cherry valley forever
The Bowery Presents
$LAYYYTER
JVL
Jules of Nature
bliss lane
noise dept.
KIROKAZE
occasionally subtle
Cosimo Galluzzi
Origami Around
#extradirty
pixel skylines
Monterey Bay Aquarium
h
No title available
Love Begins
Xuebing Du
gracie abrams
Cosmic Funnies
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Australia
seen from United States
seen from Australia
seen from United States
seen from Italy
seen from Ireland
seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from Netherlands
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
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@rokudenashi-tl
Welcome!
♤ they/them, 25+
♤ I started this blog mainly as a place to archive the songs I'd previously translated for my friends and I
♤ I translate for fun and for self-learning, please understand there may be mistakes and inaccuracies
♤ I am always, always open for a chat ^^
Links to all songs I've translated under the cut!
The laughing city (笑う街) - グラビティ
The brilliance of policies written in disappearing ink
And the light of the screen, where my finger stops on the payment, shine in my room
Blinding even for me
Waking up would surely be bad
Isn’t that weird too?
This city doesn’t change
Show me a smile
Because it will soon get better
Because your pale face¹ will end today too
Because you will find relief
Surely today, surely tomorrow
I wonder if I can keep ignoring
The sleeping pills this country makes us swallow
If I let my guard down and look away
I’ll end up getting tricked again
Show me a smile
Because it will soon get better
Because your pale face will end today too
Because you will find relief
Hugging your knees in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber²
Worst case, let’s sink it³ into the Ala Wai⁴
Because we are not the worst ones
Before it rots, please
¹aoi kao, so “blue face”, but from what I’ve found it’s used to describe when someone is particularly stressed or exhausted
²Dragon Ball reference here! The Hyperbolic Time Chamber is described as a white and endless room, whose characteristics are beyond the human withstanding ability. It’s used in the anime to do some sort of intense training (one day on Earth equals one year in this room). I think Roku might be using it to symbolize a place where you lose your mind, hence the “hugging your knees” part
³so, in the original there is no object, it goes like “let’s sink [x] into the Ala Wai before [x] rots”. I was unsure of how to render this, so I’ve left a generic “it” that may be substituted with anything else, but given the general tone of the song I have a feeling this might be about a corpse hahah did the speaker and the person they’re talking to kill one of the “worst ones”, the ones that are feeding sleeping pills to them? I wonder
⁴a canal in Hawaii, from what I’ve found it seems to be particularly dirty and polluted
Black (黒) - グラビティ
I want to appear smart and bright
So I wear adorned lyrics
Who am I now that I’m perfect?
The truth is, I’m just a mix that resembles a person
Can’t be helped
Someone please judge me
I want to think that this is enough
Will I ever love
Even the mistakes that keep strangling me?
Wearing designer clothes that don’t fit me
To dodge my own complexes with SWAG
On the other side of the TV channel I turn on
Is the world inside the rising smoke
In between explosions, with shoelaces untied
Leaving behind dreams and a change of clothes
Run (drink) Run (drugs) Run (sex)
X X X
I want to think that this is enough
Will I ever love
These days?
On the other side of a life that exhales smoke
Today as well, I smoke the hookah and laugh
I blend into the same sky
Without any remorse
In this room where no missiles come
Unable to pray, I keep running
And the reason¹ for this is a luxury
In this room, I’m transported into another world
And I keep blabbering that I want to become a genius
Someone please judge me
Not knowing a sky with red clouds, I keep resenting the beautiful sky
Not knowing a sky with red clouds, I keep resenting the beautiful sky
I want to think that this is enough
One day, I want to love
Run (drink) Run (drugs) Run (sex)
X X X
On the other side of a life that exhales smoke
Today as well, I smoke the hookah and laugh
I blend into the same sky
Without any remorse
In this room where no missiles come
Unable to pray, I keep running
And the reason for this is a luxury
In this room, I’m transported into another world
And I keep blabbering that I want to become a genius
Someone please judge me
¹here Roku uses the character for “concrete/logical reason”, but reads it as “personal reason/how the situation came to be”, it has a softer nuance in a way. In the context of the song, to me, it feels like he’s saying “my reason for running away is a personal reason, and it’s a luxury to have a personal reason for running away rather than a concrete/external reason”, with the “concrete reason” being, most likely, war. He never shied away from saying that this song was inspired by the war in Gaza, after all.
