#byakkoya

[lensinne]

「錆びた...」

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secret byakkoya catastrophic ending

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Decided to make a fanart song jacket thing for Hirasawa's song "The Stillborn City" from the Byakkoya album because I like that song so much.

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Hiratober Day 2: Byakkoya

this was Almost really cool but like many things i do it fell short. sigh

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Visit Original Link

Susumu Hirasawa - Byakkoya: The Man From Memories.

[hadescho]

The Girl in Byakkoya

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Susumu Hirasawa - ‘パレード’ / ‘Parade’ [Translated]

Title: ‘パレード' Artist: 平沢進 Album: 白虎野 (Byakkoya) (2006) (Also see Paprika)* [Live Performance: Hybrid Phonon (2014)]

胸にエナジー　ケミカルの泡立ち** mune ni enagii kemikaru no awadachi (In my heart, energy bubbles up in a chemical froth)

ハイヤーや古タイヤや血や肉の通りを行き haiya ya furu taiya ya chi ya niku no toori o yuki (Hired cars, worn tires, blood, and flesh all line the street)

あれがリバティー　ユートピアのパロディー are ga ribati yutopia no parodii (So that is liberty, a utopia's parody)

バイヤーやギガ・ムービーの絢爛の並木は晴れ baiya ya giga mubii no kenran no namiki wa hare (Of buyers and giga-movies is the avenue gleaming with the sun)

[マイナーな欝は戯言　バラ色は廉価]*** [maina na utsu wa zarego to bara iro wa renka] [Minor gloom is nothing but plain farce; rose-tints are a dime a dozen]

[いわく幸せと知れ　持ちきれぬほど] [iwa ku shiawase to shire mochikire nu hodo] [So I say: understand that this is bliss, until you can't bear it]

瀕死のリテラシー　メカニカルに殺す hinshi no riterashii mekanikaru ni korosu (Dying literacy; mechanical is the way it's killed)

売人や吊るワイヤーやホルムアルデヒドの通り bainin ya tsuru waiya ya forumuarudehido no toori (Traders, hanging wires, and formaldehyde permeate the street)

乾くシナジー　合成スイートで湿し kawaku shinazii gose suito de shimeshi (The drying of synergy; ersatz sweets re-moisten it)

高層のメガ神殿に狂乱のファンドの雨 goso no mega shinden ni kyoran no fando no ame (On high-rise mega-temples, a downpour of funds in a frenzy)

[「蒙昧」の文字は書けねど　未来は廉価] [momai no moji wa kakene do mirai wa renka] ['Ignorance’: though it's not written down, the future's dime a dozen]

[なべて迷信と笑え　因果のストーリー]**** [nabe te meishin to warae inga no sutorii] ['Superstition’ is the way to mock the fateful karmic story]

さあ異臭を放ち来る　キミの影を喰い saa ishuu wo hanachi kuru kimi no kage wo kui (Ah, now the stench has truly begun, devouring your shadow all the way)

恐怖のパレードが来る　キミの名の下に kyouhu no paredo ga kuru kimi no nano moto ni (With terror the parade approaches, and it is coming in your name)

轟音のMC　シビリアンには致死量 goon no MC shibirianni wa chishiryou (The roaring MC, for the civilian a lethal dose)

廃人や売るダイアや血に堕ちた道理の通り haijin ya urudaia ya chi ni ochi ta dori no toori (Invalids, sold diamonds, blood that despoils the righteous in the street)

あれがリバティー　ユートピアのパロディー are ga ribatii yutopia no parodii (So that is liberty, a utopia's parody)

頼みはＳＳＲＩ　さて流行のテラスでハイホー tanomi wa SSRI sate hayari no terasu de haiho (Rely on SSRIs, and then from popular terraces cry: 'high-ho!')

[マイナーな説はたわごと　享楽は廉価] [maina na setsu wa tawago to kyouraku wa renka] [Minor theories are nothing but pure nonsense; pleasure's dime a dozen]

[努々省みるな　手遅れゆえ]***** [yume yume kaeriminu na teokure yue] [Not an ounce of regret shall cross your mind, it's too late to repent]

さあ異臭を放ち来る　キミの影を喰い saa ishuu wo hanachi kuru kimi no kage wo kui (Ah, now the stench has truly begun, devouring your shadow all the way)

恐怖のパレードが来る　キミの名の下に kyouhu no paredo ga kuru kimi no nano moto ni (With terror the parade approaches, and it is coming in your name)

さあ地を埋めつくすほど　キミの影が産む saa chi wo umetsukusu hodo kimi no kage ga umu (Ah, it's enough to smother the ground, what your shadow births all the way)

狂気のパレードが来る　キミの名の下に kyouki no paredo ga kuru kimi no nano moto ni  (With madness the parade approaches, and it is coming in your name)

Notes:

* This song is probably one of Hirasawa’s most popular songs, alongside ‘ 白虎野’ / ‘白虎野の娘’ (’Byakkoya’ / ‘Byakkoya no Musume’). The reason for this is that those songs were used in the film Paprika (2006) by Satoshi Kon:

They were fond collaborators and you can hear Hirasawa’s music elsewhere in Kon’s work all the time. We lost a great talent in Satoshi Kon when he died in 2010. I think most fans of Susumu Hirasawa are perfectly aware of Paprika (it’s the reason I discovered him, eight years ago), but if you haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, I recommend it wholeheartedly!

** Not actually a comment on the first line, but what comes before it. ‘Parade’ opens with a garbled, uncanny line that repeats throughout the song. This line is actually backmasked from ‘Nurse Café’, which I dealt with in yesterday’s post! It’s the ‘家々の窓を破り‘ (’ieie no mado wo yaburi’) half of the first line. By itself it translates as ‘... breaking through/shattering the windows of each house’, and I’m willing to believe that this imagery specifically is why he chose it to complement the subject matter(s) of ‘Parade’. If you watch Paprika and where this song comes in, too, it will... make sense why.

*** I wish there had been a way to better translate 廉価. ‘Renka’ means ‘on sale’ or ‘cheaply priced’ but it carries connotations deeper than that. In this song’s context, the word carries a sense of moral defilement with it. Hirasawa’s talking about us having reached some kind of critical mass in regards to amoral consumerism, to the extent that values that could not possibly be talked about in terms of price are being dirtied and devalued. To translate that as ‘dime a dozen’ straddles a line between preserving the cynical wryness of his tone and being outright incorrect, I think, but I don’t think either ‘cheap’ or ‘on sale’ conveys the meaning of 廉価 well enough, either.

**** Tone issues, again. I don’t think the seriousness of this line has come through perfectly in this translation. ‘Karma’ tends to have a bit of a wishy-washy tone to it in English, but I cannot stress enough how serious this is. A better, but non-literal/non-singable translation of ‘なべて迷信と笑え　因果のストーリー’ would be something like ‘[They] dismiss as superstition the foretold consequence of the total sum of our actions’; it’s a comment on cause and effect as much as the defilement the human race has piled upon itself. 

***** This is a slightly expanded translation. I think the tone’s come across and everything that needed to be in it is in it. But if I didn’t care at all for lines being roughly singable, the on-point translation is: ‘Never regret what you’ve done, for it is already too late’.

Disclaimer: The lyrics of ‘パレード’, from Byakkoya, are the property of Susumu Hirasawa and are not copyrighted by this blog nor by the author of this post. The author claims ownership of the English wording of this translation, as well as certain stylistic features, neither of which denies nor seeks to possess the existence of other translations. This translation may change in the future.