing how it started just as a simple style (maybe a hair style) and evolved into characters, then images and kept going on for almost 30 years, how the punk image has been partially tamed in some years, how it has been strongly pushed forward in other times: all these are topics which are strictly inherent to Visual Kei  may offer extreme depth if researched focusing on the development of some individual artists throughout various “eras” of Visual Kei. For example, the mask of Gackt is extremely interesting: just imagine how difficult may be to translate your character from the vampire born in the 15 th century to the one of an idol-like artist which dances with other dancers in a band called “Yellow fried chickenz”. Also, when some critic will finally acknowledge the literary value of Visual lyrics, it will be extremely interesting to study the evolution of the lyrics of Nightmare and their oscillations in the years, showing the literary growth of their themes (especially the ones brought up by Ruka).

And finally, a personal opinion, what I consider the core potential of Visual Kei and, potentially the main concept with whom I tend to judge Visual bands: how masks can be adapted to themes without losing coherence. For example, a band I consider as one of the best in do such a thing is R指定, everytime I’m stunned by the quantity of new masks they can produce without getting out of their own boundaries of music and aesthetic. To put it in a simpler way, I love bands that never stop on the same theme or sound and stretch the personality of their masks towards genres and words that were never experimented before.

 

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