Karma - グラビティ ft. Shogo, Hyo, Ruimaru
♡ = Shogo from BabyKingdom
♧ = Hyo from Shellmy
◇ = Ruimaru from Vivarush
♤ = Roku
bold = all together
italics = English in the original (I tried rewording the more confusing bits)
♡ Why am I tied again?
Stuck in the quicksand called freedom
What I used to understand has become incomprehensible
♧ My subconscious anxiety
The telomere erosion¹ gets in the way
Mistakes and “it is what it is” feed the wounds
◇ Everyone says it from the place they can’t return from
♤ This is (◇ This is)
♤ All (◇ All)
♤ Because of the bad times we live in -- so they say
Keeping on living saying it’s someone else’s fault
Unable to turn the spear² on ourselves
And before realizing, that dream had changed into clownery
There are multiple tools to find excuses
If you think you are wrong
It all comes down to whether you can admit it
♤ So even if you’re scared
♡ Even if you’re hurt
♧ Even if you’re broken
◇ Go back
♧ Why am I being corroded again?
Stuck in the quicksand called love
Not even my best friends’ advice reaches me -- psychological reactance³
◇ My everyday life, covered in dust and sunken deeply
I couldn’t think of it as smart
♤ I know you don’t want salvation
♡ If it’s what you wish, let’s sink as further down as we can
♤ Together
♡ & ♤ Into the darkness
The way all we do is run has become ingrained
Under the rain of ignored and dismissed wounds
And now even the way back⁴ is stagnant
There are multiple tools to find excuses
If you think you are wrong
It all comes down to whether you can admit it
Before becoming like me, go back
◇ I know what triggered my downfall
You can take back a home
Who is the reason you became an underdog?
♡ Stop preaching endlessly at me
Are you not here for a reason?
This is not a movie, this is reality
♧ We wanna keep our life
Cut the crap, the seasons are changing
Even if you don’t know now
♤ The day may come when you know
This shouldn’t be your end
This goes out to you
♤ Putting on a performance, lost
♡ Lines of mockery
♤ & ♡ I repeat them
♧ If you go and munch on sympathy
◇ Emotions
♧ Are sold at a discounted price
◇ & ♧ Damn it
♧ Hit by misfortune, going back and forth
◇ Covering my heart in mud for as long as I stay submerged
♡ How long are you going to stay on the retreat path
Crouching there?
