KAMEKAME!! Thank you sO much for translating Mafu's 'Berserk'!! Even though I didn't understand hearing the song at first, you could feel Mafu's feelings resonating through the song :') Ah, so I have a request/question! Though I can grasp it generally, I want to really deeply understand what Mafu was trying to say. What do you think Mafu was trying to convey through the song? (Like, what was the 'story'?) What does he mean by 'underclass'? Thank you! From one Mafu fan to another, xoxoxo!
Hello, thanks for reading my “Berserk” translation, and sorry for the long overdue reply! ((><)) I’ll try to write out my personal interpretation (which may end up pretty long), so I hope it helps your view of the song!
Song Interpretation of Berserk
In this world of distorted values, the narrator is so restricted in his thoughts and actions that he loses control over his own identity, thus creating a double consciousness where his external personality is separate and conflicting with his internal one. This is where the song title “Berserk” comes in, as the job “berserker” in video games often refers to a state in which the character gains massive amounts of power and vitality but has no command over his actions. In this case, the “power” that the narrator of “Berserk” receives is his rage, signified by the intense chorus of the song.
From the video, the white persona represents his internal “pure” self, while the black persona represents his external “corrupted” self. His internal self consists of naivete as well as his untainted feelings & ideas, but as he continues to be exposed to “this prison we call life”, he starts to lose this original identity. This is shown by the phrases “Like a puzzle that seems to have missing pieces / I’ve become unable to recall my memories”. His current self, consisting of a mix of the two white & black halves, finds it impossible to find peace because the outlooks on the past and the world don’t match. In addition, the phrase “It’s scary; before I had even known you / I had already killed you, you know” refers to how the creation of his black persona from immorality has killed his pure, white one. Because the longer he lived the more corrupt he was painted, the narrator had never been able to come to fully understand his original feelings & ideas as a youth ― his words were unwillingly snatched away by society/others before he could.
In place of his lost white persona, a black persona fills its place as “a twisted me” the narrator never wanted to become. However, because he only wants to return to his white ideal, or a time when he felt happiness and expressed laughter, this creates a never-ending internal conflict that is sung about in “Berserk”. The narrator is frustrated and unable to accept this self that adapts to the existing corrupt society, which is why he would rather “let anything and everything disappear” and be pierced through (and die) with a finger of judgment. He does not feel “human” because of this conflict and awareness within him that the darkness is spreading and overwriting his pureness, and the awareness causes him to feel incomplete ― “as if something more important than all else [is supposed to] exist here”. Believing that there is no hope for someone as tainted as him, the narrator explains that it is why he is so obsessed with the virtual world (i.e. “the inside of a computer screen”) than reality, and continues to describe fantasies about burning down both himself and the world that caused him to turn out this way. Although he is turning into a fully black existence like the surroundings around him, the narrator continues struggling to free himself of the influences, as seen by the ending phrases “once I unfasten / these hateful manacles”. He tries to break away from being the “underclass”, usually defined as the lower classes in society who are underrepresented, overlooked, and unable to effect change to the environment they live in, no matter how slim the chances are. By bidding it goodbye, the narrator wants to determine who he is and his future by himself.
Sorry for the length again, but this is how I interpreted the story of “Berserk” to be! Mafumafu has said numerous times that this is one of the songs he treasures the most, so hopefully my interpretation somewhat gave it justice (^^;;)
[”Berserk” Song Translation]
