Misemono kitan / Kiryu

Kanji & Romaji: hiphopvomit
Translation: myself

Lyrics: Kurosaki Mahiro
Music: Kujou Takemasa

見世物鬼譚 [Misemono kitan]

Bizarre ghost show

Somewhere over yonder, both here and there, candied apples are sweet talk made to deceive

The gatekeeper:

"Come, come on, alas, please, stand up everyone! The one presented to your eyes is..."

The fool:
"Applause?!"

Your imprinted fate is to be detested by an inexperienced, innocent young lady covered in tears

Chorus:

"Parent's karma is to repay the child!"

Audience:

"Hey, hey ho!"

Going in is easy, but returning is hard

Take your disguise off (you may pass) (1)

Chorus:

"Clap your hands and whatnot, please, take a look!"

Boiling dullards:

"Love and peace!" (2)

-Repertoire-

Kannon's opening (3)

Three generations    Of     Good     Intoxicated     Night  (yoiyassa)

Ocharaka ochara ocharaka hoi! (4) (saisai)

Even if one bends over     Besiege    And show no mercy (once again)

High praise     Great joy     Agonizing cries (5) (hey, hey)

Nonsense     Complaints     Grumbling

Crotch blooming inside the peeping hole of pleasure has been caught when dripping wet

The judge:

"Right into the phallus! Thousand needles!"

A person reborn into the animal realm:
"Stab it! Stab it! Stab it!"

To chop the ears off     And scoop the eyeballs out      Walls have eyes, doors have ears

Myriads of peasants: (6)
"Throat is already night, ended up being caught"

Curious onlookers:
"Hey, hey ho!"

Going in is easy, but returning is hard
Take your skin off (you may pass)

Chorus:
"Clean your bloodshot eyes and please, look carefully!"

Silhouette of many wriggling evil spirits: (7)
"Love and peace!"

-Repertoire-

Kaitai Shinsho (8)

Three realms    Of     Good     Intoxicated     Night  (yoiyassa)

Ocharaka ochara ocharaka hoi! (saisai)

Madmen    Idiots    Brutes (once again)

Wrecks     Remains     Shameless cruelty (hey, hey)

Lunatic dance performance of the six paths of transmigration

-Repertoire-

Western Paradise (9)

Three pierces    Of     Good     Intoxicated     Night  (yoiyassa)

Ocharaka ochara ocharaka hoi! (saisai)

Conceit    Drinking    Spinning top (once again)

Feast     Ecstasy     Pandemonium (10) (hey, hey)

A storm of applause


Footnotes:

1. A reference to Japanese children tune (warabe uta) - Tooryanse
2. Wasshoi is a shout during Japanese festivals; it means something like bring the peace
3. 観音開き [kannonbiraki] actually stands for double doors opening from the center, however the 観音 [kannon] part of it is a reference to the bodhisattva of mercy - Kannon; she comes in a plethora of forms and six of them are believed to rescue the beings of each path of transmigration
4. A reference to Japanese children game - Ocharaka; this part is a line from warabe uta associated with this game which is actually made up words
5. 阿鼻叫喚 [abikyoukan] - agonizing cries; this word consists of two out of eight hot buddhist jigoku (see: discussion): 阿鼻 [abi] - the most severe jigoku of endless torments, one cannot be reincarnated from it and the dweller is entrapped there for eternity; 叫喚 [kyoukan] - jigoku of screams, for murderers, thieves, swindlers and lechers
6. Actually, 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of peasants; that's a lot of peasants
7. 鬼 kanji can mean either demon or spirit
8. It was the very first book of human anatomy and medicine in Japan; translated from Dutch to Japanese in the Edo period
9. A place in buddhist Heaven; pure land Sukhavati
10. 百鬼夜行 [hyakki yakou] - Night parade of one hundred demons (more: Hyakki yakou), veritable pandemonium or just many monsters and spirits

Discussion:

Since you cannot spell funeral without fun, today I'm going to talk about things that happen after you die, of course according to Buddhist doctrines. So grab your popcorn and enjoy the show!

As I probably told many times, the very basics of Buddhism is believing in reincarnation and because the human's nature varies between individuals, you may end up at one of the six paths (of transmigration) available, depending on how good or bad you were during your previous lives (karma). If you were good enough you may achieve Enlightenment, as shown in my Hadoma yori translation. However, Enlightenment is not the main topic of this song, so let's focus on the transmigration alone for the time being.

