平沢進 -「作業(愚者の薔薇園)」/ Hirasawa Susumu - "Opus (The Fool's Rose Garden)" Lyrics
Hello! It's been a while. My new job doesn't leave much time for translating, but I am still listening to Mr. Hirasawa, so all is well.
A while back someone asked about the song "Opus" and I finally got around to taking a stab at it.
As I discussed here, the theme for the Philosopher's Propeller album is alchemy and the process known as the magnum opus or the "great work." The song is titled "Opus" in English, but the Japanese word in the title can also simply be translated as "work," so it all fits together.
While much of the rest of the album fits with alchemy, this song to me seems more imbued with the atmosphere of things from the Hermetic tradition and the ideas of Aleister Crowley. (Just skim the descriptions of the magnum opus here and see if you agree.) The use of the word "The Fool" (the first card in a tarot deck) in the song title also hints towards this occult/spiritual meaning rather than the purely alchemical idea. Crowley was influential in modern tarot deck creation and study, in particular through the Thoth Tarot painted by Lady Frieda Harris. If you take a look at "The Fool" card in a Thoth deck and then consider the crazy imagery of this song, you might start seeing connections...are those feathers? And a lion? What?
At any rate, this is a mellow yet intriguingly beautiful song--a song of innocence and curiosity and perfect power, maybe. What do you think?
平沢進 -「作業(愚者の薔薇園)」
雲を見て 深く息のコスモに
はしごを架けあの庭園に
雷鳴で開くゲートにオイルを注し
ライオンの羽を陽に干して
聖堂に正しく降りる慈悲と
嗚咽など滝のように届くように
日の出の煤を遥かへ吹き飛ばして
月夜の錆をかきわけて
空虚には気高き雨を招く
段取りの図柄の噂をたてて
マントラで駆ける竜の毛並みをとき
タイフーンで迎えが来るまで
雷鳴で開くゲートにオイルを注し
タイフーンで迎えが来るまで
Hirasawa Susumu - "Sagyou (Gusha no Baraen)"
Kumo o mite fukaku iki no kosumo ni
Hashigo o kake ano teien ni
Raimei de hiraku geeto ni oiru o sashi
Raion no hane o hi ni hoshite
Seidou ni tadashiku oriru jihi to
Oetsu nado taki no you ni todoku you ni
Hi no de no susu o haruka e fukitobashite
Tsukiyo no sabi o kakiwakete
Kuukyo ni wa kedakaki ame o maneku
Dandori no zugara no uwasa o tatete
Mantora de kakeru ryuu no kenami o toki
Taifuun de mukae ga kuru made
Raimei de hiraku geeto ni oiru o sashi
Taifuun de mukae ga kuru made
Hirasawa Susumu - "Opus (The Fool's Rose Garden)"
Watching the clouds, deep in the cosmos of your breath
Raise a ladder in that garden
Oil the gate that the thunder opens
While drying the lion's feathers in the sun
The compassion that descends righteously upon the temple
And the sounds of weeping that flow like a waterfall
So that these may reach you, blow the ashes of the dawn into the distance
And push through the rust of the moonlit night
Spreading rumors of a pattern that contains the plans
To summon a noble rain in the emptiness
Untangling the hair of the dragon running on mantras
Until someone comes for you in the typhoon
Oil the gate that the thunder opens
Until someone comes for you in the typhoon
This entry was originally posted at http://phonon-belt.dreamwidth.org/19391.html.
A while back someone asked about the song "Opus" and I finally got around to taking a stab at it.
As I discussed here, the theme for the Philosopher's Propeller album is alchemy and the process known as the magnum opus or the "great work." The song is titled "Opus" in English, but the Japanese word in the title can also simply be translated as "work," so it all fits together.
While much of the rest of the album fits with alchemy, this song to me seems more imbued with the atmosphere of things from the Hermetic tradition and the ideas of Aleister Crowley. (Just skim the descriptions of the magnum opus here and see if you agree.) The use of the word "The Fool" (the first card in a tarot deck) in the song title also hints towards this occult/spiritual meaning rather than the purely alchemical idea. Crowley was influential in modern tarot deck creation and study, in particular through the Thoth Tarot painted by Lady Frieda Harris. If you take a look at "The Fool" card in a Thoth deck and then consider the crazy imagery of this song, you might start seeing connections...are those feathers? And a lion? What?
At any rate, this is a mellow yet intriguingly beautiful song--a song of innocence and curiosity and perfect power, maybe. What do you think?
平沢進 -「作業(愚者の薔薇園)」
雲を見て 深く息のコスモに
はしごを架けあの庭園に
雷鳴で開くゲートにオイルを注し
ライオンの羽を陽に干して
聖堂に正しく降りる慈悲と
嗚咽など滝のように届くように
日の出の煤を遥かへ吹き飛ばして
月夜の錆をかきわけて
空虚には気高き雨を招く
段取りの図柄の噂をたてて
マントラで駆ける竜の毛並みをとき
タイフーンで迎えが来るまで
雷鳴で開くゲートにオイルを注し
タイフーンで迎えが来るまで
Hirasawa Susumu - "Sagyou (Gusha no Baraen)"
Kumo o mite fukaku iki no kosumo ni
Hashigo o kake ano teien ni
Raimei de hiraku geeto ni oiru o sashi
Raion no hane o hi ni hoshite
Seidou ni tadashiku oriru jihi to
Oetsu nado taki no you ni todoku you ni
Hi no de no susu o haruka e fukitobashite
Tsukiyo no sabi o kakiwakete
Kuukyo ni wa kedakaki ame o maneku
Dandori no zugara no uwasa o tatete
Mantora de kakeru ryuu no kenami o toki
Taifuun de mukae ga kuru made
Raimei de hiraku geeto ni oiru o sashi
Taifuun de mukae ga kuru made
Hirasawa Susumu - "Opus (The Fool's Rose Garden)"
Watching the clouds, deep in the cosmos of your breath
Raise a ladder in that garden
Oil the gate that the thunder opens
While drying the lion's feathers in the sun
The compassion that descends righteously upon the temple
And the sounds of weeping that flow like a waterfall
So that these may reach you, blow the ashes of the dawn into the distance
And push through the rust of the moonlit night
Spreading rumors of a pattern that contains the plans
To summon a noble rain in the emptiness
Untangling the hair of the dragon running on mantras
Until someone comes for you in the typhoon
Oil the gate that the thunder opens
Until someone comes for you in the typhoon
This entry was originally posted at http://phonon-belt.dreamwidth.org/19391.html.