I'm not sure if I can make this blog what I want it to be, but here's my idea put in simple language:
You know how we always do profound analysis of poems and songs in school classes? I want to do it for Visual kei lyrics I find interesting. I want to get deep into the brain of the lyrics writer, and get good assumption, if not the true meaning of what's behind the lyrics. I plan on doing this by analyzing line by line, translating it directly.
I'm still just a high school third grade student, but I don't think this is an impossible task ^^
Oh, and, you can feel free to give me requests and suggestions ^o^
Starting off with Boogieman's Recurrence. Not the happiest jumpiest song to start with, but definitely a good example of what I want to do in the future.
Boogieman
Libido (21.January 2009.)
recurrence.
lyrics: Junno, music: Yuana
"最後に見た君の顔、寂しげで俯く
後悔は陽の光を遮り影を落とす"
(saigo ni mita kimi no kao, sabishige de utsumuku
koukai wa hi no hikari wo saegiri kage wo otosu)
(The last (time I've) seen your face, looking down in loneliness,
regret interrupts, casts shadow on the sunlight.)
First of all, the tenses used in this stanza are kinda confusing. Junno starts with past tense, which supports the rest of the lyrics, but then suddenly switches to infinitive. It makes me believe the "sunlight" actually represents the other person's usual personal traits, the optimism and cheerfulness that are now overshadowed by regret and loneliness. By the "shadow cast over the sunlight", he might think of something alike to solar eclipse, the eclipse that happened on that someone's heart. Regret is a very strong word here, because the other possible translation would be repentance, and not something like sadness for the things that can't be helped. So the person is the one guilty for the way he or she (I'll use she from now on, but I'm not sure who is this song addressed to) feels. The fact that she is "looking down" is supporting the assumption.
"代わり映えのない日々は『振り返るな』と促す"
(kawaribae no nai hibi wa "furikaeruna" to unagasu)
(days without changes for the better are warning "not to look back")
I must note that "furikaeruna" (don't look back) is used as a strong prohibition mood, a negative imperative, so I felt that "warn" is a better word to use than "urge" or "suggest".
This line might be the vital point of the song. Yet it's impossible for me to figure out if Junno thinks of himself or the person to whom the song is dedicated. Japanese is like that, I guess.
But what I can figure out is that it, besides supporting the "regret" I talked about, indicates the strong fear of what has happened/was done in the past. It might also explain the name of the song very well. In the following parts of the song, we can see that the fear is felt not only towards the past, but the future too, with only a minimal inkling of hope. It explains the general gloomy feeling of the melody and the song itself very well.
The future doesn't seem brighter, the days keep on coming and going in the same sorrowful mood and from that, (I might be jumping into conclusions now) the "don't look back" is an opposite of the "what doesn't kill me-makes me stronger".
Another meaning might be that (long gone) past was a good one, and that remembering those times will be painful for the beholder. This theory is a bit more convincing one, because of the rest of the song. The future isn't promising, and one is aware that it's impossible to bring back the happiness that was back then.
"色褪せた君を手にし、眺める事が罪でも・・・ "
(Iroaseta kimi wo te ni shi, nagameru koto ga tsumi demo...)
(In hand holding the discolored you, overlooking is a crime, but...)
In this line it's obvious that Junno is the one who performs the action.
Something here makes me think he feels a bit superior to the one he's "holding in his hand", he feels pity for the person who is "fading". The person who was once alike to the "sunlight" (first stanza), but who is now dying inside. I'd rather translate the "overlooking" or "gazing at" as "staring", but that's just not the word used. However I have a strong feeling he wanted to use mitsumeru (stare) but it just sounded too harsh. It really feels like a crime or a sin to stare at someone you can't help, doesn't it?
"移り変わる季節の中、君を想うよ
白黒に褪せた思い出を手繰り寄せ"
(utsurikawaru kisetsu no naka, kimi wo omou yo
shirokuro ni aseta omoide wo taguri yose)
(In the changing seasons, I think of you,
pulling in the last moves on memories that faded into black and white)
The first line of this part might not be so important for the song itself, but it's noting that Junno is not having any negative feeling towards the other person which couldn't be 100% confirmed from the previous.
The other line has a lot of feelings in it. Like the person, memories also got discolored. It could be because he can't watch her the same way he did before, she lost her charming colors and memories of how the past was were affected by it. Again I wasn't sure how to translate, this time the line's predicate. "Pulling in" is as in "pulling the rope", and "the last moves" are as in the game of, eg chess, the conclusion of everything. Their together memories are coming to an end, possibly by force. The force might be the reason for her regret. Further speculations would be too much, I think.
"幾億の星の下、僕は祈るよ
『光溢れる日々を』と・・・"
(ikuoku no hoshi no moto, boku wa inoru yo
"hikari afureru hibi wo" to...)
(under how many hundreds of millions stars, I pray
"days overflowed by light"...)
The hope that future might get better reflects here. The enormous number of stars probably have the meaning of how much he wishes the prayer will come true.
The second and the last sentence of the song, his prayer, is not finished. It leaves the opportunity to make our own meaning to the whole song. Does he want those beautiful days of the past back? Or does he just hope he can find light in his life again? Really, if you think of it, each ending would make the whole song completely different. That's the beauty of unfinished, it leaves the space to put our own feelings to it and relate to the song better.
me gusta mućo mućo :)
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