[Arashi] [Lyrics] 二宮「痕跡」Konseki
Traces
Lingering(1), lingering,
After the early summer rain
Undried(1) remains(5) of tears.
Unerasable, unerasable,
My beloved's(2) shadow floats in the dark night.
Walking along the river banks at sunset,
With you, we lead each other along with just our smiles.
What shall we do for dinner tonight?
It was such a small, a very small and humble happiness.
Though you have died, you live submerged in my heart,(3)
I could love someone else, but there is no one but you.
No matter how many seasons I struggle through,
I'm afraid of letting go, of letting it disappear.
I gaze at violets.
What a pretty flower,
But I know that one day it will wilt.
It is evening,
If I touch the crimson waters,(4)
There remains the two of us on the liquid's surface.
Shadows heap on top of each other,
I'm afraid of being alone(6)
Realizing it too late,
There is only one person on the liquid's surface.
The seed planted in my heart on that day,
Buds sprouted twenty days after,
In appearance and form it is different,
But my love is unchanged,
That gentle light.
Notes:
*Thank you ames! I changed the title and a few words here and there so now it's correct, yayyyy.
(1) Nino uses some Edo-jidai japanese!! Probably our equivalent of Ye Olde English, so imagine him using words like "thine" and "thou" hahahaha. He says "kienu" which means not disappearing/un-erasable, but lingering seems more apt.
(2) Remember my note from Subarashiki Sekai where I said that if you use ki instead of i at an adjective ending it's super polite/olde english? Well he does this again for "beloved".
(3) Ack, thanks to ames_909 for the real lyrics. It's not dyed, but sunk or depressed deep within something.
(4) Again, thanls ames! "朱に交わる" comes from "朱に交われば赤くなる" which is from the famous proverb by Chinese philosopher Mencius when he said that "If you are around red dye you will be stained red, if you are with black dye you will be stained black" which means your surroundings have an effect on you. But you see, 朱 can also mean blood! UGH AMBIGUITY. Anyway, the point is, he's touching some sort of liquid that's red and looking at the surface. I guess blood is more angsty? I was going to put blood but now I really think crimson waters is more fitting with the song.
(5) Remains, or it can also be translated as scars! ohhh, so angsty.
(6) When he says alone, he says to "become one thing" so he's referring to himself as a thing rather than a person. He is so depressed.
!Oh, those unreliable fan transcriptions!
Comments: ARGH. Such a hard song to do! I know they put the lyrics on the large screen behind nino during his performance but the camera never shows it! I wonder if there are official lyrics in japanese floating around somewhere? If anyone knows I'd love to get my hands on them so I can actually translate this without feeling I did something horribly wrong. EDIT: Now i have the lyrics! Yay! Did a few adjustments.
So this entire song is olden/super formal speech? Imagine him saying "Although thou hath passed away..." hahahahaha. But that's the basic gist of it. It gave me a hard time, holy shit, well now I can talk like a samurai.
This song still is so sad and I am glad I translated it because it's just so pretty. The moral of this song?: I have no clue. I guess he found a new love because that seed blossomed in his heart? I'm so bad at analyzing poetry now. Please enjoy and critique this if you know japanese!
EDIT2: Made some more small corrections! Yay for not sounding chinglish!
EDIT3: Capitalization and punctuation are GOOD THINGS.