Long time no see. Today I'm here with a translation of MERRY's モノクローム. This is really a cool song. It's rough and lovely, and will get stuck in your head. Not to mention the vocalist spits out the first couple of lines in the most awesome growling slur. And knowing the lyrics, of course, makes it better ;)
Although I had 90% of this translated a couple days after it was released, it took me over a month to finish. The little line that tormented me was 嘆きの泡沫 (nageki no utakata). Nageki was easy: sorrow or grief. But utakata...the word actually means bubbles, foam, or froth (like the kind you'd find in the ocean when a wave breaks), but is a concrete symbol for impermanence. It goes without saying that bubbles of grief would have been a pretty ridiculous translation. I thought of things like "the intransience of grief," or "fleeting sorrow," but those sounded half-baked and quite blah. I wanted an image that would to a Westerner immediately evoke the idea of constant change, like utakata would in any Japanese person. I'm pretty proud of the image I came up with ("the shifting sands of grief"), but it definitely leaves something to be desired. I guess the most frustrating and most intriguing thing about translation is that perfect is out of the question. Anyway, hope you enjoy the translation.
Song: Monochrome (モノクローム)
Artist: MERRY
Greetings, Ladies and Gentlemen of the world’s upper strata. Have you anything to report? Are you alive?
Receding dreams and a fleeting heaven. Is there any light? It’s disappeared to somewhere…
At this point, there’s nothing to lose. Push through it. Slash up the dark.
On top of the rubble, I’m playing the clown. The shifting sands of grief…
The world contorts and goes on changing, into monochrome.
I was shaking, struck violently by the rain…
last night good night floor show
last night good night wreckage show
Till when can I go on living? Even if I look up, there’s no answer there.
What are you hiding in that hand? The shifting sands of grief…
The world contorts and goes on changing, into monochrome.
I was shaking, struck violently by the rain…
The world contorts and goes on changing, into monochrome.
The reality…a place where I can feel at peace doesn’t exist anywhere.
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