Sekai - NEWS - Kato Shigeaki - Worldista
Hi again! I'm here again, and I want to finish this ... otherwise, I'll be postponing it like many others...
This is a completely different type of song from my previous attempt of translating, this was so difficult to do and I've been making changes here and there till just seconds ago, so, let's see how this goes, and...I'll have a bunch of notes, because, this song!!
So, I don't even remember which song I liked the most in Worldista, after a couple of listenings, one of my favorites is still SPIRIT, but then, this song called my attention a lot. I have much to say on the translation, so, let's start with this, I got kanji from here. This is a song, just like the last albums, written and composed by Shige himself, so, enjoy the lyrics ~ or what I was able to get out of them
NEWS
世界
加藤シゲアキ(NEWS)
Lyricist：加藤シゲアキ
Composer：加藤シゲアキ
この手に情けない生き様を握りしめ
誰にも託せぬ夢ばかり
刃を抱く覚悟はあるのかと
問いながら歌う
黄昏時 帰り道 憧れの記憶
吐き出した息が獣みたいで
手に入れたかった視界の色彩はどこへ
いつしかぐらつくレゾンデートル
振り返るには浅い人生を
愛おしいながらも嘆く毎日
己の熱さを冷やかすなと呟いてる
この手に情けない生き様を握りしめ
誰にも託せぬ夢ばかり
刃を抱く覚悟はあるのかと
問いながら歌う
雨ざらし 空の向こうに一羽のルリビタキ
一体あれはなんだったのか
半径数メートルさえ距離を保てないまま
強くあれと誓い立てる夜
どこかで生きてる誰かに悩んで
どこかで生きてる誰かに頼って
どこかで生きてる俺も誰かでどうすりゃいいの
あぁたくましさは 倒れた木々のように
再び根づく日まで 願いを込めて
この手に情けない生き様を握りしめ
誰にも託せぬ夢ばかり
諦めるにはまだ早すぎるだろう
ひたすらに走れ
求めていたのは愛じゃなかったか
求めていたのは夢じゃなかったか
求めていたのは魂じゃなかったか
世界はここにある
貴様が世界だ
NEWS
World
Kato Shigeaki(NEWS)
Lyricist：Kato Shigeaki
Composer：Kato Shigeaki
Grasp the ruthless way of life tightly in your hands,
just with a dream, you can't entrust to anyone else.
Sing, while asking yourself if you're ready
to embrace the blade of the sword.
Memories of aspirations in the dusk, on my way home,
the breath I exhaled is like that of a beast.
Where is the color of the view I wanted to see?
Before I noticed, the raison d'être (reason for existence) has fluctuated.
Looking back, while loving my ephemeral life
as well as regretting it, every day,
I was muttering myself not to cool my own heat.
Grasp the ruthless way of life tightly in your hands,
just with a dream, you can't entrust to anyone else.
Sing, while asking yourself if you're ready
to embrace the blade of the sword.
Beyond the sky, one bluetail (Ruribitaki) exposed to the rain
is asking what's even what it's calling for.
Despite not being able to keep it, even at a few meters of a radius of distance
at night, strongly make a vow to it.
Worried about someone living somewhere.
Relying in someone living somewhere.
I'm also living somewhere, how good is that to someone?
Oh, toughness is like a fallen tree,
loaded with hopes, until the day it takes root again.
Grasp the ruthless way of life tightly in your hands,
just with a dream, you can't entrust to anyone else.
It's still too early to give up
Run with all your might.
Wasn't it love you were looking for?
Wasn't it a dream you were seeking?
Wasn't it a soul you were looking for?
The world is here.
The world is up to you.
[T/N]: Where to start with this? First, let me tell you that the hardest stanzas by far were first and the one with the bird, we'll get there. And second, I just love the end of this song, so, bear with some explanation on this, and the reason why this translation ended this way.
- A very important point, I'm not that knowledgeable about NEWS, actually, I've read all of Shige's comments on the album EPCOTIA, and he made me fall in love with its songs after reading his words! He's so good with words! well, as expected from an author-san. So, the point here was that, I got many hints of this from some blogs, they're in Japanese, since I thought that someone native would get this better and I couldn't find anything on English, and they seem to be very up-to-date with Shige's info. So, I'll put some links here: this link is from a blog with an amazing analysis on Shige's song, it's my fave, then this one also makes a good analysis of the lyrics, and this one is also very interesting. Now, I won't be writing all of their analysis but, reading it did help me a lot with the interpretation of these lyrics, so I wanted to link them.