Well, the aforementioned paths are:

1. Divine beings/Deva (tennou):
   You've been reborn here? Well, congratulations. That means you were good enough to get your well deserved rest from pain, distress and all those unhappy things. Mind the fact it's only temporary and it's still not Enlightenment and you may be too lazy to work towards it. Good luck next time!
2. Humans (ningen):
   I'm a human. What now? Humans possess the highest awareness as said before and it is actually the shortest path to achieve Enlightenment, yet very tricky and that's why you will probably be reborn as something more sketchy or as another human (if you were lucky enough) rather than become enlightened.
3. Fighting ghosts/demons (ashura):
   If you're in this realm, this is your punishment for being angry and hateful. Ashura are technically demigods, semi-blessed beings, since they have a slightly more pleasurable existence than humans. However, this realm is by no means a piece of cake. Here, you will continuously combat and struggle as a violent warrior, endlessly die in your battle and reborn again to continue the fight. You will be forever jealous and envious towards the Deva whatsoever. Medieval Japanese believed that those warriors who died at the battlefield would be reborn as Ashura haunting the human realm at night to continue the skirmish with their enemies.
4. Hungry ghosts (gaki):
   But what if you were too lustful and possessive in your previous life or lives? Welcome to the Gaki realm! Now you are unable to soothe even your hunger or thirst, you will die in pain in order to be reborn again and suffer more.
5. Animals (chikushou):
   This is your reward for being a retard intellectually disabled, I mean, utterly stupid. And because non-human animals don't possess enough awareness, it is really difficult for one to be reborn as something different than another animal.
6. Hell dwellers (naraka):
   This realm is something that will most likely make Christian hell seem like a spa&wellness center. Essentially, Naraka considers every kind of sins, hence it consists of eight hot and eight cold "hells" (jigoku). Each jigoku has its own lesser hells, for each of you, sinners! Naraka is also structured. The jigoku are placed one after another and the deeper, the more severe and merciless they become. Be kind, otherwise, one of more than 270 places of tortures will be your new home. 

Now with this brief explanation, I can tell you what's actually happening in this song. It is written in a form of a script, because it is meant to be a spectacle of sorts. But not just any spectacle. A misemono, that is. During the Edo period (1603 - 1868), misemono were a form of cheap entertainment, urban mainstream of sorts. It could've been anything from your freak-shows, through circus kind of things, to regular (but weird!) performances. The more bizarre, the better. They were often set during local festivals (matsuri) or near temples and shrines in order to raise funds whatsoever.

Summing up, Mahiro's version of misemono revolves around (ha ha, pun intended) the six path of transmigration, where the beings of each path are the main subjects of the show.

Watashi ha kairai, sarugutsuwa no ningyou / Kiryu

Kanji: rocklyric, hiphopvomit
Romaji: hiphopvomit
Translation: myself

Music & lyrics: Sakai Mitsuki





私ハ傀儡、猿轡ノ人形 [Watashi ha kairai, sarugutsuwa no ningyou]
I am a puppet, a gagged doll



Scratching the scabs off     Thoroughly     Unworn
Tracing with a finger
To make sure of the "I"
Virtuous blade forcibly stuffed into oneself chops one's veins up
Coming off     Crumbling down
A vague distortion has been left
Will I be able to see through the other side, from that point through this side
Leftover scum in between of meat and fringernails
It was once a beautiful joke I deeply yearned for
Now as well...
It's washing away     Breaking down
Certain, unknown substance has been left
Drinking up even the vomit     Biting the hand crawling out of my troat
"I am a puppet, a gagged doll"
Rusty voice drowned in saliva violates and eats me up
Overflowing when asking     Yet another "hole" appears
Having no reflection     One silent puppet bound to black handcuffs
If I tried to touch... Slithering... Slithering...


Discussion:

What is this song all about? Hmm, I wonder. Though! I have a theory.

Suicide, that is.

When one commits a suicide, they generally believe to get to a better place after death. But there's a catch when you are a Japanese.

I once talked about dying and funerals in Japan under my Rengoku translation. I mentioned there that Buddhist Japan performs cremation rite in order to purify the soul of a deceased. so it can transmigrate and start a new life. Essentially, if you kill yourself at an unknown place, your soul cannot go through the cycle of death and rebirth, because the cadaver couldn't be cremated. Therefore, the subject of the song was ultimately unable to reach their deeply yearned better place and they ended up left to decay at their place of death.

The translation, as shown, can seem a bit messy. I did my best with those lyrics written in such a weird manner though. And my interpretation might be a bit far-fetched, although the MV for the song gave me a glimpse of its meaning.