♤ The way all we do is run has become ingrained
Under the rain of ignored and dismissed wounds
And now even the way back is stagnant
Keeping on living saying it’s someone else’s fault
Unable to turn the spear on ourselves
And before realizing, that dream had changed into clownery
There are multiple tools to find excuses
If you think you are wrong
It all comes down to whether you can admit it
♡ So even if you’re scared
◇ Even if you’re hurt
♧ Even if you’re broken
♤ Even if you can’t come back
♡ Even if I can’t save you
◇ Even if we fall
♧ Carrying the weight of karma⁵
Keep holding my hand
¹Roku explains in his blog that telomeres are the parts of chromosomes responsible for aging, as they naturally erode as time goes by. He explains that it is a metaphor/creative way of saying “growing old”
²equivalent of “pointing a finger”
³Roku explains that this is the psychological phenomenon of resisting when your freedom of choice is taken away. He gives an example: if they tell you “go study”, then you don’t want to do it. But if they say “don’t go to school”, you suddenly want to go. In the context of the song, this is basically saying that the speaker’s friends’ advice doesn’t get through because the speaker will do the opposite anyways
⁴this is so funny because it makes sense in the context of the song as a way of saying “the path of finding yourself again”, but in his blog Roku says he chose the word fukuro (“return path”) because it fit with the metrics lmao
⁵Roku explains in his blog that “karma” refers in this song to something a bit more specific than the usual definition, and I'm going to try and explain what he meant. He says that we all make a decision and follow a path. If at some point you realize that your decision was wrong and that is not the path for you, but you stay on it anyways, then you will not feel good with yourself. Your stubborness of staying on the wrong path and feeling bad because of it -- that is your karma. Which is also why the whole song emphasizes the idea of going back, of acknowledging that you made a mistake and you were wrong, and doing something to change the situation you are in
I actually have a bunch of gravi-translations that I did a while back. Only problem is, they're all in Italian so I have to translate them into English first hahah but it's proving to be a very fun pastime :)
Until I become a star (星になるまで) - グラビティ
Until I become a star¹
I’ll play to my heart’s content
Until I become a star
I’ll play to my heart’s content
If sunlight were to shine at 2am
Then this night sky would become blue too
Though actually it always has the same face, right?
Good and evil will become the same bones
You and I will become the same earth
Constantly, gaudily dirtied by idle thoughts
Days in which we barely survive feeding on someone’s misfortunes
Is “becoming a star” perhaps a luxury?
If trash shines can it deceive people?
Does it matter at all what’s going to happen
If we’ll become the same bones anyway?
Let me lose myself
Where’s the meaning of freezing
In a snowstorm that stabs with loneliness?
Carrying the weight² of the little amount that’s left of the rest of my life
Even if, without me realizing
My eyes had grown accustomed to the unbearable darkness
The faded-to-blue night is burning down in flames
Because I found you, who reverses the world’s sacrifices with your tears
The times have changed
Keep wanting until you win it all³
Dinner, and that girl⁴
Shine for the one who has become a star too
With nowhere to go, I took warmth wherever there was some
We who gathered following a held-up light of trust
Take our time to give folding lines to each other’s hearts
So that even if they get folded they won’t break
Even with the actual facts, doubts still linger stupidly
It’s always words that distort
Still, again and again, I -- you⁵
Let’s love and hurt in every smile
Where’s the meaning of freezing
In a snowstorm that stabs with loneliness?
Carrying the weight of a posterity I won’t be able to meet
Even if I haven’t found anything that was only mine
The faded-to-blue night is burning down in flames
Because I found you, who keep spreading things like common sense with your heart
Thinking that “goodbye” is what scares me the most
Being controlled by problems that haven’t arrived yet
Where am I going?
Stamping my feet through the city’s blood⁶
Beyond the long carousel of memories⁷ I can’t take with me
Guilts⁸, expectations, hard-to-process pain, responsibilities
And the things I haven’t been able to tell you yet
Is “becoming a star” perhaps a luxury?
If trash shines can it deceive people?
Does it matter at all what’s going to happen?
