| 聖なる瞳が 痛みを映したら 振り向いてごらん？ 情熱放つ Trick | Sacred eyes Casting pain like a shadow – Would you then look behind you?1 Passions loosed by a Trick;2 |
| 崩れる足元 二人は戻れない 差し伸べた手をほどかないで | Crumbling underfoot3 We can’t come back from this; Don’t unravel an outstretched hand;4 |
| 消えるよまた 優しい日々が 思い出を汚すのは許せない | Vanishing! Again Those tender5 days; I’m not gonna let our memories be defiled;6 |
| ここは裏切りの楽園(ティル・ナ・ノーグ) さ迷う心の涯に 光を求めて 祈る言葉届けあなたに 囚われの羽が 遙かな空へと向かう 信じたいよ 私たち孤独じゃない | Here, a treacherous Tír na nÓg,7 At the limits of our wandering hearts;8 “Wish for the light!” Send these words of prayer to you;9 Captive wings Seek a distant sky; I want to believe! We’re not alone; |
| 分かり合う (求め合う) 絆の中 離さない (離れない) 始まる Destiny | To understand each other10 (To wish to be together); Within our bonds We won’t be separated (We can’t be separated); Destiny begins; |
| 新たな願いに 鎖ほどける時 休ませてくれる？ 深い眠りに | With a novel11 wish The chains of time are unravelled;4 You wanna take a break? Into a deep sleep; |
| 僅かな希望が 私を強くする ぬくもりに触れてみたいから | Meagre hopes Make me stronger Because I wanna feel their warmth; |
| 甦れば 儚きいのち 繰り返す愛しさが導いた | If it’d be resurrected Your fleeting life – Again and again, it’d be guided by love; |
| 胸に泡沫の調べ 流れる世界の終わり 諦めはしない 今が繋ぐ明日探そう ちぎれ舞う羽は 未来の空にも向かう 忘れないで 私たちひとつの水晶(クリスタル) | The melody of transience in my heart; The end of the world, washed away; Never giving up Let’s search for a now preserved into tomorrow; Shredded, dancing feathers Seek a distant future’s sky; Don’t forget! We’re one crystal12 |
| 輝いて (眩しくて) 割れないのよ 離さない (離れない) 誓いの Destiny | Shining (Dazzling), And not gonna be broken; We won’t be kept apart (We can’t be kept apart); A vow of Destiny; |
| Lost the paradise,Ah! | Lost the paradise |
| 消えるよまた 優しい日々が 思い出を汚すのは許せない | Vanishing! Again Those tender5 days; I’m not gonna let our memories be defiled;6 |
| ここは裏切りの楽園(ティル・ナ・ノーグ) さ迷う心の涯に 光を求めて 祈る言葉届けあなたに 囚われの羽が 遙かな空へと向かう 信じたいよ 私たち孤独じゃない | Here, a treacherous Tír na nÓg,7 At the limits of our wandering hearts;8 “Wish for the light!” Send these words of prayer to you;9 Captive wings Seek a distant sky; I want to believe! We’re not alone; |
| 分かり合う (求め合う) 絆の中 離さない (離れない) 見つめて Paradise Lost | To understand each other10 (To wish to be together); Within our bonds We won’t be separated (We can’t be separated); Staring at Paradise Lost |
Footnotes
1. This could, potentially, be a reference to the myth of Orpheus: Orpheus, having fetched his wife, Eurydice, from chthon, was instructed not to look back until both of them reached gaia. However, upon reaching gaia, Orpheus turned back to share in his excitement with Eurydice, only to find her still in chthon. For Orpheus’s breaking of the bargain, she vanished once again – this time irreversibly.
It could also be a reference to Sodom, wherein God punishes two infamously wicked cities for its population’s numerous and egregious sins. The destruction was prompted by their attempted assault of two angels harboured by the goodness of a single family defined by its patriarch, Lot. The angels told Lot and his family to flee Sodom on the condition that they not look back. Lot’s wife, for unnamed reasons, felt compelled to turn, and was struck down by transformation into a pillar of salt.
