Sazanami / Kiryu

Kanji & Romaji: hiphopvomit
Translation: myself

Lyrics: Kurosaki Mahiro
Music: Sakai Mitsuki




漣 [Sazanami]
Ripples



Love that has been fading for a long time     What will you leave in the palm of my hand
While dozing off     Sweet lovers' talk is cooling off the warm booze

When the eeb tide carries you off, will you make your way through
As the lingering scent     Ah, if soaked into it, cruelty would ephemerally disappear

Money, women, romance... Amongst these all, filthy and messy   You
Even when being evasive     And fickle     Letting you come near will return

"Floating and sinking"

Love that has been fading for a long time     Will you disentangle these palms of our hands
Wavy hair, without gloss     Eventually you will sadly lose an interest in it

I wonder if this pair of small birds is surely happy
Looking up at the sky     Ah, mandarin duck (1) is wishing for the depths of romance that cannot fly away

Yearning for the long autumn rain     Although I knew, it wouldn't become reality
Rings on the water     Dizziness     While drawing an arc    Flapping (2) towards the blue sky

"Without breathing"

Wiping bitter tears     Ah, I wonder if only I could play with those fingers

Money, women, romance... Amongst these all, filthy and messy    You
Even when being evasive     And fickle     Letting you come near will return     Ripples

Yearning for the long autumn rain    Although I knew, it wouldn't become reality
Rings on the water     Dizziness     When drawing an arc     Flapping wings abreast towards the blue sky

"Holding our hands together towards the blue sky"


Footnotes:

1. Mandarin ducks are said to form lifelong couples, thus they became the symbol of eternal love in west Asian countries
2. Kanji given in lyrics say 藻掻く [mogaku] - to struggle, to writhe, but there is habataku (羽撃く) - to flap (wings) sung instead

Discussion:

I do not want to focus this much on the story of Sazanami, because it's relatively easy to decipher. Basically, the subject is a woman - a loving and caring wife who turns a blind eye to her husband being a cheater, more interested in any other woman, but his own wife. Yet this relationship turned out to be unfortunate anyway, since the husband passes away. The woman is unable to bear her tragic fate, therefore she commits a suicide in the name of her devoted love and she wishes to be toghether with her husband in the afterlife.

What I would like to talk about is the construction of original Japanese lyrics, because some of Kiryu songs (especially those written by Mahiro) are similar in terms of fashion. I find it somehow crucial to understand Kiryu's concept of wasei (Japanese-made) horror and why do people often fear to translate them. Mahiro as a lyricist is uber fond of breaking rules, both moral and grammar. On the other hand, Mitsuki is your everyday poet - his lyrics are nowhere near Japanese taught in textbooks. However this is not what makes Kiryu's songs (mostly) hard to translate. What makes them this way is Kobun (Bungo) or classical Japanese in English. This form of language derives from Heian period (794 - 1185/1192 AD) and was preserved later on (being the standard until around 1930) as a literary language. You may know that Japanese writing system consists of kana (katakana + hiragana) and shitton of kanji. What is characteristic for Kobun as well is a phenomenon called rekishiteki kanazukai - a historical kana usage (in a general use until the end of World War II though). It means additional, obsolete pieces of kana (ゐ & ヰ [wi], ゑ & ヱ [we]; sometimes still used in names in some regions) as well as major spelling differences in both words and grammar structures.

A lot of Kiryu's songs harbors at least a bit of Kobun in their structure and some texts even attempt to partly mimic rekishiteki kanazukai in their spelling. It may be confusing for those not familiar with Kobun at all, but familiar with everyday Japanese. In fact, very first Kiryu's songs are written in a very modern fashion (such as Another side or Yuukaku), however their later works do harbor Kobun, rekishiteki kanazukai, archaisms, rare/obsolete kanji or are at least written in a very literary way to indicate their traditional style. This is actually why those lyrics are not a piece of cake to most of people (including Japanese themselves).

I said before that the story of Sazanami was not that difficult. Well, the story itself is indeed easy, but its original lyrics in kanji are the perfect example of the aforementioned complexity, since they are almost entirely written in Kobun fashion and rekishiteki kanazukai.