Karma - グラビティ ft. Shogo, Hyo, Ruimaru
♡ = Shogo from BabyKingdom
◇ = Ruimaru from Vivarush
italics = English in the original (I tried rewording the more confusing bits)
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
♤ 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
♧ 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
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
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
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
♤ Putting on a performance, lost
♧ If you go and munch on sympathy
♧ Are sold at a discounted price
♧ 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
♤ 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 can’t come back
♡ Even if I can’t save you
♧ Carrying the weight of karma⁵
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