Regardless of whether this is intentional, there are two points in the accompanying opening animation which reinforce these parallels:
- Just after this line, both Yomi and Kagura look over their shoulders at each other – though each character disappears after they turn to look;
- Later, there’s a moment in the opening wherein Kagura and Yomi are floating, hands clasped, underwater. When Yomi opens her eyes, she disappears before Kagura can open hers.
Neither of these preclude it being a reference to either Orpheus or Sodom. The theme of vanishing and both Yomi’s and her father’s names being synonymous with chthon lean towards it being Orphic, but the theme of temptation, hatred, and punishment for sins amplified by the sesshouseki could fit it with Sodom, as well.
2. Here,「放つ」means “to loose” in a purposeful, targeted way – like loosing an arrow, or as in “release the hounds!”. Not quite sure what “Trick” is doing in this sentence, since there’re no particles which allow me to even guess, but I assume, through context, that there’re “passion(s)” being “loosed” by someone as a result of a “trick”. This would fit with the idea of the sesshouseki embellishing a person’s Buddhist attachments, “tricking” someone into pursuing a warped idea of their inner “passions” to the exclusion of their morality.
3. A reference to the corresponding ending song—Yume no Ashioto ga Kikoeru—translated here and sung by Yomi. The「足音」of Yomi’s song is the sound of a footstep, whereas the「足元」of this song is the footstep itself.
4. The language of “untying/unravelling” here could be a reference to the red string of fate which binds two individuals and marks them out as (romantic) soulmates. This would fit with the theme of Kagura and Yomi promising to always by the other’s side, as well as Kagura caretaking a severely disabled Yomi as a wife would be expected to. It’s a theme reiterated throughout this song, too.
5. Perhaps unintentional, but a line in Yume no Ashioto ga Kikoeru refers to a “tender aphrodesiac” using the same language. Translated here.
6. A reference to the b-side track accompanying Yume no Ashioto ga Kikoeru: delight and alive, translated here. They both use the same verb,「汚す」, and thus I kept the same translation choice between the songs as well.
Additionally, this is the verb form of「汚れ」 or kegare, which is the Shintou idea of “corruption/defilement” by proximity to things such as criminality, violation, and death – and is something that, in Ga-Rei, the sesshouseki inflicts on people naturally.
It must be said that, while kegare requires the afflicted to be spiritually cleansed, it isn’t necessarily due to action on the behalf of the afflicted, and thus doesn’t carry the same moral judgement that the Christian idea of “sin” would.
This is especially meaningful in the story of Ga-Rei -Zero-, as, not only does Yomi have proximity to death in that her father is killed, but she herself kills Mei, and Mitogawa forces the sesshouseki on Yomi in a scene analogous to sexual assault. Unfortunately, sexual violation does induce kegare in the one violated, and must be spiritually cleansed to prevent further harm to the victim and the victim’s community.
Ga-Rei does muddy this a little with Ayame declaring that Yomi has to “accept” the sesshouseki, introducing the idea of Yomi having agency, but, given we see the circumstances in which Yomi is bonded to the sesshouseki, this could be Ayame’s own misguided beliefs rather than canonical lore.
7. The kanji here is「楽園」, which means “paradise”. Specifically, rakuen is associated with the biblical paradise of Eden, reinforcing the theme of Milton’s Paradise Lost for which this song is named.
The reading provided, however, alongside the vocalisation in the song, is「ティル・ナ・ノーグ」, which refers to the Tír na nÓg of Irish mythology – a paradise of immortality, eternal health, and everlasting joy. And also a catchy song by Celtic Woman.
