Shonen Picaresque - 少年ピカレスク
I’ve been ripping off people’s hearts * One single night, I killed a person’s heart You, who ripped away my heart, It's 'cause I’ll never forget you
I’ve been picking someone’s flowers Anonymized by twilight, I’ve stolen away someone’s dreams ** But you’re not here, so today once again The count of each kiss just wounds me more
I’ve been swindling people’s hearts One single night, I bought and sold a person’s heart You, who double-crossed my heart, It's 'cause I can’t forgive you
In order to crush bugs and frogs Anonymized by twilight, someone did something bad, but In the mirror, you said “I’ll give you a kiss for just the count of each of your wounds”
All I shed was blood, and it was So deeply, completely red Rip off the scab And let me hear you shout; “Boys! Boys! Picaresque!!”
Let’s play dangerous games Let’s go somewhere dangerous Even if it’s not right, it’s the way we live, so, Be picaresque! Let’s learn some naughty games Bad kids like us can go anywhere It's yours and mine, Boys! Embrace evil!
Seems you gave a person their heart One single night, a person received your love You set my heart aflame And then, at your whim, went away
Can't stop myself from snickering at your devout devotion *** Your honest heartbreak isn't even fit to become medicine The injection needle is sent flying, a glittering star It's like I'm not even me, your imparted insanity
The tears I shed by myself Were deeper blue than the sky I want to stain them white Go on and stain them red
“Boys! Boys! Picaresque!!”
Is forbidden love the only love? Are the only flowers the flowers that aren't arranged? Even if we exchange kisses until we break, Just be yourself! Let's have an abnormal love Let's do it until it becomes normal It's mine and it's yours, Brethren! Embrace ourselves!
We pledge! We boys united, Vow that even if we shed blood, to never shed sweat We pledge! We boys united, Vow that even if we shed blood, to never shed tears We pledge! We boys united, Vow to only shed deep red blood We pledge! We boys united, We deny the deep blue sky We deny our deep blue youths Deep, dark, crimson red blood, life itself, is all that we affirm, this we vow
I buried you, I buried me Becoming bare as before we were born I was once more reborn Reborn into Myself And then, I’d gotten it wrong Shouted out-
“Boys! Boys! Picaresque!!”
Let’s play dangerous games Let’s live as a dangerous pair Just because you can't live doesn't mean you'll die, so Be picaresque! Don't try to go somewhere like heaven We'll become grownups in hell, too It's yours and mine, Boys! Embrace evil!
“Boys! Boys! Picaresque!!”
TRANSLATION NOTES
"picaresque" is an adjective referring to a genre of episodic adventure fiction that features a rough 'n' rowdy badboy-esque antihero as its protagonist. i am a little embarrassed to admit i did not know this english term before starting this translation. guess it just never came up! * the unusual way heart/kokoro is written in the original, こゝろ, is as it is written in the title of natsume soseki's 1914 novel. person/hito is also unusually written in katakana, ヒト, as opposed to the usual kanji character, so that's why i decided to keep it feeling very deliberate and structured, if not a little stiff. ** an attempt at conveying a double meaning; apparently the linguistic root of the word tasogare/黄昏 meaning twilight, is the tasogare/誰そ彼れ that's written here, which literally means like an old-timey "WHO GOES THERE!". the idea is, that in the olden days when it became twilight, it became difficult to distinguish faces in the waning light. Neat! there's a lot of old-timey language in this song. *** "devotion", "heartbreak", and "insanity" are all preceded by the prefix 御 in the original; indicating a sense of formality and deferential language (and further indicating the narrator talking to someone, imo). anyways i took some license but i tried to zhuzh this stanza with that in mind.