So, let's start this ... in some order,
- The first stanza, it was so hard! It makes reference to his writing in TRIPPER 2018, there, he talks about his trip to Sri Lanka. In his essay, he mentions the following phrase, and this is a rough translation, just like every other one here on the translation notes.
"I have words that come to mind, when I'm hit with malice: 'to be an adult means being able to hug those who have pointed me with swords'
It's not something that someone told me. It was more like a secret for success that I've worked out in order to control myself."
So, when he mentions the blade of the sword, he's mostly talking about this kind of thinking that he's applying to his life: to face the blade of the sword with an embrace. It really makes me think about the hardships he must have gone through. And from here onwards, the whole song feels like he's talking to himself, encouraging and pushing himself to go on, after his dream.
- The second stanza and he makes us all look for the French words, he uses katakana though,
Raison d'être is a French expression commonly used in English, meaning "reason for being" or "reason to be".
I added the meaning between brackets because it's easier to get the song unless you already know the expression or know French, neither of those was my case, so...
- The third stanza, here, I think it is important to note, that although the first option was 'shallow' instead of 'ephemeral', I chose ephemeral, because I think he refers to it more in the sense of something short in time, like fleeting.
- The fifth stanza was the hardest to translate without any doubts. Let's start with the easiest part, he's talking here about a Ruribitaki, the name has a unique tone to it, I like it, and many of the reviewers also had to google it. It's a Red-flanked bluetail which I shortened with bluetail because I know nothing on birds, but, it's a small bird with blue tail and rump.
In two of the blogs they mentioned certain characteristics of this bird, those weren't on the Wikipedia page, but I'm not that interested in birds, and this is a quite hard bird to find info about, at least for me, so I'll just mention that. First, it's blue, which is related to the 'bluebird of happiness' or known as the bird 'calling for happiness'. The other was that they are birds that live on their own instead of a flock of birds. But I prefer the first because the whole stanza is meaningless without the important point of happiness.
So, if this bird, which is blue, is calling for happiness, he compares himself to it, under the rain, calling for something he doesn't even understand so well, and was never too close to. But, he strongly vows to it. I loved this part, his metaphor, symbolism, and personification are amazing, I put a lot of thoughts on this and after all of that, this stanza came to life in English... I hope is not that bad.
- About the sixth stanza, it was pointed out that he was mentioning, in some way the fans, which are part of his life as an 'aidoru'.
- The seventh stanza is another beautiful metaphor, they're all unique or at least not common.
- I love the last full stanza, especially the part when he mentions LOVE, DREAM, and SOUL, all things that you can't get in an ordinary way and without growing.
- The last two verses are so good to end the song, now, he's talking to himself, he's pushing himself to go further, to not forget what he's looking for underneath it all, the most important things, so he uses pretty strong ways of speaking at times, here and in the bird stanza. So, at last, I like to think him saying: 'this world you want for yourself, or you want to exist for you, it exists, it is here'. And the last,
kisama, 貴様, is such an interesting pronoun, the translations are 'you; you bastard; you son of a b*tch'
Kisama (貴様)
This pronoun was originally very formal, but now it’s a very pompous and insulting pronoun.
What it might say about the speaker: He’s probably not too pleased to see you.
I know this from anime, you'll hear it a lot in shounen especially. But, I've also read that this is a type of pronoun you can use to speak to someone inferior in rank. So, my interpretation of this was like this, I didn't want to put a simple 'You are the world'. So I thought that he was talking to himself in the past(?) maybe and he wants him to be strong about his way of living, he's instructing himself he can do it, he has to make it happen, so it ended up being 'this world is up to you'. I hope it makes sense.
And last, this songs goes so well with the theme of the album, World, here, Shige's is talking of his own world. He has expressed that 'this is a song he sang to himself" and "to express your own living world in a four-and-a-half tatami-mat". And from the same TV magazine, one comment about the solos in the album was 'to subsist in this world we have one oath, one thought/emotion, and one resolution" ... I haven't thought much about the other solos yet...but I found this interesting.
So, that was it. I'm truly sorry for any and all of my mistakes here, this was too hard, and my first try with a whole song with Shige's lyrics.
Kakkoi NEWS
I'm super tired and it's super late and I don't think... I'll be able to add anything more on this...now at least...
pics and gifs aren't mine
See you and I'm sorry about this getting sooooooo long!
Unrelated but cute, as always