8. An odd choice of kanji here. When I first heard the song, I assumed it was「果に」, “the end of (something)”. But, when I checked the scans for the lyrics as written down, it’s actually「涯に」, which means something more like “horizon/shore/end limit/boundary”. I’m not sure how best to communicate this duality in English.
9. Much like Yomi does in delight and alive, Kagura uses「あなた」for “you”, as opposed to「貴方」, which reads as a lot more intimate.
10. The theme of misunderstandings and an inability to share how they feel runs between all of the songs sung from Yomi’s and Kagura’s perspectives, especially in how ruinous those misunderstandings prove to be. The language specifically used is「分かり合う」, between delight and alive, Yuuki no Kodou, and Paradise Lost. I’ve tried to keep it consistent.
11. Kagura uses「新た」to mean “new” rather than the typical「新しい」, which sounds more literary and formal. I tried to communicate this impression by using the more uncommon synonym “novel”.
12. The kanji written is「水晶」, but the reading given and the vocalisation in the song「クリスタル」. Both mean “crystal”. I think this is clearly intended to refer to the sesshouseki, which Mitogawa uses to defile Yomi and Kagura wears after inheriting Byakuei, but I don’t know what the song is trying to say here.
Translation Notes
Keeping the brevity of the Japanese while remaining sensical in English was a challenge. Where possible, I’ve tried to keep the fragmentary element of the source, and I’ve also tried to keep as much of the ambiguity as possible, too.
I also made a creative choice to prioritise “we/our” as the subject pronoun where none is otherwise obvious, considering that most of the pronouns used are that of multiple people: e.g.「二人」,「私たち」.
There are moments in the song wherein Kagura speaks in quite a girlish, feminine way. I’ve tried to evoke that in English with “peppy” tone, but English just doesn’t have the same ways of expressing personality through language alone like Japanese does.
Also, what’s with all the references to random bits of mythology from across the world? Paradise Lost, Tír na nÓg, Yomi and Naraka, Orpheus and Eurydice…?
Narrative Commentary
Interestingly, in addition to Orpheus and Eurydice, there’s another Irish myth that deals with venturing to another land and, after failing to adhere to a warning from one of its natives, faces tragic consequences: the myth of Oisín and Niamh.
In this myth, a man named Oisín was shot while hunting and was left to die by his hunting party. As he was waiting to die, a woman named Niamh found him and took him to her native Tír na nÓg to be nursed back to health.
Niamh and Oisín grow closer over the course of his recovery, eventually marrying. But Oisín, grown homesick, asks to visit his homeland of Ireland. Niamh lends him a horse upon which he can return, but cautions him to not let his feet touch mortal ground – a warning he doesn’t heed. He falls from the horse, and, upon contact with the ground, loses the immortality granted to him by Tír na nÓg, and rapidly dies of old age.
Sounds pretty similar to Yomi’s attempted murder by Mitogawa, followed by his enforcement of the sesshouseki‘s corruption – itself clearly analogous to sexual assault. He tries to kill her, leaves her for dead, then comes back to corrupt her spirit. In effect, rather than take her to Tír na nÓg for recovery, as Niamh does with Oisín, he takes her to Buddhist Naraka, the realm after which Yomi’s father is named, and reinforces a warped version of her earthly “desires” via the sesshouseki.
Also – there’s a consistent mention of paradise, including rakuen, Tír na nÓg, and Milton’s eponymous poem. Could this play into the idea of Yomi’s character being cthonically aligned, sharing her name with the underworld, and her father sharing his name with a Buddhist hell-like place? And that, like Eve, her fall from Eden is destined by forces greater than her – in other words, Kyuubi’s manipulation? Would this make Kagura Adam?!
I know the manga goes there eventually with Evil Kyuubi Yomi and Good Gal Kagura, but the manga is kinda ass, and I feel like the mangaka was taking its narrative inspiration from the better quality anime, so…
Anyway. Yomi and Kagura seem to share many references to husband-and-wife duos of mythology, which could mean nothing.
Further Links
tba