Tsukubai / Kiryu

Kanji & Romaji: hiphopvomit
Translation: myself

Lyrics & music: Sakai Mitsuki




蹲 [Tsukubai]
Tsukubai / The Washbasin


Petals...

Fetched from surging waterfalls of thoughts     What meaning do they form
At the end of going around in circles, finally reaching that place
On that day, when the dice had been cast, I started my journey

I don't know the way of life
So I just... Simply exist here
What can I leave behind     What can I chase after
Just a little more... Only a tiny bit longer, a mere roundabout
And again, I am here
A stray kid who wills to die

Though I have no idea how to perish...

The thing that has been exposed, is it "me"     The thing that keeps deluding, is it "me"
Something to request...
Something to throw away...
But still, having a hunger for something...
I'd stop "myself" for the sake of "myself", but I struggle moving forward without desperately clinging to that day
If I felt like this...
Because I don't want to feel like this...

"I" was supposed to be killed...

I don't know the way of life
So I just... Simply exist here
What can I leave behind     What can I chase after
The meaning of the past     The meaning of the future     The meaning of reality, I seek [for them]
Perplexed dot pattern

Getting indulged in the darkness as I hold my knees


Discussion:

Have you ever seen a Chinese old coin with a square hole? If yes, then you now know how a tsukubai looks like. If no, well, uncle Google will help you. Nonetheless, a tsukubai is basically a washbasin placed near the entrances of holy places. Why? Because the places are holy, you ought to purify your hands before entering them. It's a Buddhist way of ritual cleansing.

The most famous tsukubai is placed near the Ryouan-ji temple and it's known for its engraved kanji around the square hole which represents 口 [kuchi] character, so it looks, more or less, like

    五
失口隹
   止   this.

Now, read the kanji around the kuchi clockwise and combined with the kuchi character. You will get 吾 [ware], 唯 [tada], 足 [taru] and 知 [shiru] which roughly translates to I only know plenty. It's a Zen Buddhism saying and it stands for being content with what you know and what you have in life.

Our subject, well, wants to be content and in order to achieve their desired satisfaction, they want to... disappear from this world completely. However, they're supposedly a Buddhist and Buddhism entails that one's soul will revolve around the endless cycle of death and rebirth (see: Misemono kitan for more information), so they cannot really perish for once and for all.