Even dying is something I look forward to
Even if, without me realizing
My eyes had grown accustomed to the unbearable darkness
The faded-to-blue night is burning down in flames
Because I found you, who reverses the world’s sacrifices with your tears
Let me lose myself
Until I become a star
I’ll play to my heart’s content
¹idiomatic expression that means “to die”
²I felt like it wanted to signify “being burdened with something” in almost a physical sense, rather than just plain and simple “carrying”, so I chose “carrying the weight”
³this is written in kanji and katakana rather than the usual kanji and hiragana. I did some research and it’s a very strict manner of writing. I feel like here it signifies an imposition that comes from someone else/society
⁴the kanji is musume (“daughter”) but Roku pronounces it as ko (“child” or general “young person”), either for metric reasons or to signify a more extended meaning rather than the female word. This was difficult to understand, I think it relates back to the imposition of the previous line, as if it was a sort of outdated way of thinking, something like “you must want someone’s daughter/child”
⁵this is intentionally cut off. As to what the intent was, I have no idea hahah
⁶this is interesting because machi no chi can mean both “the city’s blood” but also “the city’s soil” depending on how it’s written. Here it’s “blood”, but I feel like when listening, one would expect it to be “soil”, so it’s kind of shocking looking at the lyrics and realizing it’s actually “blood”
⁷idiomatic expression that means “someone’s life flashing before their eyes when they’re about to die”
⁸tsumi can mean both “sins” and “crimes”. I felt like “guilts” could sort of refer to both meanings without specifying too much
Life is changeamazing¹ (人生カワタ二エン) - グラビティ
Be ready for
Gah! Gah! Gah!² I was hit
Multiple bullets from a word-based machine gun
Stab! Splat! Rira!³ It pierced me
The “you’re ugly” from that day -- and it always stuck with me
Come at me, cold life
There’s no such thing as a reality full of hope
Come at me, my resentment
Opened my eyes and changed my life⁴
In your heart
In my heart
In your heart, revolution
BadBadBadlyBadly runtatta⁵
You’ve always known too
BadBadBadlyBadly runtatta
A cool future
BadBadBadlyBadly runtatta
How does it change based on determination?
Huh? Huh? Huh? All I do is endure
My life is not satisfying
“What’s convenient is better than the truth, huh? That’s the supercatastrophend⁶”
Seriously, life is changeamazing
That’s destiny
Come at me, cold life
There’s no such thing as a reality full of hope
I truly hated it so much
That shitty life where I pretended to be a good person
BadBadBadlyBadly runtatta
You’ve always known too
BadBadBadlyBadly runtatta
In a cool future
BadBadBadlyBadly runtatta
Where there’s no good or bad
How do we change?
The determination found in finiteness
Made me realize in this bullying world
That it’s all just a switching between angel and devil mode
Which repeatedly turns off reason
Behind those cold words
Is there perhaps some lingering intention?
Just getting started
Choosing accurately my choices
I keep changing with determination
In a future where I slip towards the dark side
I keep changing with determination
In a future where I choose good and keep walking
BadBadBadlyBadly runtatta
Those tormented days
BadBadBadlyBadly runtatta
Leave behind
BadBadBadlyBadly runtatta
Not just existential pessimism
But something more
BadBadBadlyBadly runtatta
You’ve always known too
BadBadBadlyBadly runtatta
A cool future
BadBadBadlyBadly runtatta
How does it change based on determination?
BadBadBadlyBadly runtatta
You’ve always known too
BadBadBadlyBadly runtatta
In a cool future
BadBadBadlyBadly runtatta
Where there’s no good or evil
Then how do we live?
BadBadBadlyBadly runtatta
BadBadBadlyBadly runtatta
¹kawatanien was invented by Roku mixing yabatanien, a slang version of yabai (meaning “cool”, but it can have many meanings depending on context), and kawaru (“to change”). I interpret it as meaning something along the lines of “how cool it is that life can be changed”
²onomatopoeia for being hit by bullets
³the first two sounds are respectively the onomatopoeia for being stabbed and for a liquid that drips (I suppose blood?), the third sound I couldn’t find anything about it but in the original it sort of echoes the second one so I’m guessing it’s something like “blood drips and its sound echoes”
⁴I think it could be both “that changed my life” but also “that pushed me to change my life”
⁵runtatta doesn’t mean anything. As for “badly”, Roku says in his blog that he interprets it as not to be read as the adverb of bad but rather with the connotation of “wanting something badly”
⁶this was fun to research hahah owatakusuzeian was again invented by Roku mixing yabatakusuzeian (2010s slang to mean when a situation is particularly bad), and owari (“end”) -- which put together I think are meant to elevate the badness of the situation by +100 hahah